ISLAMABAD, 7 November 2007 — Pakistan’s Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry urged people yesterday to “rise up” against the emergency rule, as the government ignored a global outcry and cracked down on fresh protests.
Opposition leader and former Premier Benazir Bhutto meanwhile flew to Islamabad for talks with political allies and said she had no plans to meet with President Musharraf.
Talking to Arab News here, Benazir demanded immediate restoration of constitution. She said she had instructed her lawmakers not to attend the National Assembly session scheduled for today. “Our legislators and workers and democratic forces will protest against the state of emergency,” she said.
Sacked top judge Chaudhry called on his countrymen to save the constitution, prompting authorities to sever mobile phone coverage in parts of Islamabad as he addressed a meeting of lawyers by telephone. “I want lawyers to spread my message to the people of Pakistan,” he said to cheers from supporters before all lines went dead. “The time for sacrifice has come, to rise up for the supremacy of the constitution,” he added.
Musharraf brushed off calls from US President George W. Bush and other world leaders to end the state of emergency declared Saturday, quit as army chief and hold elections due in January. The Commonwealth said yesterday it had called an extraordinary meeting to discuss the state of emergency in Pakistan, talks which could in theory result in the country’s suspension. Secretary-General Don McKinnon has convened a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group at the organization’s Marlborough House headquarters in London on Monday. CMAG deals with serious or persistent violations of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values.
In Islamabad, the Cabinet met to discuss the timetable for elections but made no decisions, amid reports of a split in the government about whether to hold them on schedule in early 2008.
“So far no date has been set for elections,” Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told AFP after the meeting. “Emergency will be for the shortest possible period of time and elections will be held as soon as possible.”
Durrani said the timing depended on “legal issues” such as resolving a pending Supreme Court ruling on the legality of Musharraf’s victory in an Oct. 6 presidential election.
But Chaudhry, one of nine judges sacked for refusing to endorse the emergency order and now under effective house arrest, said Musharraf’s had cracked down because he was scared the verdict would go against him.
In a second day of protests, police used batons and tear gas to break up a rally by 1,000 lawyers in the central city of Multan, witnesses said. Another 50 lawyers were detained after police took over the high court bar association in Lahore, a day after security forces crushed a huge protest in the eastern city with tear gas and batons, witnesses said.
In northwestern Peshawar, police arrested seven members of former Premier Nawaz Sharif’s party after baton-charging a wildcat anti-Musharraf protest, while 300 lawyers held a peaceful demonstration. Police sources have said that around 1,500 opposition workers, lawyers and civil society members have been detained since Saturday.
Benazir later landed in Islamabad for the first time since she returned from exile last month and cast doubt on the fate of a proposed power-sharing deal with Musharraf.
Benazir, who waved to supporters from the top of a bulletproof car after arriving in the capital, said a meeting with Musharraf was “not in her schedule during her stay in Islamabad.”
There has been global criticism of the state of emergency and the ensuing crackdown, but Pakistan’s Foreign Office said it was an “internal” matter that was needed to fight terrorism.
Meanwhile, judges picked by President Musharraf to replace a mostly hostile Supreme Court bench began reversing predecessors’ decisions yesterday by striking down an order declaring the imposition of emergency rule illegal.
“It would be deemed as if it had not taken place,” said a court official quoting newly-appointed Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar, the head of an eight-member bench.
The new chief justice said judges who issued the order had already lost their authority after failing to take a fresh oath of office following promulgation of a provisional constitutional order (PCO).
