Bhutto was informed in advance about Emergency Rule
Pakistan Sinks Deeper Into the Night
By TARIQ ALI
For anyone marinated in the history of Pakistan yesterday's decision by the military to impose a State of Emergency will hardly comes as a surprise. Martial Law in this country has become an antibiotic: in order to obtain the same results one has to keep doubling the doses. What has taken place is a coup within a coup.
General Pervaiz Musharraf ruled the country with a civilian façade, but his power base was limited to the Army. And it was the Army Chief of Staff who declared the emergency, suspended the 1973 Constitution, took all non-government TV channels off the air, jammed the mobile phone networks, surrounded the Supreme Court with paramilitary units, dismissed the Chief Justice, arrested the President of the Bar association and the civil rights activists of the Human Right Commission of Pakistan, thus inaugurating yet another shabby period in the country history.
Why? They feared that a Supreme Court judgement due next week might make it impossible for Musharraf to contest the elections. The decision to suspend the Constitution was taken a few weeks ago.
Benazir Bhutto, was informed and left the country. She is reportedly on her way back. Till now she has offered no comment on the new martial law, despite the fact that a senior leader of her party, Aitzaz Ahsan has been arrested for denouncing the coup. Intoxicated by the incense of power she might now discover that it
Remains as elusive as ever. If she supports the latest turn it will be an act of political suicide. If she decides to dump the General(she has accused him of breaking his promises and it will be difficult for her to remain allied to a dictator) she will be betraying the confidence of the US State Department, which pushed her in this direction. At a recent off-the-record gathering at Ditchley Park(a British Foreign Office think-tank), the would-be Secretary of State, James Rubin, became short-tempered when Pakistani participants challenged his view that Bhutto was a decisive player in the 'war on terror' on the Western borders of the country.
The two institutions targeted by the Emergency are the judiciary and the lively network of independent TV stations, many of whose correspondents supply information that can never be gleaned from politicians. Geo TV the largest of these continued to broadcast outside the country. Hamid Mir, one of its sharpest journalists, reported yesterday afternoon that according to his sources the US Embassy had green lighted the coup because they regarded the Chief Justice as a nuisance and 'a Taliban sympathiser'.
For a whole year now, the regime was confronted with a severe crisis of legitimacy that came to a head earlier this year when General Musharraf's decision to suspend the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Hussein Chaudhry, provoked a six-month long mass movement that forced a government retreat. Some of Chaudhry's judgements had challenged the government on key issues such as 'disappeared prisoners', harassment of women and rushed privatisations. It was feared that he might declare a uniformed President illegal.
The struggle to demand a separation of powers between the state and the judiciary, which has always been weak, was of critical importance. Pakistan's judges have usually been acquiescent in the past. Those who resisted previous military leaders were cajoled, blackmailed, bullied and persuaded to retire. Pakistani judges spring from the same milieu as the rest of the ruling elite, which is why the decision of this chief justice to fight back was surprising, but extremely important and won him enormous respect, a commodity in short supply.
Global media coverage of Pakistan suggests a country consisting of Generals, corrupt politicians and bearded lunatics. The struggle to reinstate the Chief Justice presented a different snapshot of the country. This movement for constitutional freedoms revived hope at a time when most people are alienated from the system and cynical about their rulers, whose ill-gotten wealth and withered faces consumed by vanity inspire nil confidence.
That this is the case can be seen in the heroic decision taken by the Supreme Court in a special session yesterday declaring the new dispensation 'illegal and unconstitutional'. The hurriedly sworn in new Chief Justice will be seen for what he is: a stooge of the men in uniform. If the constitution remains in suspension for more than three months then Musharraf himself might be pushed aside by the Army and a new strongman put in place. Or it could be that the aim of the operation was limited to a cleansing of the Supreme Court and controlling the media. That is what Musharraf indicated in his broadcast to the nation. In which case a totally rigged election becomes a certainty next January. Whatever the case Pakistan's long journey to the end of the night continues.
Tariq Ali's new book, Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, is published by Verso.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Ms. Bhutto halted her plans to visit her sick mother and her children in Dubai earlier this week in order to confer with Musharraf concerning the rumors milling around that martial law was imminent. Musharraf assured her that this was not the case. Also, the Supreme court had also deliberated and judged such a move would be contrary to the Constitution.
It was after the assurances given to Benazir Bhutto that she resumed her plans to go to Dubai. If indeed, she knew about the state of emergency in advance and left because of it, then why would he return or plan to return when the new political conditions render her political aspirations moot?
"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, most of mankind are Nazis"
--Isaac Bashevis
You can try to paint Benazir Bhutto in agreeable colors, but we not buying it. She is a crooked corrupt person and is an agent of the west willing to sell out Muslim people of Pakistan to achieve power.
I have first hand knowledge of her and her husband's corrupt dealings during her rule as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
awakenedgoyim
...being imposed clear her and Mr. 10% of the corruption they have been accused of, both in Pakistan and Western Europe? My post concerned itself only with the assertion that she was forewarned and knew of the State of Emergency imposed by Musharraf before its implementation--plain and simple.
It is more likely than not that she did not know. Of course this is speculation because I have no personal knowledge. Nevertheless, it's odd for her to return to Pakistan in light of the social and political implications of the state of emergency. She now has no advantageous role to play in the new arrangements.
The best she can hope for is cheer-leading the Musharraf move as many have already done. But, such a move would destroy her credibility and chances of ever mounting an electoral opposition to Musharraf at a later date. So, she would less likely, choose such a politically suicidal path.
She may have returned attempting to persuade Musharraf to reconsider or at least, ameliorate the state of emergency in such a way as to give it a facade of legitimacy--with her having a pivotal role in the formulation.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has called General Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule a coup. In an interview with CBS News Face the Nation on Sunday, Ms. Bhutto said Saturday's move was General Musharraf's "second coup" - referring to his 1999 overthrow of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Ms. Bhutto also said she is deeply concerned that extremists in Pakistan will try to manipulate the volatile situation.
The twice-serving former prime minister says her opposition party, Pakistan Peoples Party will protest what she has called "martial law."
Shortly after emergency rule was imposed Saturday, Ms. Bhutto said she would meet with other political leaders to discuss a strategy for reversing General Musharraf's suspension of the constitution.
Ms. Bhutto returned to her homeland from self-imposed exile in mid-October as the first step towards a power-sharing deal with the president, who has lifted old corruption charges against her.
The state of emergency shatters the proposed power-sharing deal between the president, General Pervez Musharraf, and Ms. Benazir Bhutto, who hammered out the US-backed compromise during secret talks in the Gulf.
Since her return, Ms. Bhutto has become a fierce critic of the government and its handling of the October 18 attack that killed nearly 150 people and wounded hundreds more at her homecoming motorcade in Karachi.
However, a report from Pakistan's thenews.com reveals that: Tehrik-e-Istaqlal (TI) Chairman -- an opposition political party -- Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan on Sunday alleged that PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto was in league with President General Pervez Musharraf with regard to the imposition of emergency in the country.
Mr. Kahn suggests the state of emergency had been imposed to further the American agenda on the war on terrorism in the region.