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PAKISTAN CONSIDERING STATE OF EMERGENCY

By admin | August 9, 2007

President Pervez Musharraf, who for months has been under domestic political pressure to step aside or give up his role as army chief, was considering imposing a state of emergency, news reports and senior Pakistani officials said early today.

Musharraf, considered a key U.S. ally, was to convene his Cabinet and other senior officials later today to discuss the step, which would give his government the ability to restrict opposition political activities, postpone elections and dissolve Parliament.

Political opponents expressed concern over the prospective move, reports of which came hours after Musharraf abruptly canceled a scheduled trip to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, where he was to have taken part in a meeting aimed at combating the presence of insurgents in the tribal belt that straddles the Afghan-Pakistani border.

An emergency declaration would mark a dramatic escalation in the political turmoil that has gripped Pakistan the past five months, beginning with Musharraf’s attempt in March to oust chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Heightened instability in Pakistan would have repercussions far beyond its borders. The United States says Musharraf has been a crucial ally against Taliban and Al-Qaida militants after the Sept. 11 attacks.

At the same time, the Bush administration has been pressing the Pakistani leader to deprive the insurgents of sanctuary in the rugged, remote borderlands, particularly after July’s

National Intelligence Estimate said Islamic militants had been able to regroup and rearm themselves, using Pakistan’s frontier zone as a base.
Musharraf, who seized power nearly eight years ago in a coup, has seen his popularity plunge amid dissatisfaction over his plans to continue as president while retaining his post as the chief of Pakistan’s military.

Chaudhry, who was reinstated by the Supreme Court last month, presents a potential impediment to Musharraf’s plans to have the outgoing parliament that he controls elect him to another five-year term as president.

The high court was scheduled to hear an appeal today by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was overthrown by Musharraf in 1999 and then exiled. Sharif, like former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who is also living in exile, has said he wants to return to Pakistan to contest parliamentary elections to take place by early 2008.

Musharraf has declared he would not allow their return.

Pakistan has been angry over official and unofficial suggestions by U.S. politicians that American forces should unilaterally strike Al-Qaida figures believed to be taking shelter in Pakistan’s tribal lands if Musharraf’s government fails to do so.

Pakistan, which is in the midst of a major military offensive against militants in the semi-autonomous border region, said any such U.S. action would be a violation of its sovereignty.

The country in recent weeks has been plagued by suicide bombings and other attacks by Islamic militants angry over the storming of a radical mosque in the capital nearly a month ago. More than 100 people died in the raid by government forces on the Red Mosque, and at least another 250 have been killed in suicide attacks and fighting since then.

Pakistan reinforced its troop presence in the tribal areas, and a 9-month-old truce with militants in North Waziristan broke down.

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