Musharraf Refuses to Give Date for Ending Rule by Decree
New York Times | November 11, 2007
By Jane Perlez and David Rohde
The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, refused Sunday to give a date for the end of the de facto martial law that he imposed on the country more than a week ago and suggested that it would continue indefinitely, including during parliamentary elections in early January.
Speaking at a news conference one day after President Bush called him the best president for Pakistan, General Musharraf said the emergency decree he issued on Nov. 3 was justified by the need to fight terrorism and would “ensure absolutely fair and transparent elections.”
Mr. Bush said Saturday that he supported General Musharraf because “we share a common goal” in the fight against Al Qaeda, an endorsement the general appeared to use to his advantage on Sunday as he justified his extrajudicial measures.
“I cannot give a date,” General Musharraf said when asked directly about the lifting of the emergency decree, under which several thousand civilians have been jailed, the nation’s Constitution suspended and the Supreme Court dissolved. “We are in a difficult situation, therefore I cannot give a date.”
“The emergency reinforces the war on terror,” he said.
He also declined to give a date for stepping down as military leader, a move that the United States and other Western countries have requested as a sign of his seriousness about a transition to democracy.
General Musharraf repeatedly stated he had not violated the Pakistan’s Constitution, which he suspended and replaced with a provisional constitutional order drawn up by his aides. At one point he said, “I had to take a drastic measure to save the democratic process.”
The general described his action as a selfless one. “I found myself between a rock and a hard surface,” he said. “I have no egos and no personal ambitions to guard.”
His voice often raised, General Musharraf lectured Pakistani and foreign journalists seated before him, complaining that the West did not understand Pakistan. On the other hand, he said, foreign leaders had called him in the last few days and expressed “understanding” regarding his actions.
General Musharraf’s aides said the general planned to give up his uniform and become a civilian president when the newly formed Supreme Court validates his victory in the Oct. 6 presidential election.
But it was far from clear when this would happen. A new court was formed last week to replace the existing Supreme Court, which had appeared ready to strike down the general’s re-election. The new court appointed by the government has only nine judges, all of them favorably disposed to General Musharraf.
To make a decision on a case, the Supreme Court needs a bench of 11 justices. A lawyer in Islamabad, Athar Minallah, who was a member of General Musharraf’s cabinet, said the government was probably stalling on finding a full complement of judges. Once 11 members are on the bench, the judges would almost certainly validate General Musharraf’s re-election, but that in turn would put some pressure on the general to give up his uniform, Mr. Minallah said.
The new court has not taken up the case of General Musharraf’s re-election. “I don’t know what they have been doing in the last week,” Anwar Mehmood, the information secretary for the government, said of the justices thus far recruited to the court.
There was some speculation among lawyers on Sunday that the government could not find enough justices willing to join what they considered a tainted court.
In another signal that the general was strengthening his grip on power, the government announced Saturday that it had amended an army law so that civilians could be charged and prosecuted before military courts.
The last time Pakistani civilians faced courts-martial was during the 11-year military dictatorship of Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, which ended in 1988.
As General Musharraf spoke, the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto arrived in the eastern city of Lahore, where she planned to stage what she called a “long march” of more than 300 to the capital, Islamabad, starting Tuesday.
Ms. Bhutto, a two-time prime minister who leads the biggest secular political party in Pakistan, has appealed to the general to end emergency rule.
But despite General Musharraf’s tough stance on the continuation of emergency rule, Ms. Bhutto said she had not ruled out power-sharing talks with General Musharraf. She said the president’s announcement of parliamentary elections in early January was a “first positive step.”
Ms. Bhutto’s remarks closely followed the script set out by the White House. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made similar comments on Sunday in Washington.
In an interview on the ABC News program “This Week,” Ms. Rice called on General Musharraf to end the state of emergency “as soon as possible,” saying that his vows to hold elections by early January and to shed his military uniform were “essential to getting Pakistan back on a democratic path.”
“The state of emergency has got to be lifted and lifted as soon as possible,” she said.
Ms. Rice conceded that even if General Musharraf gave up his role as head of the Pakistani Army and his re-election was certified by the nation’s Supreme Court, “this is not a perfect situation.” But she asserted that Pakistan had “come a long way from 1999 and the military coup,” and expressed hope that signs of political progress, seen before General Musharraf declared the state of emergency, would not be lost.
General Musharraf was dismissive of Ms. Bhutto on Sunday, saying her support in Pakistan was much less than she or others thought, particularly in the rural areas of the Punjab.
“There is no point in a personality getting in touch with me,” General Musharraf said. Instead there has to be a reconciliation through the political parties, he said.
General Musharraf flew to Abu Dhabi early in the fall to meet with Ms. Bhutto to work out an arrangement under which she could return to Pakistan as a political contender. That arrangement was blessed by Washington as an effort to put a democratic and more popular face on General Musharraf’s military rule.
During his sometimes-rambling discourse on Sunday, General Musharraf spent 15 minutes assailing the ousted chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, whom he called profligate and a man who abused civil servants.
“Nobody is above the law, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, referring to Mr. Chaudhry.
Mr. Chaudhry emerged as a political threat to General Musharraf during the spring, after the general suspended him from the bench. In the company of thousands of lawyers, Mr. Mr. Chaudhry, who is now under house arrest, made appearances that attracted huge crowds.
A major demonstration planned by Ms. Bhutto in Rawilpindi, the garrison town next to the capital, was shut down by the government before it started Friday. It was not clear whether the government, in its toughened mood against dissent, would allow Ms. Bhutto to go ahead with her march from Lahore. If she did so, it would be a sign of her political strength in the central Punjab region, the most populous and important area of the country.
The government made it clear this weekend that it was serious about the courts-martial of the civilians. In Baluchistan, the government said two politicians from the province, Mir Hasil Bizenjo and Yusuf Mastikhan, would be charged with treason for protesting against the emergency rule. Among the reasons that a civilian could appear before a military court would be the burning of military uniforms, presidential aides said after General Musharraf’s news conference.
But lawyers, who have formed the central core of opposition to the government, said they were concerned that the law would be used indiscriminately. Babar Sattar, a corporate lawyer in Islamabad, said the newly amended army law could be used to “threaten” anybody who opposed the regime, and was designed to spread fear.
Though General Musharraf insisted Sunday that the emergency decree would enable the military and police to fight terrorists more effectively, Islamic militants in the past week have gained territory in the North West Frontier Province. On Saturday, militants took two army officers and five soldiers hostage, and a suicide bomber attacked the home of a government minister in Peshawar, killing three people.
Many Pakistanis have said the emergency rule is actually a distraction from the fight against the militants, because police and intelligence officials have been busy rounding up protesters. More than 2,500 lawyers, human rights advocates and members of opposition parties have been jailed since General Musharraf imposed emergency rule.
