the military crackdown in pakistan represents a direct assault on human rights...last saturday, general musharaff effectively declared martial law, suspended the bulk of the constitution and acquired powers to amend it without any parliamentary procedure...and "acquired" powers to amend it without any parliamentary procedure...and proclaimed a provisional constitutional order (pco)...this order prohibits any court issuing an order against the president, prime minister or any person exercising powers under their authority...
since then, hundreds have been arrested and arbitrarily detained across pakistan including lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and political activists...the chief justice and several others justices of the supreme court have been dismissed and placed under house arrest...
former prime minister benazir bhutto has also been subjected to house arrest...again...
and let's not forget that pakistan is a nuclear power...
we fear that this assault on key institutions of accountability, combined with sweeping emergency powers, will exacerbate existing patterns of human rights abuse, including torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and use of excessive force to suppress peaceful dissent...
peace out <3
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