Pakistan Ex-Chief Justice Rejected Emergency - Paper

Nov 04, 01:53 AM

Current Headlines: Text of report by Amir Wasim headlined "Gen Musharraf's second coup" published by Pakistani newspaper Dawn website on 3 November

Islamabad, 3 November: President Gen Pervez Musharraf, in his capacity as the chief of army staff, on Saturday [3 November] declared emergency rule in the country, suspended the country's constitution, and issued a new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).

The official announcement on the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) came within minutes of a high-level meeting at the President's House (Aiwan-i-Sadr) which was chaired by the president and attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, senior security and intelligence officials.

Shortly before the official announcement all the private and independent news channels in the country were pulled off the cable network, leading to intense speculations of a possible emergency rule or martial law.

This is the second time in Gen Musharraf's tenure that an emergency rule has been imposed, and PCO issued. First it was at the time when the military seized power on 12 October 1999. This time it was when President Musharraf had already ruled the country for eight long years, and was faced with a situation where there was a strong possibility that the Supreme Court may rule against his move to get himself elected for the second time as the head of the state.

According to some details of the new PCO made available to the media, the National Assembly [lower house of parliament], Senate [upper house of parliament], provincial assemblies, the prime minister, provincial chief ministers, federal and provincial ministers, governors and all those in the "government services" will continue to function normally.

However, it was not clear how this will be possible, or be legitimate, with President Musharraf resorting to the extra- constitutional action of suspending the constitution and issuing his own provisional constitutional order or PCO.

Soon after the proclamation of emergency by Gen Musharraf, an eight-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, reportedly set aside the decision. Setting aside Gen Musharraf's proclamation of emergency, the panel asked all members of the superior judiciary against taking oath under the new PCO.

The Supreme Court, in its order, termed Gen Musharraf's action "illegal and unconstitutional" and asked the corps commanders and all civil and military officials not to take oath under the PCO. Till filing of this report, the judges of the SC were still inside the court building.

However, under the circumstances, chances of a major rebellion on part of the superior judiciary appeared highly unlikely. In any case, legal experts said, the government must have contemplated such a resistance, and as has been the past practice during military rule, some of the judges will not be invited to take oath, some will refuse, and a few will accept the new order to provide legitimacy to the this kind of emergency rule. In a latest development, Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar was sworn in as the chief justice of Pakistan by the president.

There were also reports that some of the lawyers, including the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, have been taken into custody. Mr Ahsan's wife told reporters that her husband was arrested soon after the imposition of emergency.

Although news of a possible emergency rule had been doing rounds for the past several days, on Saturday it became quite evident when a large contingent of paramilitary troops started to arrive in Islamabad, and cable operators were asked to pull the plug on all independent news channels, including DawnNews, Geo, ARY and Aaj TV.

Land telephone lines and mobile phones are also partially down in Islamabad and communication has become almost impossible in many parts of the capital. TV channels and newspapers had been reporting for the past few days that the government had made up its mind to declare emergency rule.

Originally published by Dawn website, Karachi, in English 03 Nov 07.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.