SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2300terrorist courts. By law the police need a warrant to search a house, but not tosearch a person. Despite this law, police have entered homes without a warrant andsometimes stole valuables during searches. In the absence of a warrant, a policemanis subject to charges of criminal trespass. However, police seldom are punished forillegal entry.The Government maintains several domestic intelligence services that monitorpoliticians, political activists, suspected terrorists, and suspected foreign intelligenceagents. Credible reports indicate that the authorities routinely use wiretaps andintercept and open mail. In 1997 the Supreme Court directed the Government toseek its permission before carrying out wiretapping or eavesdropping operations.The judiciary’s directive has been widely ignored. A case in which it was allegedthat 12 government agencies tapped and monitored citizens’ telephone calls still waspending in the Supreme Court at year’s end.Police sometimes arrest and detain relatives of wanted persons to compel themto surrender. In some cases, the authorities have detained entire families in orderto force a relative who was the recipient of an arrest warrant to surrender (see Section1.d.). While the Government generally does not interfere with the right tomarry, the Government on occasion assists influential families to prevent marriagesthey oppose. For example, in July 1999, police in Mirpurkas District, Sindh raidedthe home of Javed Dal, who had eloped with his cousin, and arrested his familymembers as hostages. His wife’s father, Somar Dal, used his influence as a memberof the Sindh National Front Executive Committee to instigate the arrests, whichwere carried out without warrants (see Section 5). The authorities also fail to prosecutevigorously cases in which families punish members (generally women) formarrying or seeking a divorce against the wishes of other family members. In JuneMumlikat Bibi was killed in her parents’ home in the village of Yar Hussain in theNWFP. Her father, who reportedly opposed Bibi’s efforts to choose a spouse withoutparental consent, was accused of being the culprit (see Section 5).Upon conversion to Islam, the marriages of Jewish or Christian men remain legal;however, upon conversion to Islam, the marriages of Jewish or Christian women,or of other non-Muslims, that were performed under the rites of the previous religionare considered dissolved (see Section 2.c.).The Frontier Crimes Regulation, the separate legal system in the FATA, permitscollective responsibility, and empowers the authorities to detain innocent membersof the suspect’s tribe, or blockade an entire village (see Sections 1.c. and 1.d.). TheGovernment demolished the houses of several alleged criminals, as well as thehomes of those who reportedly tolerated nearby criminal activity.On December 13, 1999, a Shariat court established by the Tehrik-i-Tulaba, an extremistgroup in Orakzai Tribal Agency, fined six alleged accomplices to a killing,and burned down their homes as punishment. On December 29, 1999, there wereriots in Karachi in response to the demolition by security forces of up to 300 homesin the low-income Gharibabad neighborhood, which is widely considered to be anMQM-Altaf stronghold. Authorities claimed that the homes were built without permitsand that they sheltered terrorists and criminals. In March police personnel arrestedtwo persons from Mullah Said village following an incident in which severalpersons from the village shot at residents of the neighboring Badan village (see Section1.d.).Provincial governments sometimes forcibly moved landless laborers from theirtemporary camps. For example, in October local government officials forcibly moved900 persons who recently had been freed from bonded labor from their temporarycamps in Sikandarabad in Kotri district (see Section 6.c.).Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:a. Freedom of Speech and Press.—The suspended Constitution provided for freedomof speech and of the press, and citizens generally are free to discuss publicissues; however, some journalists practice a degree of self-censorship. In contrast tothe Sharif Government, the Musharraf Government did not attempt to exercise directcontrol over views expressed in the print media. Newspaper editorials and commentatorsare increasingly critical of the Government; however, direct criticism ofthe military is rare. Investigative journalism is rare; instead the press acts freelyto publish charges and countercharges by named and unnamed parties and individualsrepresenting competing political and social interests. Both governmental andnongovernmental entities sometimes pay for favorable media coverage.Prior to the 1999 coup, any person deemed to have damaged the Constitution, includingthe publication of statements against the spirit of the Constitution, couldbe prosecuted for treason. However, prosecutions under this provision were rare.The suspended Constitution also prohibited the ridicule of Islam, the armed forces,or the judiciary.VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00144 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.036 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1