November 3, 2007 (LPAC)--Despite a last-minute telephone appeal by U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice, Pakistan's President Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3. He thereby prevented a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn his recent presidential election win, amid rising militant violence.
"The chief of army staff has proclaimed a state of emergency and issued a provisional constitutional order," a newscaster said on the state-run TV channel.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and eight other judges refused to endorse the provisional constitutional order issued by the president. Paramilitary troops and police surrounded the Supreme Court in Islamabad, an AFP reporter said. A leading Pakistani lawyer and opposition figure, Aitzaz Ahsan, said he had been detained after President Pervez Musharraf invoked emergency powers.
The government blocked transmissions of private news channels in the capital and other cities. Shahzad Iqbal, an official at a cable TV news provider in Islamabad, said authorities were blocking transmissions of private news channels in Islamabad and the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Residents of Karachi said their cable TV was also off the air.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who went to Dubai on Nov.1 for personal reasons, boarded a flight back to Pakistan from Dubai, and is reported to be at Karachi airport. According to her spokesman, she was already in the plane when the emergency was declared. There are reports that she will not be allowed to disembark in Pakistan.
The immediate fallout of the President Musharraf's move is the cancellation of the planned January general elections. That would create serious problems with Washington, since it was the Bush administration which pushed for the elections, and brought Benazir Bhutto over to Pakistan to share power with the military.
For Muharraf, it was a calculated risk. But Musharraf knows that Washington has to depend on the Pakistani army in order to stay in Afghanistan. Musharraf and the Pakistani army also believe that they cannot afford to share power with the politicians with security situation as dangerous as it is today.
