Extracts from speeches made at a rally held in Melbourne at the old GPO building on Thursday 15 November, expressing solidarity with the people of Pakistan and calling for an end to Australian Government support for the Musharraf dictatorship ... There was a long list of speakers, including two who spoke in Spanish with an interpreter, so individual speeches are unavoidably truncated.
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Background:
General Pervez Musharraf has been President of Pakistan since he staged a military coup in October 1999. Musharraf’s government has been extremely repressive towards trade unions, left parties, human rights organizations and women. Musharraf has also been a key ally in the US wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

In order to avoid an expected ruling against his position as president from the Supreme Court, on 3 November 2007 General Musharraf imposed a State of Emergency throughout Pakistan and suspended the constitution. All meetings and rallies were banned, and opposition parties and trade union activists have been arrested.

Lawyers, students and workers who have been protesting against the State of Emergency want:

• the immediate lifting of the State of Emergency and the censorship and curbs on media and communications.
• Immediate release of all the judges, lawyers, human rights activists, trade unionists, political and civil society activists and leaders who have been arrested.
• The immediate release of Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry and his restoration to his position as Chief Justice of Pakistan and an end to the intmidation and manipulation of the judiciary by the Musharraf regime.
• Free and fair elections and an end to the involvement of the armed forces in Pakistan politics.
• an end to Australian political and military support for the Musharraf dictatorship.

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