PPP) – Pakistan People’S Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) – Elections – Membership Cards
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Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: PAK32938 Country: Pakistan Date: 26 February 2008 Keywords: Pakistan – NWFP – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) – Elections – Membership cards This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein. Questions 1. Please provide an update regarding the treatment of members of the PPPP in Pakistan generally, and in the NWFP specifically, since Benazhir Bhutto’s assassination on 27 December 2007. 2. How easily can a person obtain a membership card for the PPPP? RESPONSE 1. Please provide an update regarding the treatment of members of the PPPP in Pakistan generally, and in the NWFP specifically, since Benazhir Bhutto’s assassination on 27 December 2007. The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) is described in the text Political Parties of the World as a “reinvention” of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for the purpose of allowing its candidates for the October 2002 election to comply with new electoral regulations (Szajkowski, B. (ed) 2005, Political Parties of the World, John Harper Publishing, London, pp.459-60 – Attachment 1). Information about the PPPP in the Political Handbook of the World: 2007 similarly observes that: To get around a proscription against the electoral participation of any party having a convicted criminal as an officeholder, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) organized the legally separate PPPP in August 2002 (Banks, A.S., Muller, T.C. & Overstreet, W.R. (eds) 2007, Political Handbook of the World: 2007, CQ Press, Washington, pp.939-40 – Attachment 2). The website of the PPP makes no reference to the PPPP as a separate organisation and the two acronyms are used somewhat interchangeably in the Pakistani press. Searches undertaken for this research response therefore jointly focussed on the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian. The treatment of members of the PPP in the lead up to the elections on 18 February 2008 was characterised by the party as “continued vicitimization”. An article dated 27 January 2008 on the PPP website makes the following comments: Pakistan Peoples Party has condemned the continued victimization of Party workers as “a planned and orchestrated pre-poll rigging” by hounding the activists to keep them away from elections. Arrest warrants of a dozen PPP leaders, including six former MPAs, were issued in Karachi Saturday for allegedly creating law and order situation in the city after the murder of Party’s Sindh Information Secretary Munawar Suharwardy three years ago. Former PPP MPAs Nisar Ahmed Khuro, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Mazhar Marvi, Sassui Palejo, Mehreen Bhutto and Sharfunissa Leghari were declared absconders, their names ordered to published in the newspapers and the police directed to arrest them. Simultaneously the police in Sindh registered cases against another over one hundred Party workers on charges of blocking Dadu-Larkana Road and burning tyres late on Friday night in protest against the arrest of Party workers. Using the blind FIRs as pretext the police raided houses of workers and misbehaved with the women folk. Thousands of workers were previously nominated in criminal cases following disturbances in the wake of martyrdom of Mohtarma Bhutto. “The registration of new cases and reopening of the several years old cases only to implicate Party leaders and workers was clearly designed to put pressure and disable them on the eve of elections”, Co-Chairman of the Party Senator Asif Ali Zardari said in a statement today. He said that under such circumstances when candidates and voters were subjected to intimidation and complaints against it remained unattended with a powerless Election Commission the elections would neither be free nor fair. He demanded immediate release of the Party workers and withdrawal of false and fictitious cases against them as well as an end to the practice of registering blind FIRs for use against political workers at a later date. The Party calls upon the international community to press Musharraf regime to desist from electoral manipulation by arresting and intimidating Party workers and candidates on fictitious charges just when the election was a few days away, he said (‘Asif Zardari condemns victimization of Party workers’ 2008, Pakistan People’s Party website, 27 January http://www.ppp.org.pk/news_event/jan/28-1-2008.html – Accessed 26 February 2008 – Attachment 3). An article dated 14 February 2008 on the same website provides further detailed reports of adverse treatment of party members prior to the elections: In the run up to polls, the biggest political party of Pakistan, the PPP, has repeatedly found itself at the receiving end of election-related violence. Countrywide, the PPP workers and supporters have suffered violence, harassment and intimidation by government officials as well as by the political supporters of the Musharraf regime. On the night between Feb 13 and 14, a PPP election procession at Drigh Road, Cantt Bazaar, Karachi was fired at by MQM men who killed a 27-year-old PPP supporter Qaiser Bangash. The indiscriminate bullet spray also injured six PPP men, including Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Deen Abbasi, Irfan, Rafiq, Noman and Kamran. Karachi violence comes on the heels of a spate of bloody events targeting PPP, including October 19 massacre, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and killing and harassment of PPP workers all across the country, said Sherry Rehman Central Information Secretary Pakistan People Party. She said that the Karachi firing was completely unprovoked and was aimed at inciting violence, “something we have been strictly refraining from despite suffering worst tragedies in the last three months.” Rehman said that targeting the PPP perfectly fulfils the agenda of those who wish to create fear and chaos ahead of elections. “For long, the establishment and elements opposed to democracy have targeted the PPP in a bid to kill the democratic aspirations of the people of Pakistan. The continued violence against the PPP is a way to dissuade people from participating in political process and to compel them to stay away from political activities for fear of life” (‘PPP Warns Against Continued Spate of Violence Against The Party’ 2008, Pakistan People’s Party website, 14 February http://www.ppp.org.pk/news_event/feb/15-2- 2008.html – Accessed 26 February 2008 – Attachment 4). A Human Rights Watch report dated 12 February 2008 focusses on the response of the authorities to “irregularities” in the lead up to the election, observing that: Since the official election period commenced in November 2007, the Election Commission of Pakistan has ignored allegations of widespread irregularities, including arrests and harassment of opposition candidates and party members, and the misuse of state resources, administration and state machinery to the advantage of candidates backed by President Pervez Musharraf. “There have been numerous complaints of improper government assistance to the ruling party and illegal interference with opposition activities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But the election commission has done nothing significant to address these problems, raising serious questions about its impartiality.” Human Rights Watch said that the Election Commission has taken virtually no action on the widespread harassment of opposition candidates through the registration of police cases against them, police obstruction of opposition rallies, and the removal of lawful opposition banners and billboards. Human Rights Watch has documented the involvement of the local administration in helping Musharraf-backed candidates, particularly in Punjab and Sindh provinces. For example: … In Thatta district, Sindh province, police have been obstructing the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) by not giving security clearance to its candidates to hold public meetings. The PPP’s Sassui Palijo, the only directly elected opposition party member in Thatta district, told Human Rights Watch that the administration has been interfering in their campaigns since the previous local bodies’ elections. “Now they are doing it again. They remove flags, banners after our party workers put them up. … We tell the election commission everything and show them evidence every three days. But they have done nothing to help us at all so far.” Palijo said that a PPP worker, Nawaz Ali Shah Qudusani, had to “go underground” after he went ahead with a rally that the local mayor had warned him against holding; police raided his house and arrested three people. Candidates have sent in more than 1,500 complaints of irregularities from around the country, few of which have been investigated. Even visible violations, like the use of electoral banners on government offices, have been ignored. The secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, Kunwar Dilshad, denied responsibility, telling Human Rights Watch that the commission, which is dependent on the district-level judiciary to investigate