November 04, 2007
On the State of Emergency in Pakistan
Tariq Ali in Counterpunch:
For anyone marinated in the history of Pakistan yesterday's decision by the military to impose a State of Emergency will hardly comes as a surprise. Martial Law in this country has become an antibiotic: in order to obtain the same results one has to keep doubling the doses. What has taken place is a coup within a coup.
General Pervaiz Musharraf ruled the country with a civilian façade, but his power base was limited to the Army. And it was the Army Chief of Staff who declared the emergency, suspended the 1973 Constitution, took all non-government TV channels off the air, jammed the mobile phone networks, surrounded the Supreme Court with paramilitary units, dismissed the Chief Justice, arrested the President of the Bar association and the civil rights activists of the Human Right Commission of Pakistan, thus inaugurating yet another shabby period in the country history.
Why? They feared that a Supreme Court judgement due next week might make it impossible for Musharraf to contest the elections.
Posted by Robin Varghese at 11:42 AM | Permalink
Comments
Friend of mine said he couldn't get through to his home on a land line, but was able to speak to his family via cell this morning. So they are not completely closed off.
Posted by: Carlos | Nov 4, 2007 3:09:09 PM
Nov 4, 2007, from Asma Jahangir:
Dear Friends,
The situation in the country is uncertain. There is a strong
crackdown on the press and lawyers. Majority of the judges of the
Supreme Court and four High Courts have not taken oath. The Chief
Justice is under house arrest (unofficially). The President of the
Supreme Court Bar (Aitzaz Ahsan) and 2 former presidents, Mr. Muneer
Malik and Tariq Mahmood have been imprisoned for one month under the
Preventive Detention laws. The President of the Lahore High Court Mr.
Ahsan Bhoon and former bar leader Mr. Ali Ahmed Kurd have also been
arrested. The police is looking or 6 other lawyers, including
President of Peshawar and Karachi bar. The President of Lahore bar is
also in hiding.
There are other scores political leaders who have also been arrested.
Yesterday I was house arrested for 90 days. I am sending my detention
order.
Ironically the President (who has lost his marbles) said that he had
to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those
he has arrested are progressive, secular minded people while the
terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires.
Lawyers and civil society will challenge the government and the scene
is likely to get uglier. We want friends of Pakistan to urge the US
administration to stop all support of the instable dictator, as his
lust for power is bringing the country close to a worse form of civil
strife. It is not time for the international community to insist on
preventive measures, otherwise cleaning up the mess may take decades.
There are already several hundred IDPs and the space for civil
society has hopelessly shrunk.
We believe that Musharaf has to be taken out of the equation and a
government of national reconciliation put in place. It must be backed
by the military. Short of this there are no realistic solutions,
although there are no guarantees that this may work.
Asma Jahangir
Chair person Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
Unde Arrest with more than
3000 other detainees.
Posted by: maniza | Nov 5, 2007 11:34:05 AM
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