Peshawar, Nov 5 : Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairwoman Asma Jehangir has urged “friends of Pakistan” to persuade the US to stop supporting President General Pervez Musharraf.

The US must “stop supporting the instable dictator, as his lust for power is bringing the country close to a worse form of a civil strife,” said Jehangir, who was put under house arrest for three months on Saturday after the proclamation of an emergency.

“It is time now for the international community to insist on preventive measures otherwise it may take decades to clean the mess,” Jehangir said in a statement.

Expressing her deep concern over the several house arrests and detention of political leaders, she said, “The situation in Pakistan is uncertain. There is a strong crackdown on the media and lawyers. Most judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts have not taken oath under the new provisional constitutional order.”

“Former Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is under house arrest. Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan and two former SCBA presidents Muneer Malik and Tariq Mahmood have been imprisoned for one month under preventive detention laws,” Jehangir added.

Coming down heavily on Musharraf, she said, “The President said that he had to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive, secular minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires.”

Jehangir warned that lawyers and civil society would “challenge” the Musharraf regime and the “scene is likely to get uglier”.

“We believe that Musharraf has to be taken out of the equation and a government of national reconciliation put in place. It must be backed by the military,” she said. (ANI)