Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday, suspending the constitution, replacing the chief justice before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, and cutting communications in the capital. His leadership threatened by an increasingly defiant court and an Islamic movement that has spread to Islamabad, Musharraf’s emergency order accused some judges of “working at cross purposes with the executive” and “weakening the government’s resolve” to fight terrorism.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto told Sky News television by telephone that Unless General Musharraf reverses the course it will be very difficult to have fair elections. “I agree with him that we are facing a political crisis, but I believe the problem is dictatorship, I don’t believe the solution is dictatorship. The extremists need a dictatorship, and dictatorship needs extremists.”
Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister who was deported in September as he tried to return from exile, condemned the emergency and said Musharraf should resign. He also urged the people of Pakistan to rise against Musharraf. “If you don’t do it today, it will too late then,” he told Geo TV from Saudi Arabia.
Seven of the 17 Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. Police blocked entry to the Supreme Court building and later took the deposed chief justice and other judges away in a convoy, witnesses said. The government halted all television transmissions in major cities other than state-controlled Pakistan TV. Telephone service in the capital, Islamabad, was cut.
Do you guys think the declared emergency will brought Pakistan back from the political crisis or do you think it will push Pakistan into a bigger crisis? Do write your views and comments.
Source: Associated Press, Yahoo News
