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PAKISTAN
CASE No. PAK/16 - MAKHDOOM JAVED HASHMI

Resolution adopted unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at its 182nd session
(Cape Town, 18 April 2008)


The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/182/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 181st session (October 2007),

Noting that the Committee heard Mr. Hashmi personally at the session it held during the 118th IPU Assembly,

Recalling the following:

  • Mr. Hashmi, leader of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, was on 12 April 2004, at the close of a trial which had been held inside jail on three charges, sentenced to a 23‑year prison term on the ground that he had circulated an allegedly forged letter written in the name of Pakistani army officers, criticizing the army and its leadership; as the sentences ran concurrently, the sentence amounted to seven years' imprisonment; he filed a criminal review petition for suspension of his sentence pending appeal; the application was dismissed at first instance and on 9 October 2006 also by a Supreme Court Bench, which concluded that the defence had been unable to show, as was required for any such petition to succeed, that the judgment was based on no evidence and that there was no ultimate possibility of Mr. Hashmi's conviction;

  • However, upon a petition for review of that decision, the Supreme Court, on 3 August 2007, “reviewed and recalled” its earlier decision and suspended the conviction and sentences of Mr. Hashmi pending his appeal and ordered his release on bail, thus actually exonerating him;

  • Mr. Hashmi resumed his parliamentary activity on 6 August 2007, but resigned subsequently from the National Assembly together with other opposition members of parliament in protest against the candidature of outgoing President Musharraf in the presidential elections,
Considering that Mr. Hashmi stood in the February 2008 elections and was returned to parliament for a sixth term with an overwhelming majority and that he is exercising his parliamentary mandate without any hindrance,
  1. Is gratified that Mr. Hashmi is now again exercising his parliamentary mandate and facing no further harassment;

  2. Decides consequently to close this case owing to its satisfactory settlement and requests the Secretary General to inform the authorities and the sources accordingly.
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