For anyone marinated in the history of Pakistan yesterday's decision by themilitary to impose a State of Emergency will hardly come as a surprise.Martial Law in this country has become an antibiotic: in order to obtain thesame results one has to keep doubling the doses. What has taken place is acoup within a coup.
General Pervez Musharraf ruled the country with a civilian façade, but hispower base was limited to the Army. And it was the Army Chief of Staff whodeclared the emergency, suspended the 1973 Constitution, took allnon-government TV channels off the air, jammed the mobile phone networks,surrounded the Supreme Court with paramilitary units, dismissed the ChiefJustice, arrested the President of the Bar association and the civil rightsactivists of the Human Right Commission of Pakistan, thus inaugurating yetanother shabby period in the country's history.
Why? They feared that a Supreme Court judgement due next week might make itimpossible for Musharraf to contest the elections. The decision to suspend theConstitution was taken a few weeks ago. Benazir Bhutto, was informed and leftthe country. She is reportedly on her way back. Till now she has offered nocomment on the new martial law, despite the fact that a senior leader of herparty, Aitzaz Ahsan has been arrested for denouncing the coup. Intoxicated bythe incense of power she might now discover that it remains as elusive asever. If she supports the latest turn it will be an act of political suicide.If she decides to dump the General(she has accused him of breaking hispromises and it will be difficult for her to remain allied to a dictator) shewill be betraying the confidence of the US State Department, which pushed herin this direction.
At a recent off-the-record gathering at Ditchley Park(a British Foreign Officethink-tank), the would-be Secretary of State, James Rubin, becameshort-tempered when Pakistani participants challenged his view that Bhutto wasa decisive player in the 'war on terror' on the Western borders of thecountry. The two institutions targeted by the Emergency are the judiciary andthe lively network of independent TV stations, many of whose correspondentssupply information that can never be gleaned from politicians. Geo TV thelargest of these continued to broadcast outside the country.
Hamid Mir, one of its sharpest journalists, reported yesterday afternoon thataccording to his sources the US Embassy had green lighted the coup becausethey regarded the Chief Justice as a nuisance and 'a Taliban sympathiser'. Fora whole year now, the regime was confronted with a severe crisis of legitimacythat came to a head earlier this year when General Musharraf's decision tosuspend the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Hussein Chaudhry, provoked a six-monthlong mass movement that forced a government retreat.
Some of Chaudhry's judgements had challenged the government on key issues suchas 'disappeared prisoners', harassment of women and rushed privatisations. Itwas feared that he might declare a uniformed President illegal. The struggleto demand a separation of powers between the state and the judiciary, whichhas always been weak, was of critical importance.
Pakistan's judges have usually been acquiescent in the past. Those whoresisted previous military leaders were cajoled, blackmailed, bullied andpersuaded to retire. Pakistani judges spring from the same milieu as the restof the ruling elite, which is why the decision of this chief justice to fightback was surprising, but extremely important and won him enormous respect, acommodity in short supply. Global media coverage of Pakistan suggests acountry consisting of Generals, corrupt politicians and bearded lunatics.
The struggle to reinstate the Chief Justice presented a different snapshot ofthe country. This movement for constitutional freedoms revived hope at a timewhen most people are alienated from the system and cynical about their rulers,whose ill-gotten wealth and withered faces consumed by vanity inspire nilconfidence. That this is the case can be seen in the heroic decision taken bythe Supreme Court in a special session yesterday declaring the newdispensation 'illegal and unconstitutional'.
The hurriedly sworn in new Chief Justice will be seen for what he is: a stoogeof the men in uniform. If the constitution remains in suspension for more thanthree months then Musharraf himself might be pushed aside by the Army and anew strongman put in place. Or it could be that the aim of the operation waslimited to a cleansing of the Supreme Court and controlling the media. That iswhat Musharraf indicated in his broadcast to the nation. In which case atotally rigged election becomes a certainty next January.
Whatever the case Pakistan's long journey to the end of the night continues.
