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
@Ajmal,
The same chance was for the democratic leaders, to portray themselves as great leaders, infact open press is part of democracy, why do you think political people were unable to free the press while a dictator did for whatever reasons?
It’s disgusting that we are ruled by such people who are interested only in their own benifits. politics is a dirty game now. there’s this dirty game everywhere.
may allah keep us safe from such cruel and agitating situations.
Ameen
Viqar, Another thing that the general has done is to outdo himself, by imposing Martial Law twice, the second one on top of his dictatorial regime; no precedent even in our black history. The clock has been turned back, and seems like the abyss that we have fallen in is getting deeper.
Since when a suicide bomber needed the approval of a renegade judiciary to sanctify his acts. All those claiming that this will somehow curb extremism are living in a fantasy world. This is not an attack on extremists, this is an attack on the only voice of dissent left in the society.
I don’t know the details of article 6 of the constitution, but according to Imran, it applies in this case, which means that Mush and his goons have committed an act of treason, punishable by death.
To watch geo live go to http://pakistanvision.com
@mahmood
Well personal benefit is that he wanted to portrait his so called great image in front of whole world that he allows the press to work freely.