December 2, 2003	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: MNA Maimona Hashmi, the daughter of jailed ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, urged the Commonwealth to monitor the judicial proceedings against her father.

In a letter, written to the secretary-general Commonwealth, D Mekinnin, the MNA asked the organization to urge the Pakistani government to respect the human and constitutional rights of Mr Hashmi and the opposition in parliament.

In her letter, the MNA said since the Commonwealth’s ministerial committee was currently monitoring the revival of the democratic process in Pakistan, she wanted to highlight “a serious violation of democratic principles and legitimate right of opposition in parliament.”

She said her father was arrested on October 29 outside the gates of Parliament Lodges by personnel of a security agency, who kept him in their custody for a week. “He was not produced before a magistrate, as required by law, for seven days and a police officer announced that a court had remanded Mr Hashmi to police custody, but refused to identify the court,” she wrote to the Commonwealth official.

She said Mr Hashmi was not allowed to meet his lawyers or family members, unless a court issued specific orders. “My request for medical care for my father has not so far been accepted”, she said. Ms Hashmi told the Commonwealth official that the government had arrested her father on the basis of baseless allegations only to pressurize the opposition, as he was the acting president of the country’s main opposition party and president of the ARD, which was an alliance of the PML(N), the PPP and 14 other parties leading 80 opposition members in the National Assembly.