Declaration of emergency likely tomorrow: Reports (Pakistan)

[varun]

Source: Geo TV

ISLAMABAD: A high-level meeting presided over by President General Pervez Musharraf decided Wednesday to declare emergency in the country for one month that could be extended for three months, the well placed sources told Geo News.

The meeting reviewed current political situation and various options regarding changes in the political set up came under discussion.

Pakistan Muslim League (QA) president Chaudhry Shujaat also reportedly said while talking to women parliamentarians of party during a reception which was hosted by him at his residence that emergency is likely to be declared.

Speaker National Assembly was also called at the reception in which he was consulted that in case of emergency how it could be approved from the National Assembly.

Some reliable sources confirmed that the decision regarding declaration of emergency was taken in the meeting.

However, the government sources have denied the reports about the declaration of emergency in the country.

Read more: http://www.geo.tv/geonews/details.asp?id=9908¶m=1

---

Musharraf trying to delay the upcoming elections...

[endarkenment]

1. next move in the revolt of the lawyers

Musharraf is taking off the gloves. Poor Pakistan.

[ohio2007]

2. You saying Musharraf wants to rule by decree? nt

[hatrack]

3. I'm sure the National Assembly will vote this down when they meet in six months . . .

Oops! Sorry - three months.

Wrong country!! :evilgrin:

[varun]

4. Emergency usually means a severe curtailment

of civil rights, political opposition and strengthening the powers of the ruling party / person.

Sounds familiar?

[tekisui]

5. Suspension of elections

"A member of the inner circle of the Pakistani leadership told Reuters, however, that U.S. ally Musharraf was considering the option, which could allow him to extend the tenure of the national and provincial assemblies by 12 months and delay elections due by the turn of the year."

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL16312820070808

[killbotfactory]

6. No wonder Bush likes him so much

[BestCenter]

7. Thanks a lot, Obama!

jkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkj
Parody.

:7

[Gloria]

8. Meanwhile, there have been talks with Bhutto about a possible

return........

[Adsos Letter]

9. If memory serves...

...Bhutto said that Musharraf would have to step aside from control of the military before she would agree to step into any power-sharing agreement.

[Ghost Dog]

10. Musharraf to decide on declaring state of emergency

Source: Agence France Presse

09/08/2007 06h14 ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was set to decide Thursday whether to impose emergency rule due to "external and internal threats", a government spokesman said.

Official sources said late Wednesday they believed that a proclamation of a state of emergency was likely following the meeting later Thursday at the president's camp outside the capital Islamabad.

...

The president had been considering imposing emergency rule since Tuesday, when he met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other senior aides, the officials sources told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Among concerns raised at that meeting were the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, which have become staging posts for Talban and Al-Qaeda operatives, and threats by US officials and presidential hopefuls to take unilateral military action against the militant bases, the sources said.

/...

Read more: http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070809060315.uyzps3js.html

[David__77]

11. Pakistan totally set itself up for this by being such a flunkey.

The Pakistani government doesn't even have a modicum of self-respect or pretension of sovereignty in its all-out effort to please the US. Now nothing less than total obedience will be tolerated.

[closeupready]

14. It's ironic to me that no matter what they do, Westerners are dissatisfied.

In a way similar to those in the US who say that no matter what we do, arabs have always hated us and always will. Not constructive.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives...

he forgot to mention Emmanuel Goldstein.

[Eugene]

13. Reuters: 'No emergency rule' for Pakistan

BBC ticker: Top Pakistan Minister says President Musharraf rules out emergency rule.

---

Source: Reuters

updated 20 minutes ago

'No emergency rule' for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) -- Pakistan's beleaguered
President Pervez Musharraf has no plans to impose emergency
rule, contrary to widespread reports that he was about to
announce the authoritarian measure, the president of the
ruling party said on Thursday.

"There is no possibility of an emergency," Chaudhry Shujaat
Hussain, the president of Pakistan Muslim League, told
reporters at parliament.

Private television channels and newspapers had reported that
Musharraf was poised to take a step that would probably delay
elections due by the turn of the year and could result in
restrictions on rights of assembly and place curbs on the
media.

An aide to the president said the measure had not been under
consideration at any time over the past few days, and the
leadership had been perplexed by how the story had emerged.

-snip-

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/09/pakistan.emergency.reut

[skip fox]

15. This turn of events has long been in the works . . . before Obama!

Pakistan has been a balancing act for a few years and has become more and more unstable all of this year. I think Pakistan is the next emergency . . . and within months, maybe weeks.

It will be terrible for Bush (politically) and probably terrible for all of us as well, not to mention India. We'll have to deal with religious fanatics with their hands on weapons of mass destruction.

Therefore, Bush &. company will be credited with creating that which it claimed to fear the most in the cause of nation building, that which he said in the presidental campaign he would never do.

The score card to date:

--Saddam gone
--4,000 American lives lost
--billions of dollars spent
--our enemy, al Qaeda, magnified in numbers and as a presence on the world stage
--loss of allies and American credibility
--1/2 million Iraqis killed
--thousands more Americans and Iraqis wounded and maimed
--middle east further destabilized

and probably soon

--a government of religious fanatics with a nuclear weapon


Hell, as Dick Cheney asks, "What's not to like?"

[varun]

16. US nixes Pak Emergency plans

US nixes Pak Emergency plans

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US_nixes_Pak_Emergency_plans/articleshow/2269312.cms

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration's disapproval of the planned declaration of Emergency in Pakistan appears to have dissuaded military dictator Pervez Musharraf from taking the precipitate step.

American reservations about the proposed move was conveyed in a 17-minute, 2 am phone call by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to Musharraf, following which the Washington-backed general ditched the plan which would have involved suspension of civil liberties and postponement of elections.

A declaration of emergency would have embarrassed Washington, which has publicly praised Pakistan's 'dictato-cracy' - a military rule with a semblance of civil liberty, judicial activism, and free press.

The US has also repeatedly called for a free and fair election in Pakistan this coming fall.
In a White House press conference on Thursday morning, by which time Musharraf had reeled back on the Emergency proclamation, President Bush restated US call for a free and fair election.
"My focus (in so far as Pakistan's domestic situation is concerned) is that there is free and fair election," Bush said, adding that the U.S had been talking to General Musharraf about it and expected him to follow the advice....