Washington: The United States has questioned the legitimacy of the extraordinary power President Pervez Musharraf wields in Pakistan and said that the credibility of that country's judiciary was "low".

In its annual report on human rights released yesterday (Feb 25, 2004), the US State department doubts the independence of the Pakistani Supreme Court which sanctioned Musharraf's bloodless coup against the elected Government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 and the functioning of the Court since.

The report notes that four months after General Musharraf overthrew the Sharif Government, the Supreme Court sanctioned the coup but asked him to hold a referendum. Four months after the referendum, President Musharraf transferred substantial executive power from the Prime Minister to the previously symbolic Presidency.

"Opposition, politicians, lawyers, civil society groups and many in the international community expressed concern about the amendment package and its Constitutional legitimacy," said the report.

The Supreme Court, the report said, demonstrated "a limited degree of independence" but "the overall credibility of the judiciary remained low".

The report, which reviews 2003 accused Pakistan's security forces of committing widespread human rights abuses that include "extra judicial killings and excessive use of force".

Some members of the security forces, the report said, had committed "numerous serious human rights abuses".

The report said, "The Government's human rights record, remained poor although there were some improvements in a few areas, serious problems remained."

Killings between rival political factions and sectarian groups continued to be a problem, it pointed out.

"There were numerous killings during the year. Numerous killings of minorities remain unsolved," the report said.

It further said domestic violence against women, rape and abuse of children remained serious problems. "honour killings" continued.

The report said journalists exercise self-censorship.

It also noted that domestic and international observers criticised as "deeply flawed", the elections held for local Governments in 2001.

The report said, "Corruption and inefficiency remained acute, although reforms initiated by the Musharraf Government to reduce corruption have had some effect on officials at higher levels of Government."

"The judiciary was subject to executive and other outside influences and corruption, inefficiency and lack of resources remained severe problems. Some aspects of the Government's implementation of its anti-corruption campaign violated due process. The Government infringed on citizens'privacy rights," the report added.