EU warns against martial law, emergency
Bureau Report

Karachi—The European Union has warned President General Pervez Musharraf of a serious reaction to the imposition of martial law or emergency in the country saying it will be “disastrous”, and take Pakistan nowhere.
“ That will be a very serious concern for us if emergency is imposed, whereas martial law will be disastrous”, Ambassador of the European Commission Delegation to Pakistan, Jan De Kok said in an interview with Online here on Friday. Mr Kok observed that emergency could be imposed only when there was a threat to Pakistan’s national security,. Which was not the case at the moment. “ I don’t see that the current political developments pose any threat to Pakistan (Pakistanis) as a nation. If emergency is imposed on the basis of these political developments, it will save only a few people, which cannot be welcomed”, he said and added “ You cannot stop the hunger for democracy by imposing emergency or martial law”.
The EU ambassador expressed the hope that General Pervez Musharraf would doff his military uniform before November, 15, 2007, and would not backtrack on his promise as his did in 2004. He was referring to an agreement between the government and the six-party religious alliance, Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), under which General Musharraf was bound to shed the military uniform by December 31, 2004. Mr Kok said the EU would be “disappointed” if General Musharraf did not lay off his military uniform by November 15, 2007.
“ He promised that (to shed military uniform) in 2004 too, but he did not fulfil that. I hope this time he would abide by the constitution”, he said adding that the EU would have a “ very serious talk” if General Musharraf did not doff the military uniform. “ He (Musharraf) should do that as soon as possible because it is not good for Pakistan’s image”, Mr Kok opined. He,, however, declined to elaborate the EU’s reaction in case General Musharraf did not shed the military uniform and impose emergency in the country.
“ I can’t tell you right away that what will be our reaction because it depends upon the circumstances. What I can tell you at the moment is that we will have a very serious talk about that”, he maintained. In reply to a query regarding return of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, Mr Kok termed it a good omen for the democracy in Pakistan. “ They should come back to their people. If there are cases against them, then they should defend themselves in the courts”, he said.
Commenting on the reports that the government would not let Nawaz Sharif come back, he said “ The Supreme Court’s ruling on the issue is very clear. The only option for the government is to comply with the ruling”, he thought. About upcoming general elections, he said the EU would send a delegation of 130 observers to monitor the general elections. He said the delegation would come to Pakistan in three separate groups. The first group of observers would come to Pakistan two months before the elections, while the second and third group would arrive four to six weeks, and 10 days before the elections respectively.
He observed that the situation would be different vis-ŕ-vis monitors this time because of a “free” media in the country. He denied the reports suggesting that the EU was funding only a particular foundation for education purpose in Pakistan. “ We are funding Sindh government too. We have provided 44 million Euro to the Sindh government for promotion of education in the province”, he added. Mr Kok disclosed that a sum of one and a half million Euro provided by the EU to the federal government for different purposes, was not used as it was supposed to be. “ We have issued a letter to the federal government for recovery of that amount, because it’s the money of EU tax payers, and we have to satisfy them about the use of their money”, he said.
About ban on Pakistan’s fisheries exports to EU, Mr Kok said that Pakistan was asked to improve the health security standards, which was a must. “ I have some reports suggesting that they (fisheries department) have improved some areas. Whenever, the marine fisheries department officially informs us about that, we will send a mission to inspect that”, he said.