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| 33 US senators demand release of Aitzaz |
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Friday, November 09, 2007
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: In a rare show of unity and strength, 33 US senators, mostly Democrats, have written a strongly-worded letter to President Gen Pervez Musharraf, demanding immediate release of the PPP leader and Supreme Court Bar Association president Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan.
Prominent among them are Edward Kennedy, Carl Levin, Tom Harkin, Ben Cardin, Diane Feinstein, Jack Reed, Frank Lautenberg, Bob Casey, Sherrod Brown, Ken Salazar, Ron Wyden and others.
The letter was sent by the senators to the presidency on Nov 6, three days after the arrest of Aitzaz Ahsan from Islamabad. They have made a joint demand from Musharraf to immediately release the widely respected lawyer of Pakistan, who enjoyed the distinction of representing two former prime ministers -- Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- and deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
These senators have told Musharraf that Ahsan is a highly distinguished attorney and political leader. He is a former government minister and a former opposition leader in the Senate of Pakistan. As senior advocate in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he consistently earned the highest rating in the ranking of legal professionals in Pakistan.
The letter recalled that Aitzaz was arrested by the Army last Saturday during a press conference he was holding in Islamabad. He is reportedly being jailed in Rawalpindi.
"It is simply not right that Aitzaz is being jailed for doing his job as an attorney by defending rights of his client. We ask that you immediately look into this matter and urge you to release Aitzaz from prison immediately," the joint letter concludes. When contacted by The News, President Gen Pervez Musahrraf's spokesman, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, expressed his ignorance about any such letter from US senators to the President.
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briefs...
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ISSN 1563-9479 
