Musharraf tightens grip under emergency rule

AFP - Nov 4, 2007

Pakistani forces rounded up leading critics and deployed around key state buildings Sunday as President Pervez Musharraf sought to shore up his flagging grip on power by imposing emergency rule.

Defying international condemnation, military ruler Musharraf suspended the constitution, sacked the chief justice, imposed strict media curbs and arrested more than 100 leading opposition figures and lawyers.

Accusing the judiciary and Islamic militants of destabilising the country, he said he was acting to stop the nuclear-armed nation from committing "suicide," and appealed for understanding from the West.

Troops and police poured into Islamabad and surrounded the Supreme Court, which had been due within days to rule on the legality of Musharraf's victory in an October 6 presidential election.

The fate of elections scheduled for January remains unclear, and there are fears Islamic militants may retaliate with further attacks and that the move may raise tensions between Musharraf and the army.

"We are heading for a very uncertain time because this coup will be challenged by political parties. This will also build strain between him and the military," Hasan Askari, former head of political science at Punjab University, told AFP.

Pakistani media were incensed. "Gen. Musharraf's second coup", said a headline in Dawn, referring to his first power grab in 1999, while the Daily Times said: "It is martial law."

The White House led global criticism, but Musharraf -- a key US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban -- insisted he had no choice.

"Inaction at this moment is suicide for Pakistan, and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide," he said in a late-night televised address.

"Kindly understand the criticality of the situation in Pakistan... Pakistan is on the verge of destabilisation."

Police on Sunday set up barricades and unrolled coils of barbed wire to block access to the parliament, presidential residence and Supreme Court buildings.

They and paramilitary soldiers fanned out nearby, and set up posts near the state-run radio headquarters, television stations and luxury hotels.

Shops were open but traffic was thin and markets were quiet.

Police arrested Javed Hashmi, acting chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party of former premier Nawaz Sharif, and a leading rights activist after earlier rounding up cricket legend turned politician Imran Khan.

"I am neither afraid of prison nor of generals, because I have served the major part of my political life in prison," Hashmi told reporters alerted to the raid on his house in the central city of Multan.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who rushed home from Dubai after Musharraf's emergency proclamation, warned the country was slipping back toward dictatorship.

"This is not emergency, this is martial law and the people of Pakistan will protest against it," she told reporters.

The move could wreck attempts to forge a power-sharing deal with Bhutto as well as the January elections, meant to put the nation of 160 million people back on the path to democracy.

Musharraf's first decisive step after announcing the state of emergency was to replace outspoken chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a thorn in his side since the general first tried to sack him in March.

The new chief justice, Hameed Dogar, cancelled Chaudhry's caseload.

As well as considering legal challenges to Musharraf's election, Chaudhry had been hearing hundreds of human rights appeals from families of people who went missing over the last four years because of alleged Al-Qaeda links.

Police on Sunday surrounded a compound where Chaudhry and other judges live.

Musharraf had pledged to step down as army chief by November 15 if he won the election and the court upheld it, but that now appears unlikely.

Bhutto -- whose October homecoming parade was targeted in a suicide attack that killed 139 people -- said emergency rule merely encouraged extremists but added she was ready to talk with Musharraf.

The White House called emergency rule "very disappointing."

"President Musharraf needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before retaking the presidential oath of office," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

The United States however said there was no plan to suspend military aid to Pakistan.

China, one of Pakistan's closest allies, expressed concern and said it hoped stability could be maintained. Pakistan's neighbour and nuclear rival India expressed "regrets".