Pervez Musharraf Declares Emergency in Pakistan

A couple of comments in TimesOnLine in response to a commentary on Benazir Bhutto's return to Pakistan:

I feel sorry for Muslim religion. The practice of the religion makes you a fundamentalist.You have to follow Quran completely if you want to call yourself a muslim. Otherwise you are not a muslim. You can not just wear muslim religion on your sleeve and become a muslim for convenience.
Other religions do provide more flexibility; not that they are any better.
I wished that Pakistan maintained its earlier secular statehood and had kept a good share of hindus and christians in the country instead of becoming an Islamic state. It is bad to mix religion and State. If the Duo of Musharaff and Bhutto can re-declare secularism in their constitution and invite back hindus and christians who were original inhabitants of Pakistan, it will become a great country. Better still merge with India and give up any more dream of further Islamization.

Mlksheikh, California

Mlk Sheikh, San Jose, USA / California


Mr. Mlk Sheikh is correct.
The most practical solution for most of Pakistan's problems is re-unification with India. That would bring democracy to people of Pakistan that was long ago promised to them but never delivered by their military masters. That would bring secularism (though not perfect but much better than current zealotry and talibanization of Pakistan). That would enable impoverished masses of both India and Pakistan to achieve better living standard with reduced military expenditure. Madness like permanently putting military on Siachen glaciers (highest battlefield on earth) will be stopped. Combined military can easily tackle the militancy and bring law and order to all the lawless regions like Waziristan, etc.
Economic growth, stable and well functioning Indian democracy, secularism and education system will all be of great benefit to people.
Let's not permanently get trapped in this "Pakistan" experiment that began 60 years ago. Treat as a scientific experiment.

Salim Akhtar, Lahore, Pakistan

Bad news, though not unexpected, for all Pakistanis and their friends. If Musharraf succeeds in silencing the media, judiciary and his political opponents, the vacuum of opposition will be filled by the jihadis.

Time for joint celebration by arjun and zee.

Re: # 1

islam mian,

... we would be more than happy to re-unify with our horrible hindoo cousins if you had toilets ..... bbc is reporting that 700m, ie 7 out of 10, hindoos are squatting on the railroad tracks ...... i am sure that the situation is a little better in pakistan where maybe 5 out of 10 are squatting on the railroad tracks ..... therfore, even thought we appreciate the invitation, i think we are better off as we are .......... no deal

Re: # 2

dost-mittar,

...... i think the deal with benazir will hold - we will know more in the next 24 hours ....

..........as for the pakistani public, i just tried to do a quick poll of my friends and family but nobody seemed to be interested in this latest brouhaha because of all the weddings going on ....... this is the wedding season and musharaf's timing was impeccable ......

....... BFD!

hamidm: somehow I think this is no longer business as usual..none of the options is good. either public anger at musharraf's latest "oversmartness" to stay in power, in which case God knows how many Pakistanis will lose their lives; or else it will be Musharraf Dynasty in place, with maulvis continuing to be propped up while mainstream parties are hounded out. This is the miserable situation this man has created for Pakistan.

not surprising but regrettable. See, now Musharraf has declared emergency -read: martial law--just to stay in power as the judiciary was going to vote against him and declare his presidency null and void. That is what he means by 'interference'. It goes to show there is no such thing as a democratic dictator!

I think Musharraf acted in haste. The ideal situation would have been for elections to go forward and (hopefully) Benazir head a democratic government, and for Musharraf to give up the Army Chief post and just be the President.

He should have done a deal with the Supreme Court that would have allowed him to be President. After all, Musharraf as an elected President is better than an emergency, for everyone, including the Supreme Court judges.

Bad news wud be an understatement. As they wud say in the famous Punjabi saying:

Jhithay dhee khothee
Uthay aand khalothee....

i hope mushy got this cleared with condi rice and the pentagon. otherwise its gonna be big trouble.

How different is this Emergency from the one that Indira Gandhi declared in 1975 when the Allahabad High Court judgement went against her?

Definitely another failure of US foreign policy. Last month it was Turkey, this month it's Pakistan. What more can go wrong in this administration's final 12 months?

It's not just the ideology and world-view of the Bush administration that concerns me, it's mostly their lack of competence. We've been backing all the wrong people across the world, but we don't get much back for all the money we give these folks. If Condi Rice had been doing her job she would have pre-empted what Musharraf just did.

latest from geo:

majority of judges in pakistan have REFUSED to take an oath under the emergency law. A good sign...

rE hamidm2 33

[Re: # 1

islam mian,

... we would be more than happy to re-unify with our horrible hindoo cousins if you had toilets ..... bbc is reporting that 700m, ie 7 out of 10, hindoos are squatting on the railroad tracks ...... i am sure that the situation is a little better in pakistan where maybe 5 out of 10 are squatting on the railroad tracks ..... therfore, even thought we appreciate the invitation, i think we are better off as we are .......... no deal]

Those comments were by two Pakistanis, one in Lahore and the other in San Jose, CA.

I think the latter might have had one too many glass of the local Merlot. The fellow from Lahore must have been possessed by some djinn!

We are now laying railroad tracks to Srinagar to ensure that our Kashmiri brethren have toilet facilities too! Poor guys, they were taking their dumps in Dal Lake and it just got overfertilized and is now choked with weeds.

Re Layman #10

[How different is this Emergency from the one that Indira Gandhi declared in 1975 when the Allahabad High Court judgement went against her?]

Pakistani Muslims have b@lls. In India, even the Muslims are castrated. Fakhruddin Ahmad, then President of India, meekly signed the proclamation of Emergency.

Some justice of a high court who dared say something about the Emergency (perhaps he actually held a hearing in some related case) was transferred to the Nagaland High Court in the middle of the night...much like the previous Governor of Tamil Nadu was transferred to Nagaland when Doctor Artist Leader the Fund of Compassion got elected a couple of years ago.

Nagaland is the gulag for India's civil servants and the judiciary.

The thing to see is if elections are held on schedule. I think this Martial Law is being used to deal with all those who don't agree with Musharraf and not affecting those who do(agree with Musharraf). Its like chowk staff and chowk guidelines :).

Re: # 14

I-Slam-Islam bhai,

As an idolator I would not even think in my dreams of "re-unifying" with the Islamic state where every one is high on the Islamic drug.
Perhaps I would prefer that they kill each other than attack idolators.
Islam is Sunnat and Sunnat is like obsession of a crazed film star fan - except that here Mo replaces the film star and the item of worship is a formless moon god.
Unless and until Islam is destroyed the Pakistani muslims have no solution in hand.
Islam makes them fight and become unstable. Unless muslims takes to apostasy in a big way I do not see any solution for Pakistan to come out of the impending doom.