Pakistan Vote Cannot Be Fair, Say Rights Groups

Mon., Feb. 18, 2008

DENVER, Feb 18 (OneWorld) - Whatever today's election tallies show, the period of instability and government restrictions leading up to the vote in Pakistan ensure that the results will not reflect the will of the country's people, said human rights groups in the United States and Asia this weekend.

At a November protest against Pakistan's emergency rule. © rchughtai (flickr)

"While this should be an opportunity for Pakistanis to choose a truly representative civilian government for the first time since President Pervez Musharraf's 1999 coup, there are serious concerns that the elections will be neither free nor fair," said New York-based Human Rights Watch, which has been closely monitoring the situation in Pakistan.

Over the past two weeks, Human Rights Watch has released several reports detailing government restrictions on the media, the detention of judges, the partiality of the national election commission, and taped comments by a top government official admitting that "massive" rigging of the elections has been expected.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that it had received a copy of a taped phone recording from Nov. 21, 2007, in which Pakistan's Attorney General Malik Qayyum says the upcoming parliamentary elections will be "massively rigged."

The attorney general's statements were apparently recorded as he interrupted a phone call with a reporter to take another call in the same room.

"It is feared that the current law and order situation in the country is not congenial to ensure security for the normal participation of the ordinary people."
-Asian Human Rights Commission

"The elections are taking place in a period of tumult, after Musharraf's imposition in November 2007 of a state of emergency, his controversial and illegal November 2007 election as president, his sacking and arrest of many members of the country's Supreme Court, and the Dec. 27 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto," Human Rights Watch said Monday on its Web site, where it has compiled all the documentation it amassed on Pakistan in recent months, including the taped phone recording.

Human rights groups in Asia have raised similar concerns. "It is feared that the current law and order situation in the country is not congenial to ensure security for the normal participation of the ordinary people," said the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission in a statement Saturday.

Within the past 40 days, at least seven major bomb explosions have targeted public meetings and lawyers' rallies, the group said, adding that law enforcement officers have been ordered to shoot any "miscreant" found to be hindering the election process on polling day.

Bush and Musharraf in Islamabad, March 2006. © Shealah Craighead / White House

The Asian Human Rights Commission also cited a study by a coalition of 40 nongovernmental organizations that showed large numbers of voters being listed twice or not at all on official election rolls, noting that election officials can use these discrepancies to help ensure the victory of government parties.

"If the scheme for rigging the elections [is] to be implemented, it would be a dangerous move, not only for what is left as democracy in Pakistan but also for the very existence of the country," the group said.

"The persons and groups that will benefit the most will be the religious fundamentalists and militant organizations in Pakistan," the group added ominously.

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Pakistan Vote Cannot Be Fair, Say Rights Groups

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