Emergency Declared in Pakistan

Posted on November 3, 2007
Filed Under >Owais Mughal, Law & Justice, Politics
286 Comments
Total Views: 108896

Owais Mughal

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.


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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

286 responses to “Emergency Declared in Pakistan”

  1. Samira,

    I agree with your views, I do not advocate burning tyres for the sake of it or any other action. It is just one act we as a nation could do to say NOT IN OUR NAME. Peaceful protest is the best, but it seems we are too intransgient as a nation to do anything.

    I agree with you that apathy is our biggest problem, we seem always ready to diagnose the problem i.e corrupt politicians and military rule yet never want to provide the medicine which in this case would be peaceful protest. So once again my humwatau JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGAU!!!!. My call to the nation still stands as in link at http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html

    Feimanallah

    Wasim

  2. Rafay Kashmiri says:

    Facing so many long, enormous, moralist comments,
    my this humble verse will not complicate things to
    understand with two wide opened eyes and ears:

    Ye roodad-e-Qafas hey hamnashin kis say shikayat hay
    Jab ai’iy fasl-e-gul, saiyyad ney sab parr kutar dalay !

    Let us hope for Khair, evil was at the top !!

  3. Mansoor says:

    While I’m no fan of Musharaf, I do think that our last hope in Pakistan is a strong central governing authority that is not anwswerable to the Mullah infested Pakistani public…so before you guys get too worked up with this emergency thing, don’t forget that other options are not that pretty either (think Mullah fazlul rehman and his elk). It’s a fight between Mullahs and Muslims, pick your side carefully…

  4. samira says:

    Burning tyres is not an option. What we must do is keep the protests peaceful. There are many out there who are trying their best to make their voice heard. Unfortunately some have already been arrested. This is a sad time for our country. I feel that the time has come for all us moderate, educated people to make our voice heard. One of the big problems is our apathy. We as a nation are reluctant to do things to bring about change for ourselves. If we all sit back and watch the news channels and accept what is happening – no change will happen. We should all try and make our voice heard.Whether this is to BBC or CNN, we should all make our little contribution and believe me it is very little

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