NEW YORK, Sept 20: US President George Bush should press President General Pervez Musharraf to restore civilian rule, hold free and fair elections and end legal discrimination against women during their meeting on Friday, the Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the New York-based watchdog group urged President Bush to stop turning a blind eye to Gen Musharraf’s use of torture and ‘disappearances’ in the fight against terrorism and in Pakistan’s political conflicts.
“If Bush is serious about fostering democracy in the Muslim world, how can he support Musharraf’s refusal to end military rule in Pakistan?” said Brad Adams, Asia Director of the Human Rights Watch.
“President Bush should make it clear that the US won’t stand by, as it did in the past, when Musharraf subverted the Pakistani constitution and staged flawed elections,” he said.
According to Adams, the Pakistani constitution prohibits the chief of the army from holding a political office. In 2003, Gen Musharraf promised to step down as either army chief or president, but reneged the following year. Recent statements by Gen Musharraf and military-backed politicians have made clear that he intends to stay on as army chief and president beyond the date set for elections in 2007. They have also suggested that he could be somehow re-elected president by the outgoing parliament, which may try to extend its term unilaterally by one year to do so in 2008.
He believed Gen Musharraf had thus far failed to end legal discrimination against women despite many commitments. The infamous Hudood Ordinances, among other things, criminalise adultery and non-marital sex in Pakistan. Under this set of laws, thousands of women have been imprisoned for so-called ‘honour’ crimes, including rape and sexual assault against them. The laws have rendered most victims of sexual assault unable to seek redress through the criminal justice system which deems these women guilty of illegal sex rather than victims of unlawful sexual abuse or violence.
He noted that earlier this month, the Musharraf-backed ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League, reached an agreement with the opposition Pakistan People’s Party to make procedural changes to the Hudood Ordinances that would allow women charged with adultery to post bail. These reforms, he said, would also permit rape victims to file charges under the criminal law instead of religious law, requiring production of four male witnesses to prove rape. But last week, Gen Musharraf backtracked on the accord to seek an agreement with the Islamist Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal which opposed any meaningful changes, as a result of which the Hudood Ordinances remained in place, he said.
“Promises about reform of the Hudood Ordinances have been made and broken many times already,” said Adams. “This is the last chance for the government to show its sincerity.”