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US colluding to 'ruin' Pakistan: Pak lawyer
A representative of Pakistan's deposed chief justice on Wednesday accused the US administration of helping to destroy his country.
A representative of Pakistan's deposed chief justice on Wednesday accused the US administration of helping to destroy his country, and urged it to cut off ties with President Pervez Musharraf.
"With all respect and humility, apparently, this license to ruin the future of my country has been given by the US administration," said Mohamed Akram, a lawyer close to the sacked Pakistani Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
"And this is being done under the continuing patronage of the White House," he said.
Musharraf slapped emergency rule on his country on November three citing rising Islamist extremist violence and an unruly judiciary, and triggering a wave of international outcry.
"Even when his actions are condemned, official statements from the State Department and Pentagon say that General Musharraf is an indispensable ally of the US," Akram told a press conference in Washington.
"Bush seems to have a very personal kind of loyalty, alliance with General Musharraf," he lamented.
He alleged that since emergency rule was imposed, some 20,000 lawyers had been arrested or placed under house arrest, and that some have been tortured.
"I'm here to make a passionate appeal to the administration to withdraw its support from General Musharraf, to start dealing with the institutions of Pakistan ... I expect this from the land of liberty, from the land of freedom," he said.
"Taking action against Pakistan, cutting its aid, cutting its assistance.
