Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-14-Speech-3-237"
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"en.20071114.31.3-237"2
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"Mr President, like many others, I think we are here with a deep sense of regret and a certain feeling of anger that, once again, we are having to discuss the situation in Pakistan. I would agree with virtually everything that has been said this afternoon. We are in a serious situation, not least because this is a nuclear state and the risk of a failed nuclear state is one that should make us all feel very nervous indeed.
People are right to say that the power to step back from the brink here is basically with President Musharraf and his supporters. This idea that there is a state of emergency but the elections should go ahead undisturbed does not hold water. It is certainly not an undisturbed election if the leaders of the other political parties are under house arrest or in jail. If there is no freedom of the press, if people cannot even get satellite dishes because imports of those have now been banned, then there are no circumstances for free and fair elections whatsoever.
It is clear that we want the release of all those political prisoners, that we want freedom of the press and we want the judiciary to be able to operate freely because, if all those with stated commitments to democracy are locked up, who else is left out on the streets? The message that is being sent by the actions of the Government in Pakistan at the moment is therefore extremely worrying for a state that says it is committed to democracy.
I would agree with what Mr Robert Evans has said. We do need to have certain sanctions ready for use if the deadline of 22 November set by the Commonwealth and the UN is not observed and we do not see President Musharraf stand down as military leader or, indeed, an end to the state of emergency.
We should be supporting Amnesty International’s Day of Action tomorrow to remember the political prisoners held in Pakistan, and we certainly need to be looking at aid and the way in which it is spent. Pakistan has had USD 10 billion dollars of aid from the USA in about the last five or six years, mostly for anti-terrorism measures, and not for the maintenance and development of education."@en1
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