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Int’l law community denounces emergency rule in Pakistan

* Statement says imposition of emergency assault on rule of law

LAHORE: Around 500 law professors, law students and lawyers of various international law institutions ensured the protesting legal fraternity of Pakistan of their cooperation, and strongly denounced President General Pervez Musharraf for dissolving the Supreme Court and the high courts after imposing a state of emergency.

They also demanded the prompt restoration of legality and a legitimate authority in Pakistan.

In a statement issued by Yale Law School, various teachers and legal fraternity including Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh, Law Professor Peter Schuck, Oscar M Ruebhausen, Fellow in Law Jeff Redding, lawyers, deans, professors, students, and the school administration and staff denounced Musharraf.

Assault: They termed the imposition of emergency an assault on the rule of law.

They said, “By suspending the Constitution, dissolving the Supreme Court and the provincial high courts and replacing them with judges of his own choosing; engaging in arbitrary and unprovoked arrests of thousands of opposition leaders, journalists, and other law-abiding citizens; and violently suppressing protests by hundreds of lawyers who were acting in the highest tradition of our profession, General Musharraf is trampling upon the very system of law that alone can justify a ruler’s power over his people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow lawyers and the democratic values that they represent, and we urge a swift restoration of legality and legitimate authority in Pakistan.”

The teaching faculty was of Yale Law School, Los Angeles Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland, Ohio, University of Maine School of Law, Willamette University College of Law, Syracuse University College of Law, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa, CA, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, American University in Cairo Law Department, University of Tulsa College of Law, Columbia University, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Valparaiso University School of Law, Fordham Law School, University of Baltimore School of Law, Yale Law School and American University in Cairo, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Cleveland State University, Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, Washington University, Touro Law Center, Washington & Lee University, Loyola New Orleans, Hamline University School of Law, University of New Mexico, George Washington University Law School, Seton Hall University School of Law, CUNY School of Law, Seattle University School of Law, University of South Dakota School of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law, University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law, Pace University School of Law, William and Mary School of Law, Howard University School of Law, College of William & Mary School of Law, University of Central England, Charlotte School of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law, University of Utah, Pennsylvania State University, Penn State University, Pennsylvania State University, Arizona State University, Chicago-Kent College of Law, American University, and many others. staff report

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