ISLAMABAD, 14 December 2007 — Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf is due to lift emergency rule tomorrow but after some changes in the constitution that will give him more powers to deal with the judiciary.
Talking to journalists late Wednesday night after a farewell dinner for retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Javaid, his outgoing chief of staff, Musharraf said the country was still facing terror threats and, “We need to move carefully and enact new laws.”
Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum reinforced the idea that the constitution would be amended before the lifting of emergency rule by saying President Musharraf would get more powers to act against judges of the superior courts.
He said the president would issue a decree that would lift the emergency rule and revoke the Provisional Constitutional Order. The PCO had suspended the constitution and key fundamental rights, including the freedom of the press, and resulted in the dismissal of judges who did not endorse the emergency.
Qayyum said discussions were under way to finalize the order to revoke the PCO. Musharraf and his legal advisers are also discussing several amendments to the constitution that will be made before ending the emergency, Qayyum told reporters.
The proposed amendments will give the president several new powers. One amendment will give the president the power to send a judge on leave with the concurrence of the Supreme Judicial Council while another will allow the presidential election to be held before the end of his term.
Analysts, meanwhile, say Musharraf looks unlikely to ease media curbs or restore ousted judges, meaning the end of the emergency — hotly demanded by the international community before elections next month — will have little practical impact.
“Can a person change the constitution? That issue will persist, no matter whether the emergency is withdrawn or not,” said Hasan Askari, a political analyst and the former head of political science at Punjab University. He called the lifting of emergency rule a “public relations exercise” aimed at making the West feel more comfortable about the elections.
“The exercise will simply be to show to the West that he has returned to constitutional rule and is moving a step closer to democracy,” Askari said. “The current controversies will persist and for all operational purposes, the end of emergency will not make any real difference.”
Citing extremism and what he said was an interfering judiciary, Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3. The constitution was suspended, and thousands of people were arrested across the country. Most of those arrested have since been released but some prominent lawyers are still in detention.
Unless the ousted judges are returned and the media curbs lifted, ending the state of emergency will be “meaningless,” said Rasul Baksh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore’s University of Management and Sciences.
“If the judiciary is not independent, how can one expect them to deliver on fundamental rights? Lifting the emergency without reinstatement of the pre-emergency judiciary would be meaningless.
Najim Sethi, a columnist and editor of a leading local English newspaper, the Daily Times, said he believed the courts could still decide to fight back once the emergency order is lifted.
“Media restrictions will no longer be unchallengable,” he said. “Challenges to both Musharraf and the political parties will be entertained by the courts.”
