15 January 1999

Karachi: January 15, 1999

NAWAZ SHARIF GOVERNMENT EXTENDS ITS SCOPE OF VICTIMISATION TO THE MQM LEGISLATURE.

The life of Mr Shoaib Bukhari, the MQM Deputy Parliamentary Leader in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh is in great danger. Mr Bukhari has been implicated in a number of false cases. According to reliable sources, one of the cases out of many may be sent to the Military Court to sentence him either to death or life imprisonment, summarily and arbitrarily, within a few days.

It may be recalled that Mr Bukhari was arrested in the early hours of 21^st. November 1998 during the midnight raid at the Head Office of the MQM in Karachi, along with another MQM Legislator Mr Wakeel Ahmed Jamali.

He was most brutally tortured during his arrest and in custody of the State by the Police including hanging upside down for prolong periods of up to 31 hours intermittently to force him to make confessional statements according the designs of the Nawaz Sharif Government and the Establishment.

The Establishment has for long embarked on a "Three Pronged Strategy" of Isolation, Criminalisation and Demoralisation against the MQM leaders, office bearers, workers and their relatives in particular and the Mohajir Nation in general. This "Three Pronged Strategy" entails firstly, isolating the MQM and Mohajirs from the rest of the ethno-linguistic nationalities of Pakistan as well as the International Community. Secondly, not only to consider them as criminals but treat them as criminals too as opposed to political leaders and workers by implicating them in fabricated cases and sentencing them to punitive punishments. Thirdly, demoralising the MQM leaders, workers and Mohajirs generally through Isolation and Criminalisation to force them to disassociate themselves from the MQM.

The arrest of Mr Bukhari prompted world wide condemnation including the European Parliament that adopted a Resolution by overwhelming majority on 16 December 1998 that stated in its clause E, as follows:

"regretting the detention and ill treatment of two parliamentarians belonging to the Muttahida Quami Movement, following a raid on the organisation’s head office in Karachi on 21 November 1998".

It is pertinent to mention that the MQM has already challenged the legality of the "Military Courts" in the Supreme Court of Pakistan through a Constitutional Petition. The Supreme Court, during the hearing has ordered the Government not to implement hanging until the Supreme Court gives the final verdict on the legitimacy of these Courts. However, the Government is sending the cases to these Courts unabated violating the sanctity of the Apex Court.