U.S. must denounce Musharraf, say Pakistani and American lawyers

Mohammad Akram Sheikh, the former head of the Pakistan Bar Association, has joined his American counterparts in calling on the United States and the Pakistani army to withdraw support from President Pervez Musharraf.

Washington, Nov.16 : Mohammad Akram Sheikh, the former head of the Pakistan Bar Association, has joined his American counterparts in calling on the United States and the Pakistani army to withdraw support from President Pervez Musharraf.

"The United States should not compromise its status - it should only support liberty, the rule of law," Mohammad Akram Sheikh told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

He said Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, who is expected in Pakistan on Saturday, "should publicly announce he is not supporting Mr. Musharraf."

"Withdrawing recognition of General Musharraf will solve our problems," said Sheikh, who said his house and office were searched by authorities before he left Pakistan for the United States.

Sheikh also called on Pakistan's military to withdraw its support to Musharraf. The army, he said, "should take an institutional decision to tell him not to involve them in politics."

Sheikh was one of the lawyers to take a case on September 5 to the Supreme Court to designate Musharraf as ineligible to be the country's president.

Sheikh told the Washington Times prior to heading to a solidarity demonstration by U.S. lawyers in front of the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday that 20,000 lawyers had been arrested since the crackdown began.

Hundreds of Washington lawyers walked under sunny skies from a plaza in front of a Library of Congress annex to the Supreme Court in a show of solidarity with Pakistani colleagues.

The American Bar Association, which sponsored Thursday's rally, has sent a letter to Musharraf - with copies to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson - expressing its concern about the events in Pakistan.

ANI