WSI Severely Criticizes Imposition of Emergency

Washington, DC: "The long anticipated declaration of emergency in Pakistan by its military dictator General Musharraf is simply an illustration of what has been the reality of Pakistan for the past several decades in general and specifically under the brutal rule of General Musharraf and his predecessor General Zia ul Haque," contends the World Sindhi Institute, a Washington DC based human rights advocacy group in a press release. Zahid Makhdoom, President of the Institute said in a press statement, "General Musharraf's declaration of emergency demonstrates the obvious reality of Pakistani political economy, wherein its military has now come to occupy every nook and cranny of its politics and economy". He further said that "the fact that Musharraf's regime occupies a significant place in the so-called 'war on terrorism', his actions would likely be condoned by the Western democracies as a part of his policy to contain Islamic radicalism'.
"However," he went on to say, "Musharraf's attack is not on fundamentalism and obscurantism plaguing Pakistan today but is a naked onslaught on the rule of law as he is now drawing moral equivalence between the fundamentalist rogue mullahs and the learned judges of an ostensibly independent judiciary". He said that a "clear and concise policy against militarism and militarization of politics and economy of Pakistan is perhaps the only effective manner in which democratic forces can express their solidarity with the struggling and deeply brutalized people of Pakistan ”.

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