Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, gave a televised address late Saturday night in which he said the country is under threat from extremists and accused the judiciary of working at cross-purposes with the executive and legislative branches.IHT : Pakistan declares state of emergency
Musharraf's order stated that attacks by militants have risen to "an unprecedented level of violent intensity" and now "pose a grave threat" to the people of Pakistan. The order accuses "some members of the judiciary" of "working at cross purposes" with the government by releasing some detained militants. It goes on to accuse the Supreme Court of "overstepping the limits of judicial authority" in a variety of areas, including economic policy.Supposedly in response to these threats, Musharraf has declared a national state of emergency, suspended the constitution, and fired the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The General quoted Abraham Lincoln in defending his decision to give himself virtually unlimited power.
Daily Times : Musharraf cites Lincoln to justify emergencyPresident General Pervez Musharraf cited an extract from a letter by 19th century US president Abraham Lincoln to justify extra-constitutional measures, during his address on Saturday.WaPo : Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan
Gen Musharraf quoted Lincoln as writing that though he had pledged to uphold the Constitution, he had to first preserve the nation, for without the nation the Constitution was not much use.
He then quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying that America's 16th president had broken laws, violated the U.S. Constitution and trampled individual liberties to keep the country together during the Civil War.Seven Supreme Court justices, including the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, tried to resist the move, a "second coup" by the same General who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, vowed to continue to move Pakistan toward democracy but did not specify how. He said only that he "hoped" the country could still hold parliamentary elections that had been expected by January.
IHT : Pakistan declares state of emergency
Soon after independent television stations went off the air in the capital, just after 5 p.m., the police surrounded the home of the chief justice and the Supreme Court building, with justices still inside. The justices were ordered to sign a "provisional constitutional order" enabling the emergency decree, according to Western diplomats, with the government leaving implicit that any justices failing to do so would be dismissed.
At least 6 of the court's 11 justices gathered in the court and rejected the order, according to an aide to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. By 9 p.m., Chaudhry and the other justices had gone home, surrounded by police officers and with the phone lines cut, witnesses and officials said.
The justices who resisted the declaration have been removed under a police escort. The suddenly-former Chief Justice is said to be under house arrest, and a new Chief Justice has already been sworn in.WaPo : Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan
"He's pretty much carrying out a second coup," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, an analyst. "For all practical purposes, it is direct military rule. And he becomes the supreme ruler of Pakistan. There's no constitutional limit on him because he's set aside the constitution."
...
Mushahid Hussain, a close adviser to Musharraf and a top leader in the ruling party, said the steps amounted to "de facto martial law." He said he had repeatedly tried to persuade the president against the measures in recent days but was outvoted in Musharraf's inner circle.
"Treason," says opposition politician Imran Khan, who is reportedly under house arrest.Daily Times : Opp vows to resist emergency
Tehrik-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan said the declaration of emergency would not help the country fight terrorism, but would push it towards a situation similar to civil war. He said the president had committed "treason" and usurped the rights of 160 million people for his personal gain.Independent : Pakistan in turmoil as Musharraf declares state of emergency
He appealed to the public to come out onto the streets to defy a "military dictator's unconstitutional act". He urged political forces to forget their differences and rise as one against Musharraf.
Imran Khan, head of the Justice Party, said: "This is a blatant attempt to destroy our judiciary and remove the Chief Justice. They want pliant judges in place and a pliant parliament."VOA : Musharraf: Pakistan on 'Verge of Destabilization'
"What is going to happen in Pakistan is that it's going to head towards anarchy," said Imran Khan, leader of the Movement for Justice opposition party. "There will be more militancy in the country, there will be more people picking up arms because he's blocked the legal and democratic channels through which people could express their views."Independent : Pakistan in turmoil as Musharraf declares state of emergency
The opposition leader Imran Khan was placed under house arrest hours after the imposition of martial rule."Protest Monday," say the nation's lawyers, the backbone of Pakistan's pro-democracy movement. Their support of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, and the support they received from the country's journalists, encouraged (enabled!) the rapid rise of a large and popular pro-democracy movement.
Daily Times : Lawyers will protest tomorrow
Lawyers’ associations said on Saturday that lawyers would observe a strike on Monday, November 5, to protest the imposition of an emergency in the country.
Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Aziz Akbar Baig said the lawyers would hold meetings and rallies to condemn this “unconstitutional step”.
Punjab Bar Council Vice Chairman Tariq Javed Warraich said the emergency had put the country in danger and lawyers would resist it at any cost.
Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) President Ahsan Bhoon said the whole nation would resist the emergency and the lawyers would never accept judges taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order.
Though not explicitly declared, martial law is clearly in effect.Telephone lines have been cut.
Roadblocks and checkpoints have been set up.
Independent television and radio stations have been shut down. Only state television and radio are now broadcasting.
Opposition leaders, including politicians and lawyers, have been arrested.
Armed troops have surrounded the administrative center of Islamabad, the capital, where concrete barriers and rolls of razor wire have been used to isolate the Supreme Court and other buildings.
WaPo : Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan
The government deployed hundreds of army rangers on the streets of Islamabad, arrested some opposition figures and blacked out privately owned television stations across the country.VOA : Musharraf: Pakistan on 'Verge of Destabilization'
...
State-run TV aired interviews in which pro-government analysts criticized political opponents and the independent media for not backing Musharraf at a time of crisis.
Meanwhile, the government instituted tough new media restrictions that made it a crime to defame Musharraf, the army or the government. One private news station that has been particularly critical of Musharraf, Aaj, was raided early Sunday, and police attempted to remove the station's broadcasting equipment.
security forces blocked off key streets near government buildings and shut down phone lines and independent news stations...
This is not to say that all dissent has been crushed. Small groups of protesters -- both pro- and anti-Musharraf -- have been left alone. It remains to be seen whether large protests develop on Monday and if so, how they will be handled ... unless the result is entirely predictable.Musharraf blames his troubles on the militant extremists from whom he says his country is under attack. But he neglects to mention that he is responsible for the escalation of hostilities, having sent thousands of additional troops to do battle in the mountainous wildlands of the north in an apparent celebration of his October 6 electoral "victory".
But the statements of opposition leaders would tend to indicate otherwise.
Daily Times : Opp vows to resist emergency
The combined opposition on Saturday slammed President General Pervez Musharraf for declaring a state of emergency in the country and holding the Constitution in abeyance, and vowed to resist the “unconstitutional move taken by him to prolong his rule”.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal denounced the imposition of emergency as “high treason” by the president and said it had been declared to stop the Supreme Court from annulling Musharraf’s presidency.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leader Liaquat Baloch also denounced the proclamation of emergency and the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), saying the move was destructive for the country. He said the president had taken the step to clip the judiciary’s powers.
Tehrik-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan said the declaration of emergency would not help the country fight terrorism, but would push it towards a situation similar to civil war. He said the president had committed “treason” and usurped the rights of 160 million people for his personal gain.
He appealed to the public to come out onto the streets to defy a “military dictator’s unconstitutional act”. He urged political forces to forget their differences and rise as one against Musharraf.
Babar Awan of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) strongly criticised President Musharraf for declaring emergency in the country and termed it an extra-constitutional move. “It is martial law in the garb of emergency, which has abrogated the Constitution,” he said.
Musharraf has been under increasing American pressure to escalate the war against the militants in the mountains, who have responded (as could have been predicted) by counter-attacking. Musharraf's use of these counterattacks as a pretext to shred the constitution in the name of democracy is most cynical.The people in the mountains are well-armed and very serious, as the recent decapitations reminded anyone who had forgotten. But they are hardly a threat to the entire country.
The pro-democracy movement, on the other hand, is an enormous threat. Or perhaps I should say it was.
The Supreme Court was about to rule on the "legitimacy" of the October 6 "election", in which President General Musharraf supposedly "won" another 5-year term. The "election" was clearly illegal on three different reasons, and had the Court ruled against the General on any one of them, it would have caused a great deal of "instability" -- not necessarily for the country but certainly for the General himself. Clearly, he was not about to allow such a thing to happen.
IHT : Pakistan declares state of emergencyChaudhry has been the focal point of the opposition to Musharraf. Supported by lawyers, judges and a wide public following, Chaudhry led a street-style political campaign against his summary dismissal earlier this year that helped fuel the growing popular sentiment against Musharraf.
The Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry this summer, and in September the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Musharraf, saying he could run for re-election while still in uniform.
But the focus was again on Chaudhry last week as the deadline drew closer for a decision on the legality of Musharraf's re-election on Oct. 6 by the national Parliament and four provincial assemblies. Rumors were rife in Islamabad all week that the court might decide against the president or give a muddied verdict that would leave his position as president unclear.
Musharraf is now following the time-honored tradition of conflating personal difficulties with national problems -- but only when it is to the leader's advantage. He's also following the GWOT leaders' script, and the standard GWOT game plan."This is necessary to save the country," they say. Then they crush it.
The American reaction has been predictable. There's a public presentation:
IHT : Pakistan declares state of emergency
The emergency declaration came despite repeated calls from senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, not to do so. On Friday, the senior U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Admiral William Fallon, told Musharraf and his top generals in a meeting here that declaring emergency rule would jeopardize the extensive U.S. financial support for the Pakistani military.Obvious how? Obvious to whom? Obvious based on what precedent?
Rice personally intervened twice in the past four months to try to keep Musharraf from imposing emergency rule, telephoning him at 2 a.m. Pakistan time in August. On Saturday, while traveling to Turkey for an Iraq security conference, she reinforced that message, saying, "I think it would be quite obvious that the United States wouldn't be supportive of extra-constitutional means."
Oops. I wasn't supposed to ask, was I? Sorry.
WaPo : Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan
On Friday, U.S. officials had tried to pressure Musharraf to avoid declaring emergency rule or martial law. Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, met with Musharraf and tried to encourage him to back down from his plan.Words, words, words, words, words ...
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Saturday that the United States was "deeply disturbed by reports that Pakistani President Musharraf has taken extra-constitutional actions and has imposed a state of emergency."
BBC : Musharraf defends emergency rule
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the declaration of emergency rule was "highly regrettable" and called upon Pakistan to have free and fair elections.Free and fair elections, free and fair elections, words, words, words...
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband also expressed concern, saying it was vital Pakistan's government "abides by the commitment to hold free and fair elections on schedule".
When was the last free and fair election in the United States? Does anybody remember?
Words, words, words ... the public presentation.
And then there's the reality:
CBC : Opposition politicians, lawyers rounded up in Pakistan: report
However, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Musharraf's declaration does not affect U.S. military support of Pakistan, which Morrell called "a very important ally in the war on terror."~~~
I expect to update this post several more times in the next few hours. In the meantime you are welcome to peruse some of my source material.
(The following links lead to posts at my other blog, Winter Parking. Each article mirrored there links back to the original piece.)
AP : Musharraf Imposes Emergency Measures
BBC : General moves deeper into labyrinth
BBC : Musharraf defends emergency rule
BBC : Text of Pakistan emergency declaration
BBC : Emergency may delay Pakistan poll
CBC : Opposition politicians, lawyers rounded up in Pakistan: report
CNN : Rice: U.S. to review aid to Pakistan
CNN : West urges Pakistan to lift martial law, return to democracy
CTV : Musharraf says he was forced to suspend constitution
Daily Times : Musharraf's move 'unprecedented': Nawaz
Daily Times : Lawyers will protest tomorrow
Daily Times : Opp vows to resist emergency
Daily Times : Emergency imposed for democracy: Musharraf
Daily Times : Musharraf cites Lincoln to justify emergency
Independent : Pakistan in turmoil as Musharraf declares state of emergency
IHT : Pakistan declares state of emergency
IHT : Pakistan's Musharraf imposes emergency rule ahead of court ruling
IHT : Public angry as Pakistani leader declares state of emergency
IHT : Pakistan rounds up opposition
NYT : Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule
NYT : Musharraf Consolidates His Control With Arrests
NYT : Musharraf Leaves White House in Lurch
Observer : Final shreds of Pakistan's democracy are ripped up
Reuters : U.S. to review aid to Pakistan
VOA : Musharraf: Pakistan on 'Verge of Destabilization'
WaPo : America's Bad Deal With Musharraf, Going Down in Flames
WaPo : Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan
WaPo : Political Crackdown Continues in Pakistan
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