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Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan
Leader Says 'Judicial Activism' Left Him No Choice
By 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."
"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.
Leader Says 'Judicial Activism' Left Him No Choice
By 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."
"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.
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