President Musharraf declares state of emergency; meaning Martial Law Note from Michelle: Well, as ALL eyes were on the United States, waiting for Bush to declare Martial Law, President Pervez Musharraf beat him to the punch line. I feel bad for our Pakistani friends here. And, it makes my comment at Anwaar's most recent article all the more relevant:
See:truthspring.info/2007/10/22/pakistan-my-fatherland-i-weep-for-thee/President declares state of emergency,Chief Justice of Pakistan has been removed from his post Saturday November 03, 2007 (1832 PST)
ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule, suspended the 1973 constitution and has issued Provisional Constitutional Order, state-run TV has reported, as independent channels went off air. President Gen Pervez Musharraf in his capacity as Army Chief under article 232 of the constitution announced the imposition of emergency.
All civil rights from article 232 till 237 have been suspended. The proclamation of emergency order says that there is visible ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist attacks including suicide bombing explosions, rocket firing and the banding together of some militant groups have taken such activities to an unprecedented level of violent intensity posing a grave threat to the life and the property of the citizens of Pakistan.
There has been a spate of attacks on state infrastructure and law enforcement agencies.
The order further says that some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism thereby weakening the government and the nations resolve and dialuting the efficiency of its action to control this menace. There has been increasing interference by some members of the judiciary in government policy, adversely affecting economic growth in particular.
The order explains that constant interference in executive function including but not limited to the control of terrorist activities, economic policy, price controls, downsizing of corporations and urban planning, has weakened the writ of the government. The police force has been completely demoralized and it is fast loosing efficiency to fight terrorism and intelligence agencies have been thawarted in their activities and prevented from pursuing terrorists. Under the Provisional Constitution Order promulgated Pakistan shall subject to this order and any other order made by the President be governed, as nearly as may be, in accordance with the constitution. The President may from time to time by order amend the constitution as is deemed expedient.
Under the PCO the fundamental rights under Article-9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 25 shall remain suspended.
All provision of the constitution emodying Islamic injunction including Article-2, 2A, 31, 203A to 203J, 227 to 231 and 260(3) (a) and (b) shall continue to be enforced.
Subject to clause (1) of the PCO and oath of office of judges Order 2007, all courts in existance immediately before the commencement of this order shall continue to function and exercise their respective powers and jurisdiction.
Under the PCO the Supreme Court or a High Court and any other court shall not have the power to make any order against the President or the Prime Minister or any person exercising powers or jurisdiction under this authority. All persons who immediately before the commencement of this order were in office as judges of the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court or a High Court shall be governed by and be subject to the oath of office (Judges) Order 2007 and such further orders as the President may pass.
The Parliament and the Provincial Assemblies shall continue to function. All persons who immediately before the commencement of this order were holding any service, post or office in connection with the affairs of the federation or a province including an all Pakistan service, service in the Armed forces and any other service declared to be a service of Pakistan by or under act of Parliament or of a provincial assembly or chief Election Commissioner, or Auditor General shall continue in the said service on same terms and condition and shall enjoy the same privilege unless these are changed under order of the President.
No court including the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court and the High Courts and any tribunal or other authority shall call or permit to be called in question this order.
No judgment, decree, writ, order or process whatsoever shall be made or issued by any court or tribunal against the President or the Prime Minister or any other authority designated by the President. Notwithstanding the abyance of the provisions of the constitution, but subject to the orders of president, all laws other than the constitution, all ordinances, orders, rules, byelaws, regulations, notifications and other legal instruments in force in any part of Pakistan whether by the President or Governor of a Province shall continue in force untill altered, amended or repealed by the Presidnet or any authority designated by him.
An ordinance promulagated by the Presidnet or Governor of a province shall not be subject to any limitation as to duration prescribed in the constitution, the order says.
Meanwhile Paramilitary troops have been deployed inside state-run television and radio stations in Islamabad.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has been removed from his post as army troops take control of the Supreme Court.All communication contacts have been cut off mobile and Internet services have been suspended and private TV channels transmission closed down.President Musharraf has ordered the heads of the security agencies to ensure law and order during the state of emergency, due to which security has been intensified in the federal capital and four provincial capitals.
The army has taken control of the federal capital and a large number of troops and rangers have been deployed at public places, embassies and other key government installations. More than 1000 troops of frontier constabulary have been summoned to maintain security.
All ways towards Constitutional Avenue and Parliament House has been closed. Media men have also been barred from entering.
Meanwhile the federal cabinet has endorsed the imposition of Emergency imposed by President and COAS Gen. Musharraf.
Endorsing ythe emergency, the cabinet defended and supported the move of President Pervez Musharraf and said that due to volatile situation in Country the imposition of emergency was inevitable.
The emergency meeting of the cabinet was held in PM House on Saturday evening, convened by PM, Shaukat Aziz, which was attended by the federal cabinet and other high-ranking civil officials.
Addressing the meeting the PM said that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure law and order situation, which would be implemented vigorously with the help of all security related institutions, including Army.
Sources have disclosed that cabinet was informed that the general socio-political situation of the Country had reached a volatile point-of no return due to confrontation between various institutions, rampant increase in terrorism and extremism, confrontation of government against the Judiciary, were some of the prime causes that gave way to imposition of the emergency. He said that despite all odds it was nevertheless an encouraging factor that the newly promulgated PCO keeps the senate, assemblies and all other institution intact.
The PM directed all the law enforcement elements to take all necessary steps to maintain the law and order situation of the country intact.
Source: www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?193587------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We, the people of Earth, are ALL in the same boat. Who says 'It Can't Happen Here'....or there!....MMusharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan
Leader Says 'Judicial Activism' Left Him No ChoiceBy Griff Witte and Imtiaz Ali
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 3, 2007; 4:53 PM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 3 -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule Saturday, suspending the constitution and replacing the Supreme Court's chief justice.
Musharraf appeared on Pakistani television just before midnight Saturday and delivered a 50-minute defense of his decision. He said that "judicial activism" and rising extremism had left him with no other choice.
"In my view, this was the simplest way to save Pakistan, to put it back on the right track," he said.
At one point in his speech, Musharraf began speaking in English, saying he wanted to address the United States and the West.
"I would kindly ask you to understand the criticality of the environment inside Pakistan and around Pakistan," he said. "Pakistan is on the verge of destabilization if not arrested in time. . . . Inaction at the moment is suicide for Pakistan, and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide."
He then quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying that America's 16th president had broken laws, violated the Constitution and trampled on individual liberties to keep the country together during the Civil War.Musharraf vowed to continue to move Pakistan toward democracy but did not specify how. He said only that he "hoped" the country could still hold elections that had been expected by January.
Earlier in the day, state-run television announced the decree, which referred to Musharraf as head of the army and did not mention his dual role as president. State-run TV also ran segments in which pro-government analysts criticized political opponents and the independent media for not backing Musharraf at a time of crisis.
Private television news stations across the country were blacked out Saturday evening.Pakistani political analysts said that Musharraf had essentially declared martial law, even if he was not calling it that."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."Rizvi said that Musharraf's stated reasons for declaring an emergency were misleading. "It has nothing to do with the insurgency," he said. "It has to do with Musharraf's political survival."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 within Musharraf's inner circle.
Hussain predicted that the moves would be disastrous for Musharraf and for the country.
"The way forward has to be democratic and constitutional. Any other course is a recipe for disaster. More importantly, it will not be accepted by the people of Pakistan and it will not work," he said.According to Hussain, Musharraf convened a meeting of his top advisers on Wednesday to discuss their options and 20 of 25 were in favor of emergency rule.
The whereabouts of ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry were unknown Saturday night, and journalists were denied permission to approach his house. Earlier this year, Musharraf had removed Chaudhry from the court, but the court reinstated him in August.
The other dissenting judges were also removed from office Saturday and escorted away in police vehicles around 8:30 p.m. Before they were removed, a group of seven Supreme Court justices issued a ruling that Musharraf's decision was unconstitutional and had "no ground/reason." The court ordered that the emergency rule should not be instituted.The four remaining judges
signed new oaths and have been sworn in to a new panel.
"This is a very fateful day for the country. Pakistan is in deep, deep crisis," said Aitzaz Ahsan, Chaudhry's attorney. "It is one man against the nation." Ahsan was later arrested.
Ahsan said Musharraf had declared emergency rule because he expected to lose an upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the future of his presidency.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who returned from exile last month only to leave two weeks later, flew back to Pakistan last night from the United Arab Emirates.
Her spokesman, Farahtullah Babar, said Bhutto "condemned what General Musharraf has done. This amounts to reneging on the promise of free and fair elections. He is running away from that."
Bhutto, who had postponed her trip to Dubai earlier in the week because she said she was concerned Musharraf might impose an emergency, has not been in recent contact with Musharraf, Babar said. He said her center-left Pakistan People's Party would work to undo Musharraf's decision, which he said amounted to an imposition of martial law.
A group of lawyers who spearheaded protests against Musharraf earlier this year said they would again take to the streets to oppose the president's action.
Hundreds of police and army rangers set up multiple checkpoints in and around Constitution Avenue, the wide, leafy boulevard where the president's house, the Parliament building and the Supreme Court all sit. At one of the checkpoints, dozens of Musharraf opponents began to gather in an apparently spontaneous display of anger at the emergency declaration, shouting "Go Musharraf, go!"
"This is a shame for all of the nation," said Chaudhry Asahgar, an Islamabad resident. "The whole nation has been destroyed due to this." Several shouted criticisms of the United States, blaming it for keeping Musharraf in power.
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 had tried to encourage him to back down from his plan.
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." [Yea, right; he had a good teacher....M]"A state of emergency would be a sharp setback for Pakistani democracy and takes Pakistan off the path toward civilian rule," he said in a statement. "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 15th. We expect him to uphold these commitments and urge him to do so immediately."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, traveling in Turkey, said the United States had "made clear it does not support extra-constitutional measures because those measures take Pakistan away from the path of democracy and civilian rule."
"Whatever happens we will be urging a quick return to civilian rule," she said, and a "return to constitutional order and the commitment to free and fair elections."
Musharraf won election last month to a new, five-year term as Pakistan's president. But the Supreme Court is still reviewing whether he was eligible to run in the first place.
Most analysts predict that the court will rule in Musharraf's favor and allow him to begin his new term. But the case has been dragging on for weeks, and Musharraf's current term expires Nov. 15.
After saying on Thursday that they would take next week off from the case, the judges said Friday that they would meet for at least two days next week in an attempt to reach a decision before the end of Musharraf's term.
Government officials had pointedly refused to rule out the possibility of an emergency declaration that would blunt the power of the courts and allow Musharraf to push back parliamentary elections slated for early 2008.
Opposition politicians accused the government of using the threat of martial law or emergency rule to pressure the Supreme Court to side with the president.
On Friday, violence continued in the country's troubled northwest with an explosion at a suspected insurgent hideout that killed 10.
An explosion, in the restive border region of North Waziristan, seemed likely to only add to an already turbulent situation in Pakistan. According to witness reports, the explosion was caused by a missile attack that obliterated a house near a madrassa, or religious school, that has been associated with Taliban commanders.
The Pakistani military, which has been fighting a losing battle in the tribal region, denied that it was involved in the attack. Many Pakistanis quickly blamed Washington, saying the attack bore the hallmarks of previous strikes by U.S. drones.
U.S. and NATO military officials in Afghanistan also denied that their forces had been responsible for the attack. A senior Bush administration official familiar with intelligence activities said the CIA was not involved.
The missile landed in the village of Dandi Darpakheil, 10 miles into Pakistani territory. Some residents reported seeing a drone circling overhead before the explosion, while others said that the strike seemed to have originated to the west, in Afghanistan.
Mohammad Shah, a resident, said he heard a massive explosion and went to investigate. But by the time he arrived, he said, the Taliban had cordoned off the site. "Nobody was allowed to see what happened," he said.
A local official in North Waziristan said the site that was hit had been a militant hideout.
The explosion occurred near a house formerly owned by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a veteran Taliban commander, the official said. Haqqani's son, Siraj Uddin Haqqani, has been taking on an increasingly important role in Taliban operations in recent years and is considered a vital link between the Afghan and Pakistani branches of the radical Islamic movement.
The United States is technically supposed to restrict its military activity to the Afghan side of the border, where it has tens of thousands of troops. But there have been previous episodes in which the CIA is believed to have employed Predator drones mounted with Hellfire missiles to go after targets within Pakistan. The most recent such incident came in June. In January 2006, the CIA tried and failed to hit al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in the tribal area of Bajaur.
Pakistan has been grappling with Islamic extremists on multiple fronts. On Friday, insurgents released 50 troops who they said had surrendered a day earlier during fighting in the scenic Swat Valley. There have been intense clashes in Swat over the past week, fighting that marks an expansion of the war from the tribal areas that hug the Afghan border to the so-called settled areas farther east.
Ali reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. Staff writers Walter Pincus and Robin Wright in Washington and Karen DeYoung in Istanbul, Turkey, and staff researcher Robert E. Thomason contributed to this report. Source:www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300214_pf.html