ISLAMABAD, 13 October 2003 — Pakistan yesterday rejected allegations by a US-based rights organization that President Pervez Musharraf’s four-year rule was tainted with serious human rights abuses. An official spokesman in a statement faxed to AFP yesterday described the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Pakistan as “a travesty of truth based on unfounded allegations and hearsay.”

The spokesman said Musharraf’s rule “has been characterized by full respect for human rights, complete freedom of expression and a free media.”

“This is acknowledged even by the strongest critics of President Musharraf,” the Information Ministry spokesman said.

The HRW report released Friday said Pakistan, one of the United States’ front-line allies in the war against terrorism, had military agencies which tortured and harassed political opponents, journalists and former government officials.

In an open letter to Musharraf to coincide with the anniversary of his seizing power in a bloodless coup Oct. 12, 1999, the New York-based rights monitor called on the president to return Pakistan to constitutional rule without delay.

It also highlighted a surge in religious extremism and sectarian killings that HRW blamed in part on the Musharraf administration’s policy of marginalizing mainstream opposition political groups.

But the Pakistani spokesman said Musharraf had announced an anti-terrorism policy in August 2001, “ahead of the events of 9/11”.

The spokesman said that Musharraf’s “government had banned seven sectarian organizations and had taken a series of concurrent measures to eliminate the menace.”

“The judiciary is free and Parliament fully functional,” the spokesman said.

However, HRW’s Asian division’s Executive Director Brad Adams said Pakistan’s “judiciary has been emasculated, political parties rendered powerless, and extremist and sectarian religious parties strengthened under Musharraf’s rule”.

“Gen. Musharraf should transfer power to a legitimate government now,” Adams said, adding that Pakistan’s collaboration in the US war on terror had been exemplified by a disregard for due process.

“Arbitrary arrests and detentions, allegedly with the support of US authorities in Pakistan, have taken place with depressing regularity.”