LONDON, Oct 31: A year after General Pervez Musharraf unlawfully declared a state of emergency in Pakistan, the country is still suffering from the abusive policies he put in place on November 3, 2007, Amnesty International said on Friday.

In a press release, the AI said last year Gen Musharraf sacked 60 judges of the higher judiciary, suspended the Constitution, including the human rights protection it guaranteed, and replaced it with the Provisional Constitution Order.

The new civilian government took office after general elections in February 2008 but has not done enough to improve the country’s human rights situation since then, the Amnesty International added.

“The new civilian government which replaced Musharraf has taken some steps to improve on Pakistan’s poor human rights record, but it could and should do more, starting immediately with declaring the 2007 dismissal of judges illegal,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.

“Pakistan’s leaders need to actively demonstrate that they respect the rule of law and that the government is responsible for the human rights of all Pakistanis. Without re-establishing its legitimacy and credibility through a strong independent judiciary system the Pakistani government will be unable to overcome the many troubles facing the country,” Sam Zarifi added.

Amnesty International urged the government to act immediately on its pledges to improve the country’s human rights situation by:

• declaring the dismissal of the judges of the higher judiciary in November 2007 illegal and taking steps to ensure the independence of the judiciary, including providing security of tenure and freedom from intimidation or other undue interference in the judiciary’s functioning.

• moving urgently to reverse constitutional amendments introduced by Gen Musharraf, including the amendment that placed all actions taken during the emergency period outside judicial review and the amendment which gives the president powers to dismiss an elected government.

• following through on its June promise to commute all death sentences — an estimated 7,000 remain on death row

• providing public information about all those in government custody — hundreds of people remain subject to enforced disappearance, with their fate and whereabouts unknown.