14. Hey, You Mush!

Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on 3rd November 2007 and imposed a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) that has suspended the Constitution and the fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens.

This move is a declaration of Martial Law. Since the enforcement of the PCO, Pakistan has witnessed gross violations of human rights as over 3,000 civil society activists have been arrested over the past four days.

The General has clamped down on freedom of media/expression by arbitrarily imposing a media embargo: shutting down all private TV channels. Journalists trying to cover the crisis continue to face a severe security threat.

Suspension of fundamental rights has meant the suspension of freedom of association which has allowed law enforcement agencies to act with impunity in their crackdown on peaceful protests by lawyers, students and civil society groups in the cities of Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta, and in the city of Multan in southern Punjab by using baton charges, tear gas and other forms of brute force.

The vast majority of these 3,000 people arrested nationwide are lawyers. Almost two-thirds of Pakistan’s senior judges remain under house arrest ... more here.