In recent days, General Musharraf’s government in Pakistan has detained, beaten and tear-gassed opposition party leaders, lawyers and human rights advocates, dismissed and placed under house arrest members of the Supreme Court, and clamped down severely on the media.  Of particular concern to ILRF are Musharraf’s assaults on labor organizations and workers’ rights.

Leading labor activists have been harassed.  Nisar Shah, Chairperson of the Labour Party and a prominent advocate, was arrested and party worker Shakeel Malik was beaten, while Tarooq Fariq, General Secretary of the same party, has had to go underground. Khalid Mahmood, head of the Labour Education Foundation, and Mohammad Ashiq Bhutta, Information Secretary of the National Federation of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Workers, were both arrested and later released. Police arrested the convener of the Pearl Continental Hotel Workers Solidarity Committee, Liaqat Ali Sahi, and two members of the Solidarity Committee, G. Fareed Awan, Assistant General Secretary of the All-Pakistan Trade Unions Federation (APTUF) and Ayub Qureshi, Information Secretary of the Pakistan Trade Union Federation (PTUF). Yusuf Mastikhan, Vice President of the National Workers Party and trade union leader is also under arrest. Activists belonging to the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum narrowly escaped the police in Karachi.  Countless others are suffering similar infringements of their liberties and only ILRF’s ignorance prevents us from highlighting their stories, as well. 

Under the terms of the state of emergency, freedom of association and of assembly have been suspended.  These are basic workers’ rights that have already been severely battered by years of military rule and privatization.  In fact, one of the rulings by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry that first drew General Musharraf’s ire was his blocking of privatization plans for a steel mill.