25 November 1998

GOVERNMENT OF NAWAZ SHARIF USING PRESSURE TACTICS TO FALSELY IMPLICATE QAZI KHALID ALI ADVOCATE IN FABRICATED CASES

Today, the Nawaz Sharif Government produced a person alleged to have been involved in heinous crimes in front of the media who confessed to various crimes. According to the press reports he has claimed that some of these crimes were committed on the explicit orders of Qazi Khalid Ali Advocate, Member of Central Co-ordination Committee of the MQM and Member of Provincial Assembly of Sindh and other leaders of the MQM. These baseless allegations are part of the Government plan to arrest the members of parliament belonging to the MQM and torture them to change their allegiance. From the past experience, it is our strong apprehension that the life of Qazi Khalid Ali Advocate MPA, is in extreme danger.

We may bring to your knowledge that Mr. Qazi Khalid Ali Advocate is a senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and also senior Member of the MQM Legal Aid Committee. He is also responsible for looking after the legal matters pertaining to the MQM as well as filing court petitions for the illegally arrested MQM workers. Furthermore, he himself is the petitioner in the cases filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the Federal Government over the imposition of Governor Rule and the promulgation of Article 245 in the province of Sindh.

The Nawaz Sharif Government is falsely implicating the Members of Central Co-ordination Committee of the MQM to physically eliminate them one by one.

It may also be mentioned that on 29 October 1998, The Federal Government suspended the Sindh provincial Assembly and imposed Governor Rule in Sindh. In view of the expected "pressure tactics" by the Government, all the elected members of the MQM, including members of Sindh Provincial and National Assemblies and Senate held a press conference on 30 October, 1998, where they expressed their apprehensions that they would be arrested and forced to change their allegiance by the Authorities. Shoaib Bukhari Advocate was also present in that press conference.

You may be aware of the fact that on 20 November, 1998, the Federal Government has invoked Article 245 in Sindh province and has given sweeping powers to Armed Forces. The Federal Government has also established "summary military courts" and has suspended the functioning of the judicial system.