The Crisis in Pakistan. Call for Sanctions Now!

Yesterday, I heard a caller on NPR, in a discussion concerning the "state of emergency" declared in Pakistan, make the point that one shouldn't expect Bush to come to the aid of the Pakistani people who are fighting to defend their oft trampled upon constitution, since Bush, like General Musharraf, has used the threat of "terrorism" to trample upon the U.S. constitution.

One could go on. Musharraf came to power in an anti-democratic coup and has dangled promises of elections and "democracy" before the Pakistani people as he has dangled promises of fighting Al Queda and Taliban forces within his borders to get a blank check from the Bush administration. Bush and Musharraf deserve each other, but the American people should not continue to be indifferent to the Bush administration support of a tyranny that oppresses the Pakistani people.

We should demand an immediate ban on all aid to the Musharraf regime until it frees the Pakistani Supreme Court Justices it has put under house arrest, the political and civil liberties activists whom it has arrested, and restores constitutional rights. The courageous Chief Justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court has called upon the Pakistani people to take to the streets to fight the dictatorship. At the very least, we should call upon all Americans for whom democracy has meaning to contact their elected representatives and demand that all aid to Pakistan end until constitutional rights are restored.

Norman Markowitz