OscarGuy wrote:For someone who suspends the constitution of his country, it's rather ridiculous to remove the Chief Justice and replace him. We won't even go into the idiocy of arresting others...but seriously? Replacing the Chief Justice but suspending the constitution? It's the dumbest thing I've probably ever heard that isn't associated with Bush/Cheney.
Then you haven't been following the events. For the past year, the Supreme Court has been opposing his every move. This is was his plan to rig the Court without dismantling it, so he could say "See? I've left that pillar standing, and they are legitimately ruling in my favor."
And of course, all of this is a ripple effect from the War on Iraq. The world's more dangerous leaders have been pushing the buttons because they know the one world force that could actually stop them is mired in a ridiculous war and thus won't be able to mobilize properly to stop them. They've become bolder because one idiot wants to make war where he shouldn't have.
No world force was going to come in and stop them, war or no war.
And I'm positive Musharaff would have done this without an Iraq war. Let's not forget how he got himself into power to begin with.
For someone who suspends the constitution of his country, it's rather ridiculous to remove the Chief Justice and replace him. We won't even go into the idiocy of arresting others...but seriously? Replacing the Chief Justice but suspending the constitution? It's the dumbest thing I've probably ever heard that isn't associated with Bush/Cheney.
And of course, all of this is a ripple effect from the War on Iraq. The world's more dangerous leaders have been pushing the buttons because they know the one world force that could actually stop them is mired in a ridiculous war and thus won't be able to mobilize properly to stop them. They've become bolder because one idiot wants to make war where he shouldn't have.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Police wielding assault rifles rounded up opposition leaders and rights activists Sunday after Pakistan's military ruler suspended the constitution, ousted the top justice and deployed troops to fight what he called rising Islamic extremism....
...Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the extraordinary measures would remain in place "as long as it is necessary." He also said parliamentary elections could be postponed up to a year, but no such decision had been made.
Aziz also said that up to 500 opposition activists had been arrested in the last 24 hours.
Among those detained were Javed Hashmi, the acting president of the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; cricket star-turned politician, Imran Khan; Asma Jehangir, chairman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; and Hamid Gul, former chief of the main intelligence agency and a staunch critic of Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror.
Some 200 armed police stormed the rights commission office in Lahore on Sunday and arrested about 50 activists, said Mehbood Ahmed Khan, a legal officer for the body.
"They dragged us out, including the women," he said from the police station in the eastern city. "It's inhuman, undemocratic and a violation of human rights to enter a room and arrest people gathering peacefully there."
(CBS/AP) Authorities rounded up opposition leaders Sunday after military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution, replaced the chief judge and blacked out independent TV outlets, saying the country must fight rising Islamic extremism.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup but had given a conditional pledge to step down as military chief and become a civilian president this year, declared a state of emergency Saturday night, dashing recent hopes of a smooth transition to democracy for the nuclear-armed nation.
"Gen. Musharraf's second coup," said the headline in the Dawn daily. "It is martial law," said the Daily Times.
"A lot of people here are left in a state of disbelief," reports CBS News' Farhan Bokhari from Islamabad.
Authorities began rounding up opposition politicians despite calls from Washington and other Western allies not to take authoritarian measures.
Across Pakistan, police arrested political activists and lawyers at the forefront of a campaign against military rule. Among those detained were Javed Hashmi, the acting president of the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and Asma Jehangir, chairman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
U.S.-allied Musharraf removed the country's chief justice just as the Supreme Court was to rule on whether to validate his recent election as president by a largely Musharraf-friendly Parliament.
Hashmi said Musharraf usurped the independence of the judiciary "to save his own illegitimate rule."
"But he cannot survive against the people's outrage," Hashmi told reporters as he was led away with 10 aides in the central city of Multan.
Private Geo TV said in a report via satellite that authorities arrested Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer who represented the chief justice when Musharraf unsuccessfully tried to fire him earlier this year.
Another opposition party leader, Imran Khan, was put under house arrest Saturday.
"The only reason why he's passed the emergency is because he was scared that the Supreme Court would not allow a military general to fight the election of the president," Khan told CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips. "And what is going to happen in Pakistan is that it's going to head towards anarchy, there will be more militancy in the country."
Scores of paramilitary troops blocked access to the Supreme Court and parliament. Otherwise the streets of the capital appeared calm.
Local newspapers and opposition leaders - including key Musharraf rival Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister who returned last month from eight years in exile - accused the general of imposing martial law without announcing it.
But his government denied this. Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum noted that the prime minister and parliament were still in place.
"There is no martial law in the country. Only a state of emergency has been declared," Qayyum said. "The civilian government will continue to function."
The U.S. called for Musharraf to restore democracy. However, the Pentagon said the emergency declaration does not affect U.S. military support for Pakistan and its efforts in the war on terrorism. Britain said it was deeply concerned.
Musharraf's leadership is threatened by an increasingly defiant court, the reemergence of political rival and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and an Islamic movement that has spread to Islamabad. He said Pakistan was at a "dangerous" juncture and extremists had directly challenged the government's authority.
"The extremism has even spread to Islamabad, and the extremists are taking the writ of the government in their own hands, and even worse they are imposing their obsolete ideas on moderates," the president said in an address to the nation late Saturday on state-run television.
"Inaction at this moment is suicide to Pakistan and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide," he said.
Musharraf replaced the chief justice of the Supreme Court - who had emerged as the main check on his power - before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president. His emergency order accused some judges of "working at cross purposes with the executive" and "weakening the government's resolve" to fight terrorism.
He criticized the Supreme Court for failing to make a ruling yet on whether to validate his contentious victory in a presidential election, and for punishing government officers, including police. He said this had left the government system "semi-paralyzed."
Seven of the 17 Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. Police blocked entry to the Supreme Court building and later took the deposed chief justice and other judges away in a convoy, witnesses said.
In his television address, Musharraf said he hoped democracy would be restored following parliamentary elections.
"But, in my eyes, I say with sorrow that some elements are creating hurdles in the way of democracy," said Musharraf, who was wearing civilian clothes and spoke firmly and calmly. "I think this chaos is being created for personal interests and to harm Pakistan."
Speaking in English, Musharraf said he wanted to explain his actions to the United States and the West, reports Phillips.
"Please also do not demand your level of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties which you learned over the centuries. We are trying to learn and we are doing very well also, please give us time," he said.
Musharraf even quoted from Abraham Lincoln, citing a letter Lincoln had written suspending some constitutional provisions during the Civil War, adds Phillips. [Sounds familiar, hmmm? What Musharraf did not do, however, is say whether the elections planned for next year will actually happen.
The emergency comes as Musharraf's security forces struggle to contain pro-Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants who have gained control of large tracts of the volatile northwest, near Afghanistan.
Violence has reached major cities with deadly suicide attacks in Islamabad and Karachi underscoring the failure of Musharraf's administration to combat the threat, despite huge financial support from the United States.
Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and respected analyst, said the emergency declaration was a pre-emptive move in case the court ruled against him, and said the move could "further aggravate terrorism and extremism in the country and slide the country into anarchism."
Rick Barton, a Pakistan expert at the Washington-based Center for International and Strategic Studies, said Musharraf's move Saturday was like throwing a "wet blanket" on the problem.
"He's obviously not very popular, and it's not going to increase his popularity," Barton said. "Unless he develops a new line or is able to be more effective with his old line, he seems to be just buying time, an inevitable delay to his demise."
The order drew swift complaints from the United States and Britain - Musharraf's main Western allies. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged restraint on all sides and a return to democracy.
The United States "does not support extraconstitutional measures," Rice said from Turkey, where she was participating in a conference with Iraq's neighbors.
Musharraf claimed that 61 terrorists have been freed on order from the court - an apparent reference a case that has been led by the now-deposed chief justice to press authorities over suspects held by intelligence agencies without charge.
"Extremists are openly roaming," he said "And no one knows whether any of the these freed men were behind recent bomb attacks."
Bhutto, a longtime rival of Musharraf who recently returned from eight years of exile, flew back to Pakistan from Dubai where she was visiting family. She left the airport under police escort and about 100 police and paramilitary troops were deployed outside her house, apparently as a protective cordon, witnesses said. A bomb disposal squad also searched the house before she arrived.
After her arrival at Karachi's Airport, Bhutto said she did not believe there would be fair elections as long as emergency rule remained in place.
"Unless General Musharraf reverses the course it will be very difficult to have fair elections," she told Sky News television by telephone. "I agree with him that we are facing a political crisis, but I believe the problem is dictatorship, I don't believe the solution is dictatorship.
"The extremists need a dictatorship, and dictatorship needs extremists."
The government halted all television transmissions in major cities other than state-controlled Pakistan TV. Telephone service in the capital, Islamabad, was cut.
Musharraf said some independent TV channels had contributed to the uncertainty in the country.
In justification, the emergency order obtained by The Associated Press said "the constitution provides no solution for this situation, there is no way out except through emergent and extraordinary measures," it said.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and has been a close ally of the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has struggled to contain spreading Islamic militancy that has centered along the Afghan border and spread to the capital and beyond. Hundreds have died in recent weeks.
Pakistanis have increasingly turned against the government of Musharraf, who failed earlier this year to oust Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry - the chief justice replaced Saturday.
It was not clear whether U.S. officials had advance knowledge of Saturday's action.
Rice said that to her knowledge, U.S. officials had yet to hear directly from Musharraf after his declaration. She said she last spoke with Musharraf a couple days ago but that other U.S. officials had made the American position clear to him more recently.
Rice would not detail the conversations, but did say the U.S. told Pakistani leaders that "even if something happens, that we would expect the democratic election to take place because Pakistan has got to return to a constitutional order as soon as possible, and Pakistanis have to have a prospect of free and fair elections."
Crucial parliamentary elections meant to restore civilian rule are due by January. Musharraf himself was overwhelmingly re-elected last month by the current parliament, dominated by his ruling party, but the vote was challenged.
The Supreme Court has emerged this year as the main check on Musharraf's dominance and is due to issue a verdict on whether he could run for president while still serving as army chief before his current term expires Nov. 15.
Analysts said Musharraf was on shaky legal ground in his re-election by lawmakers last month - a vote that was boycotted by most of the opposition - but they still expected the court to rule in his favor to prevent further destabilizing Pakistan.
However in recent days, some judges had made comments that they would not be swayed by threats from senior officials that an emergency might be declared if the court ruled against the general.
The seven Supreme Court judges rejected the declaration of emergency and ordered top officials, including the prime minister, and military officers not to comply with it. The two-page ruling said there were no grounds for an emergency "particularly for the reasons being published in the newspapers that a high profile case is pending and is not likely to be decided in favor of the government."
At least seven trucks brought armed police and paramilitary ranger troops to Constitution Avenue that passes in front of the court, Parliament and the official residences of the president and prime minister.
Paramilitary troops behind rolled barbed wire blocked access to an official compound housing lawmakers - barring even wives, children and even a ruling party senator from entering.
Bhutto, seen by many supporters as key to a possible return to democracy, went to Dubai after being targeted by assassins in Pakistan last month. Suicide bombers attacked her homecoming parade after eight years in exile, killing more than 140 people.
Musharraf's order allows courts to function but suspends some fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution, including freedom of speech. It also allows authorities to detain people without informing them of the charges.
The emergency was expected to be followed by arrests of lawyers and other perceived opponents of the government, including civil society activists and possibly even members of the judiciary itself, a ruling party lawmaker said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
By early Sunday, cell phone service appeared to have been restored, but landlines were still dead. Transmissions by TV networks remained off the air in major cities other than state-controlled Pakistan TV.
Musharraf said some independent TV channels had contributed to the uncertainty in the country.
He also issued two ordinances toughening media laws, including a ban on live television broadcasts of "incidents of violence and conflict." Also, TV operators who "ridicule" the president, armed forces, or executive, legislative or judicial organs of the state can be punished with three years in jail.
Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister who was deported in September as he tried to return from exile, condemned the emergency and said Musharraf should resign. He urged Pakistanis to rise against Musharraf.
Not a surprise, for anyone who has been following Pakistani developments. Is this why Musharraf invited Bhutto back?
State of Emergency: Pakistan under martial law
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he declared a state of emergency and martial law Saturday because Pakistan is at a "critical and dangerous juncture."
The nation is going through "some very rapid changes," Musharraf said in a televised address to the nation after declaring martial law.
Despite immediate condemnation from within and outside his nation, he insisted that his actions are for the good of the country and the move is to stabilize unrest.
Musharraf had earlier in the day issued an order proclaiming the emergency and suspending the nation's constitution, according to a statement read on state television, and declaring martial law.
The Supreme Court declared the state of emergency illegal, claiming Musharraf had no power to suspend the constitution, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry said.
A senior Pakistani official said the emergency declaration will be "short-lived," and will be followed by an interim government. Martial law is a way to restore law and order, he said.
Shortly afterward, Chaudhry was expelled as chief justice, his office said. Troops came to Chaudhry's office to tell him.
The government appointed Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as the new chief justice, according to state television.
It was the second time Chaudhry was removed from his post. His ousting by Musharraf in May prompted massive protests, and he was later reinstated. See a timeline of upheaval in Pakistan »
In Islamabad, troops entered the Supreme Court and were surrounding the judges' homes, according to CNN's Syed Mohsin Naqvi.
Supreme Court sources said some judges who were not in Islamabad were not at their homes, and it was not known whether they had been arrested.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a leading Pakistani attorney and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was arrested at his home. A former interior minister, Ahsan represented Chaudhry the first time he was forced to leave his post.
The White House called Musharraf's action disappointing.
"President Musharraf needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before retaking the presidential oath of office," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"All parties involved should move along the democratic path peacefully and quickly."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is in Turkey for a conference with Iraq and neighboring nations, told CNN's Zain Verjee the developments in Pakistan were "highly regrettable."
The United States doesn't support any extra-constitutional measures taken by Musharraf, Rice said, urging restraint so violence can be avoided.
In Britain, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement, "We recognize the threat to peace and security faced by the country, but its future rests on harnessing the power of democracy and the rule of law to achieve the goals of stability, development and countering terrorism. I am gravely concerned by the measures adopted today, which will take Pakistan further from these goals."
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who left Pakistan last week to visit her family in Dubai, arrived in Karachi on Saturday.
She returned to Pakistan last month, despite death threats, after several years in exile.
On October 18, upon her return, at least 130 people were killed when a suicide attacker tried to assassinate her. Bhutto was lightly wounded, but escaped largely unharmed.
Bhutto has pledged to help her party succeed in January's parliamentary elections. She hopes to gain a third term as prime minister, possibly under a power-sharing deal with Musharraf.
"The people of Pakistan will not accept it," Bhutto spokesman Farhatullah Babar said of the emergency declaration. "We condemn this move."
The declaration prompted a few hundred people to take to the streets in protest, but police and paramilitary groups blocked Islamabad's main roads and dispersed the crowds.
Earlier, private networks had reported the declaration was imminent as top officials huddled at Musharraf's residence in Rawalpindi. Shortly after that report, most media channels went off the air in an apparent blackout, although some flickered off and on.
The declaration could delay approaching parliamentary elections, according to CNN's Nic Robertson. It also could provide Musharraf with a reason to continue serving as the nation's military chief.
The nation's political atmosphere has been tense for months, with Pakistani leaders in August considering a state of emergency because of the growing security threats in the country's lawless tribal regions. But Musharraf, influenced in part by Rice, held off on the move. Watch a report on the volatile situation in Pakistan »
Since that time, Musharraf has faced a flurry of criticism from the opposition, who demanded he abandon his military position before becoming eligible to seek a third presidential term. Musharraf garnered a vast majority of votes in presidential elections last month; however, those results have not been certified by the nation's high court.
For weeks, the country has been coasting in a state of political limbo while the Supreme Court works to tackle legal challenges filed by the opposition that call into question Musharraf's eligibility to hold office. Some have speculated that the declaration of emergency was tied to rumors the court is planning to rule against Musharraf.
Musharraf, who led the 1999 coup as Pakistan's army chief, has seen his power erode since the failed effort to oust Chaudhry. His administration is also struggling to contain a surge in Islamic militancy.
