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
Call to Pakistani Humwatanau,
Where are the protests, the tyres burning?, why do we as a nation criticise the leaders and say they are not worth following and now given they are all arrested sit on our backsides doing nothing for ourselves.
Let me make it clear, our FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS HAVE GONE, that is yours and mine, not just Benazir’s or Imran Khan’s. So forget the political riff raff and for once my Pakistani humwatanau STAND UP FOR YOURSELF.
Anyhing less will mean Pakistan will go to the dogs, see my heartfelt call at http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
Feimanallah Pakistan
Wasim
Editorial, The News, Nov 4, 2007
Black Saturday
Sunday, November 04, 2007
November 3 will go down as another dark day in Pakistan’s political and constitutional history. It can be safely said that this is one of General Pervez Musharraf’s gravest errors of judgment, and a sorry indication that nothing has been learnt from the mistakes of the past. The imposition of emergency rule and suspension of the 1973 Constitution announced on Saturday is only going to destroy the very institutions that this country crucially needs for evolving into a true democracy, particularly the judiciary, media and parliament. It will further fracture an already weakened federation, alienate those who have grievances against the centre, such as the Tribal Areas and Balochistan, and push whatever little credibility the government had down a very deep abyss. Such a draconian step will also have little effect on our ability to fight terrorism and extremism. It would be fair to assume that the emergency has been imposed only to target two institutions: the judiciary and the media but it may well have poisonous effects on another: i.e. parliament. Those in the ruling PML-Q will be foolish not to realise that the legislative branch of government has received a death blow as well since the imposition has come from an army general.
The fact that the official statement carrying the emergency announcement used ‘army chief’ rather than president to refer to the authority behind the promulgation is significant as well indicating that perhaps what we have on our hands is a de facto martial law — one in which the assemblies will function but only to give the impression that democracy has not been hampered in any manner. Furthermore, the timing of the proclamation, a few days before an expected judgment on a case that could have potentially declared the president’s re-election null and void, is such that very few people in this country, or overseas for that matter, will buy the argument that it has been imposed to arrest the deteriorating law and order situation and to allow the government to focus on fighting extremism and militancy. It will be difficult to remove public doubts that it has only been imposed to target a superior judiciary that has finally found some spine and is carrying out its constitutional role of acting as a watchdog on the executive, which in Pakistan’s case was often overstepping its constitutionally-defined authority. As for the media, the fact that private television channels were blacked out for the better part of Saturday is a grim indication of the government’s intentions. However, here too, such bans are essentially counter-productive and will be seen by ordinary Pakistanis as a desperate act of a regime bent on shielding itself from criticism.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of Pakistan has been informed that his services were no longer required. In any case, the promulgation of a provisional constitutional order would mean that most of the judges of the Supreme Court who had in recent weeks taken a brave and defiant stand against the government and the military would be pushed aside and not be invited to take a fresh oath; many would in all probability decline such an offer. As news of the imposition of emergency spread, eight members of the Supreme Court defiantly struck down the proclamation, which could well trigger off a new stand-off. The future is not looking good — not least because the president’s move is bound to have massive repercussions and a severe response from all segments of civil society. Such acts are indefensible at any time, more so in this day and age.
Nawaz isn’t allowed to return. Iftikhar Chaudhry, Aitzaz Ahsan, Imran Khan, and Javed Hashmi (acting president of PML) are arrested and they all happen to be from Punjab. I see a trend here or it could be Chaudries are getting cold feet.
What is this love affair with Justice Chaudhry? They all are egoistic powerhungry playing with the sentiments of 160million
Khairulbashar Siddiqui,
When civilian government doesn’t do their job well they are accountable to the Army though they should be accountable to the people but that’s another story for another time. BUT when Army does something wrong like not protecting the border or Pakistan soil then we blame civilian leader. Musharaf is doing one thing right by teaching lessons to these brainless criminals who are war lords and drug smugglers and killers. But it’s out of my mind how can one smuggle weapons in Islamabad where security is so tight and it took several months to solve that Lal Mosque thing when it could only be done in days by cutting off power and water.