After outrage over the proclamation of emergency, newspaper editorials were quick to contemplate the next steps that could extricate Pakistan from a constitutional crisis. In Dawn on November 6: “By coming down hard on the liberal elements in society, the military has denied itself a source of strength in the war on the religious extremists. The round-up of politicians, leading lawyers and human rights activists will cast the regime in a negative image, and the world would not be wrong in coming to the conclusion that the generals had used the war on terror as a ploy to strengthen their stranglehold over the country. Because of the gravity of the situation we demand that the emergency be lifted at the earliest, the government should give a deadline within which the purposes for which the emergency was proclaimed will be achieved, that notwithstanding the curbs on the media, political activity will not be curtailed, and the general election will be held as originally planned — in January next. Only a government deriving a popular mandate can pull Pakistan out of the bog and maintain its unity and integrity.”The News (November 6) agreed: “As a starter Musharraf should again come on TV, on all the channels and not just the PTV, to say sorry to the nation. He should then announce an election date, lift the emergency and the curbs on the media, withdraw the PCO, restore the judiciary to its Nov 3 position, grant a general amnesty for all politicians, call the present parliament before it expires (to validate all these steps and remove any legal or constitutional flaws), leave the post of army chief and elevate General Kiyani to fill it, and then stay, if he so wishes, as the president to supervise a free and fair election.”Transform, thenEjaz Haider returned in Tuesday’s Daily Times to a debate that had been begun by him: whether Pakistan would gain democracy best by a transition (that is, by keeping a ‘space-sharing’ formula with the military) or a transformation (that is by uncompromisingly sending the military back to the barracks). Observers like Haider had earlier made a case for transition. But Musharraf, he wrote on Tuesday, has now made that debate academic: Now, of course, the dynamic has changed. “Having kicked the chessboard aside, Musharraf has challenged the civil enclave. We can now test the theory of transformation.”Third time in SwatIn his television address after proclaiming emergency, General Musharraf referred to the writ of militants reaching into “settled” areas. That writ got extended to a third town in Swat this week. Dawn reported on November 7: “Militants seized the town of Madyan in Swat on Tuesday and hoisted their flags over buildings after security forces surrendered, police and residents said. Madyan is the third town to come under the effective control of followers of Maulana Fazlullah, who is demanding enforcement of Sharia in Swat.”In an editorial Thursday, The Daily Times explained: “Fazlullah says all he wants is Sharia, but the real truth is there for everyone to see. He has annexed territory from the state of Pakistan and will set up a government there on the pattern that Baitullah Mehsud has established in South Waziristan. The composition of the so-called Taliban fighting as Fazlullah’s troops in Swat tells us who is driving the campaign for Shariat. Depressed, and with their morale down, the inhabitants of Swat report that most of the militants speak a dialect different from theirs. Some have identified them as belonging to South Waziristan. Yet there are some among the outsiders who don’t speak at all and keep their faces covered under masks; they are supposed to be the ‘foreigners’ sent in by Baitullah Mehsud as help from Al Qaeda. There is no longer any doubt about whom the warlord of South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, is working for. The presence of foreigners in Swat tells us the story that we are not willing to acknowledge.”And this, according to the edit, is the crux of the matter: “The war in the Tribal Areas could actually be the battle for Pakistan itself. It could be a battle against the creation of an Al Qaeda state within Pakistan. Having failed to create one in Somalia, Al Qaeda is now seeking to finally possess the territory it has been holding since 2001 when its hordes entered Pakistan to touch base with the warriors it had trained in the camps of Afghanistan.”With Rs 500The News (November 8) struck an ironic tone: “The most recent ignominy — and irony — comes a couple of days after the declaration of a state of emergency, a state of emergency brought about we are told by, among other things, rising militancy and the threats of terrorism emanating from a variety of places, including the Swat valley. It is therefore a mercy that the general public, by virtue of their television screens being blank of all but state-controlled news output, have been spared the humiliating sight of kidnapped paramilitary personnel being returned to the custody of the state by their captors — who compounded the humiliation by giving each of those released 500 rupees.”
