Feminist Law Professor Vanessa Merton (Pace University) wrote this letter to Pakistan President Musharraf. I post it here with her permisson.
Dear President Musharraf:
As an attorney and professor of law at a New York law school, I write to express deep concern about the safety of human rights defenders and others who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained under Pakistan’s preventive detention scheme, and to urge you to take immediate action to ensure that no one in Pakistan is subjected to torture, cruelty or inhumane or degrading treatment, including unjustified house arrest.
As a taxpayer in a country that has, I am ashamed to say, recently given your government more than ten billion dollars, and as a world citizen who knows that civilization cannot long survive without the rule of law and scrupulous observation of fundamental human rights, I implore you to reverse your tyrannical and abusive course of conduct. The more you act like a military despot, the more despised you will be by all freedom-loving peoples around the world, including your own, and the more debased will be your place in the annals of world history. Please, demonstrate that you are better than that.
I ask you, first, to immediately restore the Constitution and the”rule of law”that distinguishes a free and democratic nation from a dictatorship of pure power.
I ask you to rescind the”state of emergency”that has been used, unlawfully, to suppress the free expression of those who disagree with you. Free discussion of policy issues is the best way to reach good solutions. I ask that you direct both the military and civilian authorities to stop making arrests and detentions based on said state of emergency.
I ask that you explicitly and publicly direct your government authorities to provide adequate medical care to detainees who are injured, disabled or ill.
I ask that you immediately release the lawyers, judges, and others who have been arrested under preventive detention measures, even though they have not been and cannot be charged with recognizable criminal offences. I ask you to release all who have been arrested for daring to exercise the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom of association and assembly to petition the government for redress of grievances.
I ask you to direct every representative of your government to protect and uphold all constitutional human rights guarantees, including the safeguards of life and liberty, and resist and refrain from suspension of any part of the Constitution. Lawyers and judges should be rewarded, not punished, for their faithfulness to the Constitution and the valiant sacrifices they are making to preserve it.
Thank you in advance for realizing that only tragedy and retribution lie down the path that you have embarked on. For the sake not only of Pakistan, but of the United States of America and all the nations of the world, please come to your senses and begin to act like a statesman.
Vanessa Merton
Professor of Law
Thank you, Vanessa, for all of us, for taking the time to do this.
-Bridget Crawford
