At last minute, Pakistan rejects emergency rule

At last minute, Pakistan rejects emergency rule

Under U.S. pressure, Musharraf backs away from declaring state of emergency.

By Carlotta Gall and Salman Masood | THE NEW YORK TIMES | Friday, August 10, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was on the brink of declaring a state of emergency in his increasingly volatile country but backed away after a gathering storm of media, political and diplomatic pressure, Pakistani officials acknowledged Thursday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Musharraf about 2 a.m. Thursday in Pakistan, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Bush administration officials refused to discuss in public what was said, but one Pakistani official said Rice exhorted Musharraf not to declare emergency rule. The conversation lasted about 15 minutes.

"She thought it was an opportune moment to talk about a couple of things," McCormack said without elaborating.

Earlier Thursday, Pakistan's deputy information minister, Tariq Azim, had said that Musharraf wasn't ruling out declaring an emergency, which would allow him sweeping powers to restrict freedom of movement and assembly, to suspend Parliament and to curtail the activities of the courts. Such a step, U.S. officials fear, would further inflame the region and open the Bush administration to additional criticism from democracy advocates who say it has already been too willing to turn a blind eye toward Musharraf's failure to restore civilian rule.

In Pakistan, opponents of emergency rule, including some inside the government, warned that it would push the country into deeper crisis as the opposition parties, the judiciary, lawyers and civil society would react strongly against it.

"I fear the whole system will collapse and the country will plunge into a period of turmoil," said one minister, warning of moves to impose emergency rule.

Musharraf told political supporters in Karachi this week that he would stand for re-election by the national and provincial assemblies as early as Sept. 15. But the public mood has soured on the general since he tried to dismiss the chief justice five months ago. That move set off nationwide protests and was later overturned by the Supreme Court.

Opposition parties now seem poised to use the court to bring constitutional challenges against Musharraf's continued rule, particularly his holding dual positions as president and army chief of staff.

Amid such political uncertainty, some of Musharraf's supporters had urged him to take greater control in the form of extraordinary powers. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the leader of the ruling party, the Pakistani Muslim League, which backs Musharraf, had floated the possibility often in the past year as a way to postpone parliamentary elections and retain the current government, opposition politicians said.

On Wednesday, Hussain was reported to have announced that a decree was coming while he was addressing the women's chapter of his party at a dinner. But on Thursday he dismissed the report as irresponsible and said there was "no possibility of an emergency."

On Wednesday Musharraf canceled a long-planned trip to Kabul to co-chair a three-day assembly of tribal elders and political leaders with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. The news fueled speculation that an emergency decree was imminent.

Musharraf held a high-level meeting with his close military and political aides Thursday morning. Later in the day, Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani issued a categorical denial that an emergency was being imposed.

"There were so many people recommending the imposition of emergency," Durrani told local TV channel Dawn News, "but the prescience of the president was that he decided not to impose emergency in Pakistan." He also said the general hadn't signed any document to declare a state of emergency.

"The president is very clear that steps like emergency can hinder the democratic process and should, therefore, be avoided," Durrani added.

The U.S. diplomatic pressure on Musharraf appears to have been timely. "It seems that the preparation was complete for imposition of emergency, but fearing a strong public backlash, the government was forced to backtrack," said Qamar Zaman Kaira, a member of Parliament from the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party. "Probably they were trying to check the pulse of the public."