American Law Teachers' Word on Emergency in Pakistan

Society of American Law Teachers Statement Regarding the State of
Emergency in Pakistan
November 6, 2007



Contact:  Eileen Kaufman, Touro Law Center , 631 761-7125

          Tayyab Mahmud, Seattle University School of Law, 206 398-4148





The Society of American Law Teachers, the largest membership organization
of law professors in the United States , deplores and condemns the
abrogation of the Rule of Law in Pakistan .  General Musharraf, in a
brazen attempt to perpetuate his own rule, has used his state apparatus to
disband the highest courts of the country.  Thousands of lawyers,
journalists, judges, and human rights activists have been jailed.  In many
cases families have no idea of the whereabouts of the detainees.

Among those detained is Asma Jahangir, chairperson of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, recipient of the 1999 Human Rights Award from
Human Rights First, and United Nations Special Rapporteur.  She has been
placed under house arrest based on "credible information that [she] will
deliver inflammatory speeches for instigating the general public."  A
detention order has also been issued for Hina Jilani, Jahangir's sister
who serves as the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary
General for Human Rights Defenders.

Also arrested is Muneer Malik, a graduate of Santa Clara University School
of Law and the Immediate Past President of the Pakistani Supreme Court Bar
Association, known to be a conscientious, industrious lawyer dedicated to
the welfare of his country, and not in the least a threat to law and
order.

Aitzaz Ahsan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was
among hundreds of lawyers associated with the movement supporting judicial
independence to be arrested on November 4th.  Some of these lawyers are in
police custody; others have reportedly been turned over to the military's
Inter Services Intelligence agency, which has a long history of employing
torture on political opponents.

The Supreme and High Court judges have been locked in their own homes.
Police have stormed into bar association gatherings and have manhandled
lawyers, some of them septuagenarian.  TV stations have been blacked out
and police vans are carting off telecommunication equipment from private
TV stations.

The US must use all its influence and in no uncertain terms demand the
restoration of the Supreme Court status quo ante November 2, 2007.  It
must demand the immediate release of and accounting for all persons who
have been jailed after the promulgation of the so-called emergency.  It
should be recalled that President Musharraf removed the Chief Justice once
before and was forced to rescind his order because of the pressure of
lawyers within Pakistan as well as world opinion.

The Society of American Law Teachers joins with other human rights
organizations to call for President Musharraf to:

.       immediately revoke Provisional Constitution Order # 1 of 2007;

.       immediately release from detention and house arrest all those
detained after the declaration of a "state of emergency";

.       immediately reinstate the Supreme Court and Provincial High Courts;

.       hold fair and free general elections monitored by international
observers.



Eileen Kaufman

Tayyab Mahmud



SALT Co-Presidents





Hazel Weiser, Executive Director

Society of American Law Teachers -- SALT

Public Advocacy Center, Room 223

Touro Law Center

225 Eastview Drive

Central Islip, NY 11722

631.650.2310

www.saltlaw.org