(Posted at Dorf on Law)

It looks like what has been feared since the spring has actually happened. Echoing the trigger that led to Indira Gandhi’s imposition of emergency in India more than thirty years ago, reports are emphasizing that Preside…

Also in response to a question about president’s election and uniform , he respectfully yeilds to the honourable court as the matter is subjuidice. Now which honourable court is he talking about , 7-8 of whose senior judges are under arrest or dismissed or outed by not taking oath under PCO.

My final point is people always curse pakistanis but htis guy has spent almost all his formative years in so called civilized world , How do you explain his knuckleheadedness, it beats me.

Ah, good times.

The proclamation of Emergency-cum-Marshall Law leaves no doubt about its key target: “some members of the judiciary” who are working at the “cross purpose with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism”!!! Although the General has completely flushed the constitutional theory down the drain, he has also expressed his misconceived perception that he is only hope left of the people of Pakistan against rampant terrorism and extremism. What rubbish! He is the one who should be carrying the burden of blame for the mounting religious militancy; for he towed the Imperialist line in the ‘war in terror’, not the members of Judiciary. If the members of the Judiciary were offsetting the role of the notorious intelligence agencies and calling for transparency in the system in the favor of fundamental constitutional rights, what was so preposterous about that – except for the fact that the higher-ups in these agencies find any interference from the ‘non-intelligent’ civilians extremely distasteful?

It is only in dictatorships that there is a grey area between normal and emergency. But it really is absurd to talk of emergency, emergency plus, emergency plus plus, martial law minus, and martial law proper.

I’d just say that General Musharraf has just changed the rules he wants to rest of Pakistan to abide by. He was and remains an autocrat, doing very much what he likes.

Actually, Manan, I sense that this news is even bigger than you suggest. Before the troops came in and put the Court on ice, a seven-justice bench managed to convene and issue an order invalidating the emergency declaration and PCO and enjoining anyone from acting under their supposed authority. (Talk about quick thinking under pressure.) So I think it’s more appropriate to say that there is no “new” Chief Justice — Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remains Chief Justice of Pakistan, and all of these pretenders who purport to act under the authority of the PCO and emergency declaration, and who have sworn oaths to it, are violating the Court’s order on pain of contempt or worse. And may be acting mala fides, even. ;)

One thing for sure is that Musharraf, in full exposure of the world, is showing shamelessly desperate he is to implement any measure at his disposal to stay in power. And that the US keeps aiding him reminds me of how a flailing tinpot dictatator is supported no matter what large amounts of people think to the contrary (you can think up of examples here…)