Musharraf unveils iron fist

Judges call emergency illegal, arrested

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s embattled military ruler President General Musharraf has finally invoked a state of emergency in the country besides issuing a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), under which the judges of the superior courts will have to take a fresh oath of allegiance to the General.

The President has appointed Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as the new chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, replacing Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who was taken into custody as soon as an eight-member apex court bench headed by him set aside the proclamation of emergency by Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf. Paramilitary troops and police had surrounded the Supreme Court in Islamabad.

The emergency has been invoked citing the deteriorating law and order situation in the country. However, analysts say the move is actually meant to dissuade judges of the Supreme Court from giving an adverse judgment in Musharraf’s eligibility case to run for office of the president while in military uniform.

The chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party and twice-elected Benazir Bhutto has rushed back to Pakistan after the proclamation of emergency in the country, apparently to challenge the unconstitutional action of the military ruler which might effectively put an end to her reconciliation process with the general. According to Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman for Bhutto, the PPP chairperson shortened her stay in Dubai and landed at Karachi on Saturday.

Well placed judicial sources said as soon as the state-run Pakistan television broke the news about the proclamation of emergency, Chief Justice Chaudhry rushed to the SC building and took up the case while heading an eight-member bench. The emergency, proclaimed at 6.00pm, was declared illegal and unconstitutional at 6.30 by the apex court bench.

However, the government did not let the electronic media run the story and suspended the transmissions of all private channels all over Pakistan for an indefinite period. All land and mobile telephone lines went down shortly after the declaration of emergency.

Interestingly, the proclamation of emergency by Musharraf has maintained that the judiciary was interfering with the government’s efforts to curb militancy in the country.

Judicial sources say Musharraf had to take the extreme step of invoking after the judges of the superior judiciary refused to assure the government side that they would not disqualify Musharraf’s re-election as the president of Pakistan for a second five year term, as was being feared by the government quarters.   The Pakistani judiciary was reborn when it stood up to defend a frontal assault mounted against its sanctity and autonomy by the powers-that-be in the form of suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Its act was in line with what the Chief Justice had written in the foreword of the SC Report (Golden Jubilee Edition, 2006). He stated: “The story of developed societies and industrialised nations is one of democratic dispensation, adherence to the Constitution and supremacy of law. It is therefore a vital role of the state organs, including the judiciary, to lead the country towards establishing a society based on respect for law and adherence to rule of law.”

According to S M Zafar, a ruling party parliamentarian and the former law minister of Pakistan, the proclamation of a state of emergency at a time when the incumbent National Assembly is about to complete its five-year tenure, could extend its life for a period not exceeding one year and the issuance of a PCO would help Musharraf to stop the apex court from ruling against.

According to government sources, Justice Dogar administered oath of his office at the presidency in General Musharraf’s presence late on Saturday night. Earlier, at 5.30 pm, half an hour before an eight member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry set aside the proclamation of emergency by Musharraf, the federal law ministry served a two-line notice in the names of eight apex court judges, saying their services were no more required by the government.

While setting aside the proclamation of the emergency, the apex court judges headed by the chief justice had further declared that no judge of the Supreme Court or any of the high courts including the chief justices would take oath under new Provisional Constitutional Order. In a related development, the newly elected president of Supreme Court Bar Association has also been arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.