Lahore, 12 June 2007
Thousands of activists belonging to various
opposition parties are currently reported to be
in jails across the country, most of them in the
Punjab.
Claims by members of the provincial government
that only a handful of people have been detained
over the past few weeks, since the popular
agitation triggered by the removal of the Chief
Justice of Pakistan intensified, hardly seem
credible. Especially so in light of complaints by
the PPP, the PML-N and the MMA that hundreds of
their activists have been arrested in towns
across the Punjab. HRCP has also received
complaints from political parties regarding the
arrest of prominent figures. The leader of the
Labour Party of Pakistan, Farooq Tariq, is among
those being held. Some of the activists have been
detained for three months.
HRCP demands that the political workers held with
the obvious purpose of preventing rallies against
the current regime be freed immediately. The
misuse of laws on the maintenance of order to
incarcerate these persons is appalling. So too
are the reports of elderly workers being dragged
out of their homes late at night or of activists
moved to prisons located in towns at a great
distance from their homes as a means to harass
their families.
HRCP warns that such a blatant display of
contempt for people’s rights to assembly and to
the free expression of their grievances will only
aggravate the current situation. The
indiscriminate jailing of people, in an attempt
to intimidate them, can only spur further
feelings of anger and add fuel to the deeply felt
passions that are currently pushing ahead the
movement against autocracy and injustice in the
country.
Iqbal Haider
Secretary General