Swissinfo : Musharraf rejects emergency

Musharraf rejects emergency

By Zeeshan Haider | Reuters | August 9, 2007

ISLAMABAD - President Pervez Musharraf rejected calls to declare emergency powers and wants elections to take place in Pakistan, a spokesman said after widespread reports that the beleaguered leader would opt for authoritarian rule.

Private television channels and newspapers had reported that General Musharraf was poised to take a step that would probably delay elections due by the turn of the year and could result in restrictions on rights of assembly and place curbs on the media.

"In the president's view, there is no need at present to impose an emergency," Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said.

"The president was under pressure from different political parties to impose an emergency, but he believes in holding free and fair election and is not in favour of any step that hinders it," Durrani added, without specifying which parties.

The ruling coalition parties have most to lose at the polls, and Musharraf's own popularity has plunged since he vainly attempted to oust the country's most senior judge.

A government spokesman had suggested the government could justify emergency rule by citing mounting insecurity after a spate of attacks -- many of them suicide bombings -- by Islamist militants allied to the Taliban and al Qaeda over the past month.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan said the measure could be warranted by the situation in tribal areas and North West Frontier Province, and by comments from U.S. politicians that America should be prepared to strike inside Pakistan if it possessed actionable intelligence on al Qaeda or Taliban targets.

But analysts and opposition leaders feared Musharraf might use emergency powers to overcome constitutional difficulties he faces in getting re-elected by the sitting assemblies while still army chief, and to stave off parliamentary elections due by the turn of the year.

Musharraf had planned to get re-elected in uniform between mid-September and mid-October before national and provincial assemblies are dissolved for parliamentary elections due in December or January.

He commands the simple majority needed to win re-election in the current assemblies, but there is a strong possibility that constitutional challenges could be upheld by a Supreme Court that delivered a momentous decision on July 20 to reinstate the chief justice who Musharraf had spent four months trying to sack.

U.S. PRESSURE

There were reports that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rang Musharraf, a staunch U.S. ally, overnight to discuss developments.

The United States has put Pakistan under pressure to act against al Qaeda nests in tribal regions on the Afghan border, but it also wants to see "free and fair" elections take place.

Western countries with troops in Afghanistan are sensitive to any instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan, whose help is crucial to fighting the Taliban insurgency and al Qaeda.

Television news channels first reported that Musharraf was going to declare an emergency late on Wednesday night, and newspapers ran banner headlines on Thursday morning, but it was hours before the first definitive denial was made.

"There is no possibility of an emergency," Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of ruling Pakistan Muslim League, told reporters at parliament.

An aide to the president, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a strategy to deal with the multiple problems Musharraf faces was being worked out, but declaring an emergency had "never been under consideration during the past few days".

The aide, who attended a meeting of Musharraf's closest advisers on Thursday, said the leadership was mystified by how the story had emerged, although one senior political ally had told Reuters that a decision on an emergency was imminent.

Another member of Musharraf's inner circle suggested that the government wanted to gauge likely reactions if it took this step.

The Karachi stock market, which had shrugged off political uncertainties for weeks as it hovered near life highs, slumped by more than four percent within minutes of opening.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the self-exiled leader of the largest opposition party, told Geo News overnight that it would be bad for a nation looking forward to greater democracy.

Meantime, the Supreme Court began hearing a plea for Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf ousted eight years ago, to be allowed to return from exile.