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CARTER
CENTER: THE CARTER CENTER URGES RESTORATION OF JUDICIARY IN ADVANCE OF
PAKASTANI ELECTIONS:
06/01/08
(MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 06
January 2007 -- The
Carter Center calls on President Pervez Musharraf to restore immediately the
independent judiciary he incapacitated during the recent state of emergency in
Pakistan.
"Holding
credible elections on January 8 will be impossible without the restoration of
independent institutions that will supervise and determine the legality of the
voting process," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
When
President Musharraf lifted martial law on December 15 he continued to preclude
judicial independence by confirming his hand-picked replacements of Chief
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges he sacked and imprisoned in
November.
The
legal system in Pakistan was also undermined by a massive crackdown on the
lawyers' movement.
An
estimated 5000 lawyers were arrested and charged with serious crimes because
they demanded that the government restore an independent judiciary and respect
the rights of disappeared persons.
They
will now have to defend themselves within a judicial system that Musharraf
firmly controls.
The
American Bar Association and many other similar organizations around the world
have condemned this debacle in Pakistan.
However,
Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, has
pointed out in a recent New York Times editorial that "The White House and
State Department briefings on Pakistan ignore the removal of the justices and
all these detentions."
President
Musharraf can begin to repair this damage by reinstating the dismissed judges,
restoring the power to license lawyers to the independent bar council, and
dropping the charges against lawyers who participated in the protests.
Otherwise,
the elections will be a travesty.
####
The
Carter Center has observed 69 elections in 27 countries since 1989. The Center
is a not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization working to advance peace and
health worldwide by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and
economic opportunity; preventing diseases; improving mental health care; and
teaching farmers in developing nations to increase crop production.
The
Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his
wife, Rosalynn, in partnership with Emory University.
Please
visit www.cartercenter.org
to learn more about The Carter Center.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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