Musharraf's emergency rule set to backfire: Analysts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's bid to cling to power is set to backfire badly, destabilising a key US ally, spawning new militant attacks and straining relations with the army, analysts said.
       
Musharraf, who led a military coup in 1999, imposed a state of emergency in nuclear-armed Pakistan on Saturday in response to what he said was a hostile judiciary and the growing menace of Al-Qaeda and pro-Taliban militants.
       
But analysts said Musharraf's main concern was to purge the Supreme Court of anti-government judges ahead of a ruling on the legality of his victory in a controversial October 6 presidential election.
       
Far from enhancing his fight against Islamists, who have regrouped in Pakistan's tribal belt to plot attacks on the West, emergency rule will strengthen their cause and increase the likelihood of attacks, they added.
       
"Musharraf is riding a rudderless ship in a big and unpredictable political storm," Rasul Baksh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore's University of Management Sciences, said.
       
"He may survive for a while but he will be swept away by the tide of anger, popular resentment and forces that wish to restore some degree of decency and normalcy to Pakistan," he said.
       
In the wake of the Emergency declaration, Musharraf's security forces rounded up several key opposition leaders and lawyers and sealed off much of the capital to prevent protests.
       
He has also imposed tough curbs on the media, barring all criticism of himself and the government.