Pakistan declared a state of emergency
Oh no … President Pervez Musharraf has declared a state of emergency, sacked the chief justice, and the government is clamping down on television and radio stations. Imran Khan, cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan has been placed under house arrest since the declaration of emergency rules.
More details of what is happening in Pakistan can be followed on Metroblogging Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.
We wish our readers and writers to stay safe.
News Links
The Age’s “Imran Khan under house arrest“.
The Age’s “Pakistan imposes emergency rules”
Herald Sun’s “Musharraf defends emergency rules”
Herald Sun’s “Pakistani news channels taken off air“
Related posts:
Greetings.
In response to Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of martial law and illegal dismissal of a Pakistani Supreme Court Justice, I am encouraging all bloggers out there who want true democratic rule for Pakistan’s 165 million people to unite in opposition.
From now on, I am asking bloggers to consistantly refer to Musharraf as “Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf” consistantly linking back to a post I made explaining this idea in greater detail.
The post allows threaded comments, so that those opposed to Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf can start discussing ways that we can organize and unite in opposition to his dictatorial actions.
My hope is that a consistant message of opposition to martial law and support for democracy in Pakistan can help to influence the media away from legitimizing the Musharraf regime by referring to him as a President. By definition, he cannot be a President if he refuses the right for his government’s Supreme Court to decide whether his running for office is legal or not.
Please drop by the post, leave a comment as to what ideas you have on how we can best unite in opposition to martial law, and please do consider using the phrase “Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf”, linking back to the post.
Thank you,
Mark Kraft
Hi Mark,
Its disgusting what he has done. Here’s what University students in Pakistan are planning to do, its nothing big but a simple show of disagreement. The event details can be found on facebook under the title “Black Day at LUMS” and I’ll post the description here
“After the LPS event held on Saturday the 3rd of November (the lecture by Imran Khan and the Q&A session), the students got together and discussed ways in which we as LUMS students can respond to the imposition of Emergency Rule in the country. One of the recommendations was fixing Monday the 5th of November as a black day.
So all of you are encouraged to wear black on Monday as a show of our dissent and disagreement with the General’s imposition of Emergency Rule and enforcement of the PCO.
It may not seem like much but it is at least the first step in getting our point across to all those who care to notice.
Thank you.”
@MARK :
Read your geography and world affairs properly mate.
He is not a dictator. He was democratically elected by Parliament by majority vote. So there is a marked difference between him and dictators like Saddam.
Secondly, this same elected Parliament gives him the right to use his powers in emergency as per the constitution.
Thirdly Pakistan is not like Burma ! There is no oppression of monks, priests or mullahs for that matter. People have the right to protest and thats what they have been doing, whether its for or against the govt.
Also it is good to not become emotional and perhaps readup on the political history of the situation and what lead to the current emergency, before discussing it.
Bill,
His election results were not validated as yet by the government.
Additionally, he didn’t declare the emergency in his capacity as a president but as a chief of the army staff. Kinda dubious isn’t it.
Musharraf’s power base is crumbling. He’s trying to hang onto it anyway he its pretty hard to imagine that he will last long. He is not the first one in Pakistan’s 60-year history to do this and it would’ve only done him well if he learnt from history!
Oops, I meant the supreme court.
And this is what his critics have said, that the emergency was a pre-emptive move to control the judiciary before it could give a verdict against him.