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
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
On one side Pakistan has crazy islamic fundamentalists and on the other side they have an authoritarian regime; in the middle are the poor people of Pakistan. My prayers are with you (I am praying to Jesus Christ by the way.)
This seems like the last straw that broke the camels back. No constitution, No human rights, No supreme court, No fair judicial system, No education system. Just one dictator.
How does one recover from this?
Pakistan has been greatly destabilized because of this move. Let’s see what happens and how many protests there are. The scary thing now is that since there are no more rights for Pakistanis, the army can even more boldly shoot to kill any one.
Well Wasim your comments/blog will be deleted ..ALl i leanrnt about ATP is NASHISTAND GUFTAND BARKHASTAND. SIT TALK AND LEAVE… Which actually is our national behaviour.
MAy be Owais and Aadil Bhai consider a comment like yours inflammatory
“Keep comments on topic; no personal attacks; don’t submit indecent, inflammatory, slanderous, uncivil or irrelevant comments; flamers and trolls are not welcome; inappropriate comments will be removed or edited”
Salamalikum
In all this, don’t forget to blame BB. This is all being done for her. Mush needs to be the president for BB to become PM. And, if Rafay Kashmiri is right that Dogar is BB’s man, then it all makes sense too.