April 6, 2002
Mrs. Mary Robinson
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Dear
Mrs. Robinson,
For the last 22 years, the Pakistan Peoples Party had been
regularly observing the death anniversary of the martyrdom of our beloved
leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It is an important occasion for the party
activists, who come together from far and wide of the country to pay homage
to the great leader and, renew and reaffirm their pledge to continue the
struggle against oppression, poverty and injustice. Rallies of buses and
processions from all the districts are brought out to Garhi Khuda Bukhsh,
where his mortal remains are buried and prayers are offered for the departed
soul. This occasion also provides people the opportunity to sit together,
deliberate on his teachings and exchange notes among themselves.
Despite the fact, that this occasion has no official
patronage and all hurdles are there, people come in thousands. As expected
the gathering this year was far bigger than the preceding ones. The military
regime knew that there will be a mammoth gathering. To avert it, they
employed strong arm tactics and raided the houses of our workers. Quite a
number of them, who were leaving in the morning of the 3rd of
April, were arrested on the plea that they would be released later.
Processions and rallies were disrupted and disallowed to move ahead.
Hundreds of our workers were off-loaded.
A senior police
official, reminded them that processions, or rallies were banned since the
last two and half years. But during the last two years the administration
had not raised any objections on the processions and rallies for Larkana and
never invoked the ban in this matter. They never talked of maintaining
security on the long route of over 400 miles, though highway robberies are
an every day matter. What is it that the military junta fears now? Are they
afraid that their claim of enjoying the support of the ‘silent majority’
would be exposed?
The Pakistan Peoples Party condemns this act of cowardice of
the military regime and reminds them that acts such as these would only
aggravate the existing gulf between them and the people of Pakistan.
Sincerely,
Fauzia Wahab
Central Coordinator
Human Rights Cell
Pakistan Peoples Party
