nancy pelosi speaker of the house of representatives pursuant to the order of the house of january fourth two thousand and seven the chair will now recognize members from list submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to thirty minutes and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to five minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from california mr miller for five minutes i  thank you mr speaker this week in a devastating blow was struck against the efforts to try to grow and make sustainable democracy in pakistan when president musharraf of pakistan announced he would he would have an emergency order which is essentially become martial law against all those in the country who disagreed with him against all of those on the supreme court all of those in the legal community all of those in general society who disagree with him are now subject to arrest are subject to beatings are subject to imprisonment that is wrong and this country cannot look the other way for too long this administration this congress has looked the other way as president musharraf has worked to limit and now crush democracy in pakistan too many excuses have been offered to allow him to continue this trend against free and open elections a growing democracy against a growing independent press and and t v stations because we said he's helping us in pakistan against the terrorist the taliban in afghanistan of course what we know is that he's played us over these many years as he's received billions of dollars in aid he's continued to play us to suggest that he's really concentrating on the effort to rid both afghanistan and pakistan terrorists but in fact that's not what has been taking place in fact he's cut agreements he's he's he's arranged for safe haven for safe travel for the taliban is a move back and forth against our troops and against people in afghanistan who are trying to establish a democracy there some months ago when i was visited afghanistan we asked the commander of our troops there what was the biggest threat to his troops in afghanistan and he said the border with pakistan and that remains true today as the taliban move back and forth as recruits from al qaida move back and forth and a time when president bashar simply gives gives voice to the idea that he's going to stop this from happening that he's going to he's to create an environment where that will not allowed to continue that simply has not happened because president musharraf has been more interested in securing his reelection to to the to the to the leader of must take a stand and then against these actions we must speak out the administration has spoken out now but already questions are being raised as to whether or not we will condition aid whether or not we will forcefully show musharraf that we cannot have him crush democracy in pakistan pakistan needs more democracy not less it needs democracy to strengthen that country so that it can reject extremism and terrorist it needs free elections so that the party the people will believe that they're represented not by the continuing building of a dictatorship by president bashar who controls the military who controls the intelligence and now is using them against the very people that he's supposed to represent and that's the people of pakistan we cannot stand by while he takes this extraordinary effort to crush democracy to post to poke tension postpone the elections to seize the independent media and to throw hundreds and hundreds so far of his innocence into jail because they simply seek to oppose him and seek a brighter future a more democratic future for the country of pakistan the time has come for this country to take a very strong stand against the corruption of this government and the growing dictatorship presented by the rule of president mush pursuant to clause twelve a of rule one the chair declares the house in recess until two p m today