President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday. It has now been announced at PTV. The emergency decision comes ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn his recent election win.
The news caster at PTV didn’t give any reasons for emergency but read the following text:
The chief of army staff has proclaimed a state of emergency and issued a provisional constitutional order.
Earlier, Pakistan’s private TV channels had suddenly gone off-air amid speculations that emergency was going to be imposed.
An earlier Reuters report which was among the first to break the news read:
Private television channels Geo News and Dawn News both ran reports quoting unnamed sources as saying the government had made its decision. Speculation has been rife that Musharraf, who is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether he was eligible to run for re-election last month while still army chief, might impose emergency rule or martial law
This has not been the first time that government thought about imposing emergency. The idea has been flirted with from time to time. Rumors kept appearing from time to time from as early as August 8, 2007. We also had a post on this topic then.
According to CNN:
The Supreme Court has declared the state of emergency illegal, claiming Musharraf had no power to suspend the constitution, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry told CNN.
People were already sensing something was about to happen when Benazir suddenly left the country two days ago without even going to other provinces of the country except Sindh. It may be true that she indeed left Pakistan to be with her ailing mother but it never stops people from speculating. Also the earlier news where Government circles were advising Benazir not to come to Pakistan before Supreme Court decision now seem to put missing links to a continuum.
According to Washington Post news:
The United States had tried to pressure Musharraf on Friday to avoid declaring emergency rule or martial law. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday sent a warning to Musharraf not to take authoritarian measures to hold on to power. “I think it would be quite obvious that the United States would not be supportive of extra-constitutional means,” Rice said. “Pakistan needs to prepare for and hold free and fair elections.” That message was followed by a previously scheduled meeting between Musharraf and Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command.
Complete text of emergency declaration can be read here
Very interesting reasons given by the General (not the President by the way) for imposing emergency:
You may see these here,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/specials/1649_pco_order_ zs/index.shtml
Interesting facts are that the following have taken oath as Supreme court judges as well:
1. Justice Faqir Khokhar
2. Justice Nawaz Abbassi
3. Justice Javed Buttar
The good part is that out of over fifteen Supreme court judges, only four have sided with the government so far; the bad one is that we are not free of Mir Jaffars and Mir Saidqs throughout history.
On the constitution avenue in Islamabad, one could spot over 200 journalists raising anti-establishment slogans; the rest is very queit in Islamabad; traffic far less than a normal Saturday evening.
There have been conflicting news about Benazir taking off from Dubai for Karachi. The latest have ben that she has off-boarded the plane.
Keith Mian,
Millions of Pakistanis … between 5 million to 12 million depending on which estimate you believe… are also Christians and pray to Jesus Christ… just fyi.
Benazir Bhutto is back. That is what matters.
There is a thought that Pakistan was formed based on a perception that Muslims are some how superior to everyone else because of their religion. This “Self-esteem” basically gives people the idea that they can do no wrong and that things will be taken care of for the best by God.
When you leave things only to God then this is what happens to a country. When you look at the state of your country and blame everyone else but your own self for the problems then this is what happens.
No individual can be blamed for Pakistan’s failures. The blame belongs to everyone who did not strive to be better than what they were yesterday. Each year Pakistan deteriorates and people just blame each other and then say “Oh well, God will take care of it all” and then nothing happens.
The solution is not simple but it involves people holding themselves to a higher standard. They must forget about wars, silly competitions, and things that don’t matter like whether a person is wearing pants or shalwar kameez.
Instead, people should educate themselves. They should learn about the world with an open mind. They should start thinking about what a government is and who creates it and what rights they have. They should take care of their fellow citizens. And this will allow them to create an infrastructure in Pakistan that will not collapse every 3 years.
It all boils down to having an open mind, tolerance, education and positive action. But the main issue is how to reverse the damage that has already been done.
Pakistan Emergency: Text of Proclamation published in The Hindu Newspaper.
@faraz. Faraz bhai we can’t stop others, we have done this to ourselves. We should have concentrated on our country instead of looking at Kashmir, now we have a huge powerful military that has turned against its own people. How can the men in the military do this to us.
Pakistan has a true constitutional crisis right now. The only
reasonable way out of the current chaos is for the top brass of the Pakistan military to show Musharraf the door. Enough is enough. This from a consistent Musharraf supporter until now.
Faisal Bhai,
Fear not Adil or Owais doing anything to your comments or mine for that matter. They do not get it right always but no-one could, they do an impossible job!
Also both are passionate Pakistanis who know that today’s events will make or break Pakistan and so ATP comments will be explosive, its only natural for Pakistanis to vent their fury at the war crime committed in their name. Others ATP friends can keep up-to-date via Other Pakistan at http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
Feimanallah
Wasim