Emergency Pakistan

The order states that attacks by militants have risen to “an unprecedented level of violent intensity” and now “pose a grave threat” to the people of Pakistan. And then accuses the Supreme Court of hampering effort to fight terrorism.

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.

But Pakistani legal and political experts said the order was an effort by Musharraf to maintain his own power.

“This is the first time Musharraf has brought in military rule to sustain himself in power,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, an expert on Pakistani military affairs. “He felt threatened by the Supreme Court.”

Feisal Naqvi, a prominent Yale-trained lawyer, who represented the Musharraf government in some cases, said there was no provision in the Constitution for a provisional constitutional order, and there was no provision for the suspension of individual rights. “This is martial law by another name,” said Naqvi.

(Shortly after clamping Emergency, Musharraf appointed Abdul Hameed Dogar as the country’s new Chief Justice to succeed sacked Iftikhar Mohd Chaudhry. Dogar is among four judges who took oath under the provisional constitutional order which came into force following imposition of Emergency.)

Earlier, soon after independent television stations went blank in the capital, just after 5 pm, dozens of police forces surrounded the Supreme Court building, with judges still inside, as well as Chaudhry’s home. The judges were ordered to sign a “provisional constitutional order” enabling the Emergency decree, with the government making it implicit that any justices failing to do so would be dismissed.

Seven of the court’s 11 judges gathered in the court and rejected the order, according to an aide to Chaudhry. In their declaration, the judges called Musharraf’s action “illegal and unconstitutional,” according to Pakistani news reports. Their order asked the commanders of Pakistan’s military and all civil officials not to take the oath required under the state of Emergency.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a prominent lawyer who led protests against Musharraf this spring, was detained by the police after saying that Opposition groups would announce a schedule on Monday of nationwide strikes and protests.

The Emergency declaration was in direct defiance of repeated calls this week from senior American officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, not to do so. A day earlier, the senior American military commander in the Middle East, Adm. William J Fallon, told Musharraf and his top generals in a meeting here that declaring Emergency rule would jeopardise the extensive American financial support for the Pakistani military.

“The US is deeply disturbed by reports that Pakistani President Musharraf has taken extra-constitutional actions and has imposed a state of Emergency,” Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman, said in a statement. “A state of Emergency would be a sharp setback for Pakistani democracy and takes Pakistan off the path toward civilian rule. President Musharraf has stated repeatedly that he will step down as Chief of Army Staff before re-taking the presidential oath of office and has promised to hold elections by January 15. We expect him to uphold these commitments and urge him to do so immediately.”

Musharraf was expected to speak on national television late this evening. Pakistani government officials said Friday that Emergency rule could be justified because of clashes in the past week between security forces and Islamic militants in the Swat Valley, in the North-West Frontier Province, and because of the increasing number of suicide attacks against military and police installations.

Meanwhile, AP reported that Benazir Bhutto had flown back to Pakistan from Dubai, and was sitting in an airplane at Karachi’s airport, waiting to see if she would be arrested or deported. Paramilitary troops surrounded her house.