Musharraf Declines to Impose State of Emergency

Federal Minister for Information Mohammad Ali Durrani told Pakistani television yesterday, “No state of emergency is being imposed in Pakistan. There was pressure on the president to impose emergency due to the situation in the country, but he is committed to furthering democracy and will not take any such step. He was being ill advised by some people. He has decided against declaring the emergency. Elections are the president's priority.” Pakistanis should hold the president of their nation to this.

Pakistan is in quite a pickle. Part of the problem is the civil unrest that Fascislamists are visiting upon Pakistan. The siege at the Red Mosque in Islamabad ended with 100 bodies and a black eye for the government. Then, Pakistan's Supreme Court reinstated the country's chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, after President General Musharraf dismissed him for rather weak reasons.

However, the opposition parties say the real issue lies in the very title “President General.” As General Musharraf, he is head of the armed forces of Pakistan. As President Musharraf, he is the political leader of the nation. And unfortunately, he got the latter job in a coup d’etat about 8 years ago. He wants to be elected president later this year but likes his spiffy uniform. The opposition wants him to choose one title or the other.

Junior Information Minister Tariq Azeem floated the idea of emergency rule publicly saying earlier this week “The possibility of the enforcement of emergency, like other possibilities, is under discussion.” The Pakistani Constitution permits the president to declare an emergency, which then slaps limits on the courts and citizens’ rights as well as allowing for the postponing of elections.

Having a junior minister raise the idea, it was easy for the President General to reject it once he had seen the reaction. The opposition parties screamed like stuck pigs (perhaps an unfortunate expression given the country’s large Muslim, non-pig-eating population), the stock market fell 4%, and allies like the US urged free and fair elections. Naturally, the President General never intended to impose the state of emergency – once he saw how badly it would have gone down and how must it would require to enforce.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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