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Media condemn idea of emergency

ISLAMABAD: A day after President Pervez Musharraf pulled back from a reported decision to impose emergency rule in Pakistan, there was widespread condemnation that such a move was even considered, and speculation that it may have been a trial balloon to test the waters or meant as a warning to the judiciary against overreaching as it charts a new course.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in a late-night press conference on Thursday that emergency is proclaimed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. He had given no advice to Gen. Musharraf.

He also left the impression that the Government had not abandoned this option altogether by saying that “the provision of emergency is only activated under certain circumstances; we do not see for the time being any need to proclaim an emergency.”

But all newspapers editorially condemned the Government for even thinking of such a move and warned that Pakistan would not take such a move lying down.

In an editorial headlined “Don’t do it, Gen. Musharraf,” the Friday Times warned that “the economy would be the first casualty, and you will be the next.” The Dawn warned that it woul d “throw the nation back on the freedom scale”.

The first reports of an imminent declaration of emergency spread from the mouth of the Pakistan ruling party president, Chaudhary Shujat Hussain, late on Wednesday were fuelled by Ministers through the night, until a denial from Mr. Hussain cleared the air on Thursday afternoon. It has left Pakistan wondering what exactly happened during those hours.

There is speculation in some sections of the media that the Government may have carried out a “stage-managed leak” to test the political waters, and a few journalists have been self-flagellating that they were “taken for a ride” in the process.

But others have defended the media for reporting only what senior Government functionaries were saying and mobilising opinion against such a move.

The predominant view is that the electronic media, which gave the news saturation coverage even that late at night and provided a platform to Opposition leaders, played an important role in communicating to the Government that the move would be deeply resented by Pakistan.

Many senior journalists believe the Government was on the verge of declaring an emergency but pulled back as it realised the unrest this would trigger. The phone call from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to President Musharraf in the dead of night — which is being cited as one of the main reasons for the Government’s retreat — may have also been prompted by the American reading of the mood on Pakistan’s streets.

Another view is that the whole exercise was meant as a warning not only to the judiciary but also to the Opposition parties that the Government can resort to an emergency, and any attempt to use the courts to block Gen. Musharraf’s move for re-election may take the country down this road.

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