Asia Times: Sharif government strikes at strikers



	September 09, 1999	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Sharif government strikes at strikers
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - Hundreds of opposition party workers detained in a government crack-down ordered ahead of last Saturday's huge traders' strike in Pakistan's business capital, Karachi, may be tried in special courts as ''terrorists''.

An August 27 presidential ordinance, announced by the 30-month-old Nawaz Sharif government, has changed Pakistan's 1997 anti-terrorism laws to include strikes and protests which have been declared ''terrorist acts''. Strikers risk a maximum sentence of seven years by the special courts. The amendments, which could potentially suppress all public opposition to government policies and actions, are the most bizarre of a series of undemocratic measures the government has come up with, insist critics. At odds with such policy is the fact that Prime Minister Sharif enjoys the largest democratic mandate in Pakistan's history.

In Pakistan, opposition parties, rights organizations, lawyers and labor unions have voiced fears that the government could use the ordinance to silence all forms of public dissent. ''The government has amended the law to stop people from raising their voice against oppression,'' observed Afrasiab Khattak, president of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

The potential threat did not stop the September 4 agitation by traders and opposition parties in Karachi to protest the raising of sales tax to 15 percent by the government in accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The government will use the fresh taxation to shore up the economy, but in the process it may have alienated the trading and business community, traditional allies of the businessman-turned-politician Sharif.

At least 700 political activists were arrested in Karachi in the run-up to the September 4 strike. Arrests were also made in other provinces, including the province of Omar Sailya, leader of the country's largest association for small traders. These actions resulted in the US State Department expressing concern. Although the State Department spokesperson agreed that it is the government's responsibility to control law and order, he said that this should not be used as a pretext for denying the rights of the citizens.

Some government leaders have said that local administrations have been instructed to frame charges against the protesters under the new amendments in a bid to deter such strikes in the future. ''It is clear that the law will be used to quash every public attempt at opposition and protest against official policies. Citizens who raise voices against price hike and taxes will be hauled before courts as terrorists,'' warned the HRCP.

A spokesperson for a 16-party opposition alliance described the amendments as the official strategy to counter growing public dissatisfaction with the government, particularly the debacle in Kargil and the suppression of democratic rule in Sindh province.

Dubbing the amendments as ''draconian'', main opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the government has stifled the democratic spirit of Sindh. The PPP is the party of two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who faces arrest if she returns to Pakistan. ''It is a slap in the face of the people of Sindh and a warning that people who stand up for their rights will be tried as terrorists,'' Babar said.

The Rawalpindi-based People's Lawyer Forum has announced a hunger strike against the government's actions to ''break the popular and democratic means of protest''. The forum says that the amendments are in direct conflict to the fundamental right of expression given to the Pakistani people by their constitution.

The Sharif government is also under pressure from politico-religious parties, which have cashed in on the government's loss of face over the Kargil conflict with India. The Jamaat-i-Islami, which is running a separate anti-government campaign is planning a long march on Islamabad later this month. ''Whenever a government is on its last legs, it resorts to unconstitutional and undemocratic steps for survival. Still I believe that the people of Pakistan will not be deterred by such draconian measures,'' said Jamaat chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who headed a violent campaign against the Bhutto government in 1996.

Media commentators warn the government's plans could backfire. ''This authoritarian proclivity of equating opposition to its policies with acts of terrorism may lead the government to more troubles that it has bargained for,'' The News daily commented.

(Inter Press Service)

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