March 30, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, March 29: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has expressed its “shock over the growing lawlessness in the country” and said the Jamia Hafsa issue in the Capital was a ploy of the Musharraf regime.

In their separate statements on Thursday, information secretary of the PPP Sherry Rehman and former interior minister Maj-Gen (retired) Naseerullah Babar said that Talibanization was flourishing right under the nose of the administration which reflected the yawning gap that existed between the regime’s rhetoric of making efforts to rid the country of extremism, and its actual action in this regard.

Mr Babar said the manner in which the regime buckled under the pressure and allowed the female students of the Lal Masjid seminary in Islamabad to take law into their own hands was most shocking and condemnable.

“It is unbelievable that the administration negotiated with the religious hardliners swap of the police personnel held hostage by the seminary students but abandoned to their fate the three women and a child wrongfully confined by the seminary students,” he said.

“Lal Masjid is Auqaf property and its prayer leader is a paid employee of the government. It is incomprehensible that a paid employee of the government should take the law into his own hands and the regime looks the other way,” Mr Babar said, adding: “The regime is seeking to create the impression that Talibanization has spread to Islamabad with a view to deceiving the international community into believing that the choice in Pakistan is between military dictatorship and religious fanatics.”

Mr Babar said it was not surprising that the drama was enacted within days of an open letter addressed by four American Congressmen asking Gen Musharraf to hold fair and free elections and allow all political parties and leaders to participate in it in a level playing field.

Sherry Rehman, in her statement, said: “This is unforgivable,” said Ms Rehman adding that all there is strong evidence that the government is actually supporting, rather than averting the Taliban threat.