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3 November 2007
No official reason was given, but the declaration came as Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, awaited a Supreme Court decision that could have overturned his victory in an October 6 presidential election.
The move throws general elections that are due in January into jeopardy. The vote, the first in five years, was seen as a key step in moving nuclear-armed Pakistan towards full civilian democracy.
“The chief of army staff (Musharraf) has proclaimed a state of emergency in the country and issued a provisional constitutional order,” the aide said on condition of anonymity.
Musharraf was due to address the nation later, the aide added.
A senior government official said that under the order judges of the superior court can be asked to take a fresh oath to Musharraf.
Musharraf, a key US ally in the “war on terror,” has been at loggerheads with the Supreme Court for months and ministers had hinted that a state of emergency could be imposed if it ruled against his election win.
Pakistan’s government held a special cabinet meeting earlier Saturday to approve the declaration of an emergency, a senior government official said.
Pakistan’s private television channels suddenly went off the air earlier Saturday amid reports that a such a step was likely.
A senior official at Dawn television, which broadcasts in English, said transmission had been shut down.
“Our channel has been taken off the air and it seems it is related to reports of emergency rule being imposed in the country,” Dawn director of news Azhar Abbas told AFP.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the official result of the October presidential election, in which Musharraf won another five-year term, cannot be declared until it rules whether the vote was legal.
Musharraf is also confronting a wave of Islamic militancy that has claimed the lives of more than 400 civilians and security personnel since government troops stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan on October 18 and then flew to Dubai on Thursday, said earlier this week that she had heard speculation that Musharraf could declare a state of emergency.
Bhutto said on Wednesday she had decided to postpone her visit ”due to rumours of the possible imposition of an emergency in view of the pending cases before the Supreme Court about General Musharraf’s elections.”
Musharraf had pledged to step down as army chief by November 15 if he won the election, but has not said what he would do if the court overturns his victory.
The court said this week it would not be cowed by ministerial hints of emergency action.
The emergency will also likely shatter a proposed power-sharing deal between Bhutto and Musharraf, which has been pushed by the United States and Britain ahead of general elections.
Washington and London have been quietly pushing a scenario which would see Musharraf as a civilian president and Bhutto serving a third time as premier.
Troops, police surround Supreme Court
Pakistani paramilitary troops and police surrounded the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Saturday after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, an AFP reporter said.
Two trucks full of armed paramilitary soldiers from the Rangers force, who are under the control of the Interior Ministry, and several dozen policemen cordoned off the building.
Telephone lines down
All land and mobile telephone lines went down on Saturday after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, witnesses said.
President Pervez Musharraf is to address the nation later Saturday after declaring a state of emergency, a presidential aide told AFP.
“President Musharraf will address the nation tonight and give details of the order and the reasons for imposing the state of emergency,” the aide said on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan suspends constitution
President Pervez Musharraf has suspended Pakistan’s constitution under an order imposing emergency rule on Saturday, but the federal and provincial assemblies will still function, officials said.
“The provisional order (passed by Musharraf) suspends the constitution of 1973, but the federal and provincial government will remain intact,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.
The suspension of the constitution has normally been seen as an imposition of martial law during previous states of emergency in Pakistan’s tumultuous history, but there was no official confirmation of this.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and eight other judges refused to endorse the provisional constitutional order issued by the president, and Chaudhry has been told his ”services are no longer required”, private news channels said.
Arrests key anti-government lawyer
Pakistani authorities on Saturday arrested the main lawyer who has been arguing in favour of challenges to military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s re-election, private television reported.
Geo television reported that police had detained Aitzaz Ahsan after Musharraf imposed emergency rule just days before the Supreme Court was due to rule on the legality of the October 6 vote.
Ahsan, a former cabinet minister, also successfully defended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry after Musharraf tried to sack him earlier this year.
Pakistan court orders emergency suspended, govt rejects ruling
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s top court Saturday ordered the suspension of emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf, a private television channel said, but the government rejected the move.
“The emergency rule has been set aside by a seven-member bench declaring it illegal and all judges of the supreme court and high court barred from taking an oath under the new provisional constitutional order,” private Geo television reported.
A government spokesman told AFP that the Supreme Court order would not come into effect because the emergency order has a clause stating that it cannot be challenged in any court of law.
Chronology of Pakistan’s political crisis
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Saturday, days before an expected court judgment on his re-election and amid mounting Islamist violence.
The announcement is the culmination of a political crisis that began when military ruler President Pervez Musharraf tried to sack Pakistan’s chief justice in March, sparking mass protests.
Here is a chronology of events:
March 9: Musharraf asks Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to resign over allegations of misconduct. Chaudhry refuses.
March 10-12: Lawyers hold nationwide protests, the first in a series of demonstrations across the country.
March 16: Police fire rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of opposition supporters in Islamabad and smash up studios of a private television station.
March 26: First joint protests organised by the parties of exiled former prime ministers Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
May 5-6: Thousands cheer Chaudhry’s motorcade from Islamabad to Lahore, where he declares to a huge crowd that the “era of dictatorship is over.” Similar trips to other cities follow in May and June.
May 12-13: Forty-three people killed after government supporters prevent Chaudhry from attending a rally in the southern port city of Karachi. Strikes called afterwards paralyse much of the country.
July 3-10: Pakistani troops besiege the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad, then storm the building a week later. More than 100 people die during the course of the crisis.
July 20: Supreme Court reinstates Chaudhry and quashes the charges against him.
Bhutto and Musharraf hold secret meeting in Abu Dhabi on a possible power-sharing deal to sideline Sharif.
Aug 9: Musharraf decides against imposing state of emergency nationwide following pressure from Washington.
Aug 23: Supreme Court rules Sharif can return from exile.
Sept 10: Sharif sent back to exile in Saudi Arabia four hours after his plane from London touches down at Islamabad airport.
Sept 18: Musharraf’s lawyer says he will step down as army chief if re-elected.
Sept 28: Pakistan’s Supreme Court rules that Musharraf can run for re-election while keeping his role as army chief, throwing out a raft of legal challenges.
Sept 29: Police clash with lawyers and journalists, beating them with batons as the election commission approves Musharraf’s nomination for a second term.
Sept 30: Opposition parties lodge last-ditch challenge in the Supreme Court, which court was due to rule on in next two weeks.
Oct 5: Supreme Court rules that presidential election can go ahead but results cannot be officially announced until it rules on challenges.
Oct 6: Musharraf wins presidential election.
Oct 18: Bhutto returns to Karachi from Dubai after eight years in self-exile. Two suicide bombers attack her homecoming parade hours later, killing 139 people.
Oct 31: Bhutto says she has heard rumours Musharraf will impose a state of emergency and postpones planned trip to Dubai. She flies to Dubai the following day.
Nov 1: Supreme Court says it will not be influenced by threats of emergency.
Nov 3: Musharraf imposes state of emergency.
