KARACHI, Nov 5 (IPS) - Pakistani President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf appears to be following a
strategy of being hard on lawyers and the
judiciary, and soft on Islamist extremists — the
two groups he blamed for imposing emergency rule
in the country on Saturday.

On Monday, police beat up lawyers and arrested
scores of them gathered outside the High Court of
Karachi. Another 200 lawyers were arrested at the
High Court in the eastern city of Lahore. In both
cities, police entered the High Court buildings
to arrest lawyers. The lawyers in Lahore were
also at the receiving end of a heavy baton charge.

In Islamabad, the chief justice of the Supreme
Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, as well as several
senior judges who were detained on Saturday for
refusing to sign the Provisional Constitution
Order (PCO) a step normally taken prior to
imposing martial law, were being held at their
homes.

Those arrested include the president of the
Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Aitzaz
Ahsan. He and two former SCBA presidents, Munir
A. Malik and Tariq Mahmood, have been ordered
imprisoned for one month each under the
preventive detention laws.

The president of the Lahore High Court bar
association, Ahsan Bhoon, and former bar leader
Ali Ahmed Kurd are also under arrest. Other
presidents of various bar associations and
activists like the secretary-general of the
Labour Party Pakistan, Farooq Tariq, are in
hiding.

Civil rights activists question Musharraf’s claim
that he imposed a state of emergency because of
the crisis caused by militancy and a hostile
judiciary. The text of the Provisional
Constitution Order (PCO) declaring the emergency
focuses more on “judicial activism” that
Musharraf said had negatively impacted the
“morale” of the administration and the law
enforcement agencies.

In a speech late Saturday night, Musharraf
announced that the national and provincial
assemblies would continue to function, and the
provincial governors and chief ministers would
continue to hold office. The only change appears
to be with the judiciary.

"If the Constitution is in abeyance, the
parliament should also be suspended," former
Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmad, the
lawyers’ candidate who stood against Musharraf in
the recent presidential elections, told IPS.

The government is swearing in new judges to fill
the vacuum left by the dismissed judges. However,
an unprecedented number of judges of the Supreme
Court and four High Courts have not taken oath
under the PCO.

“There will be a crisis,” said Ahmad, talking to
IPS at his Karachi residence on Sunday. "Where
will they get judges to fill all these positions?"

The former judge, who was among the six judges to
refuse to take oath under the PCO imposed by
Musharraf, after he initially took over power in
1999, predicted that there will be "a lot of
defiance particularly among the younger lawyers.
They are unstoppable."

The Musharraf government, however, is doing its
best to stop them. About 200 lawyers are believed
to have been arrested in Lahore on Monday, and
another hundred or so in Karachi.

Leading lawyer, U.N. special rapporteur, and
chairperson of the independent Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan Asma Jahangir, under house
arrest at her Lahore residence since Saturday,
termed it ironic that the president, who she said
“has lost his marbles”, had to clamp down on the
press and the judiciary to curb terrorism.

"Those he has arrested are progressive,
secular-minded people while the terrorists are
offered negotiations and ceasefires," she added.

The government on Sunday freed 25 militants in
exchange for the release of 213 army personnel
held hostage by Taliban in South Waziristan on
Pakistan’s northwest border for more than two
months.

Some 70 activists, arrested in a police raid on
HRCP’s Lahore office on Sunday where a meeting
was being held to discuss the emergency, were
held in a police lockup as their families, who
were not allowed to meet them, held vigil outside.

The arrests were made under the MPO 1960
(maintenance of public order act) although the
meeting was being held indoors at a private venue
and posed no threat to public order. Police had
no written orders and claimed the right to detain
those arrested for 30 days without charge and
without bail.

At 3.30 am, they were sent to nearby houses that
had been declared as sub-jails before being
transported to the Kot Lakhpat jail on Monday
morning. Prominent journalist and director of the
HRCP, I.A. Rehman, and the body’s secretary
general, Iqbal Haider, were also transported to
the prison. Later on Monday, some of those
arrested were again transferred to the sub-jails.

In a statement released from her residence on
Sunday, Jahangir asked friends of Pakistan "to
urge the U.S. administration to stop all support
for the instable dictator, as his lust for power
is bringing the country close to a worse form of
civil strife. It is now time for the
international community to insist on preventive
measures, otherwise cleaning up the mess may take
decades. There are already several hundred
disappeared persons and the space for civil
society has hopelessly shrunk.“’’Musharraf,’’ Jahangir said,”must be taken out
of the equation and a government of national
reconciliation put in place, backed by the
military. Short of this there are no realistic
solutions, although there are no guarantees that
this may work." The international community,
including the United States, has condemned the
state of emergency. Washington has said it will
review financial aid to Pakistan and asked
Pakistan to release all those detained after the
promulgation of emergency.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists on
Monday issued a strongly worded statement against
what it called the "worst kind of repression
against media since 1978". According to the
journalist union, some 16 journalists have been
detained and police have also raided printing
presses and bureau offices. In addition, police
threatened scores of journalists and cameramen
during coverage.

The electronic media news blackout within the
country has continued for the third day, although
newspapers are publishing normally. Cable
operators were allowed to broadcast only music,
movies, sports, and cartoon programmes —
“Anything other than news,” said PFUJ secretary
general Mazhar Abbas.

Messages of solidarity for the democratic
struggle and against the emergency are pouring in
to various rights organisations from around the
world. Media organisations received calls from
cities all around Pakistan, including Karachi,
where the stock market has fallen 4.7 percent due
to the prevailing political uncertainty.

The uncertainty has been fuelled by strong
rumours about a “counter-coup”. President
Musharraf termed the rumours "a joke of the
highest order".

Although Musharraf had indicated that the present
assemblies will be extended, his political
partners like the attorney general, Malik Qayyum,
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Punjab Chief
Minister Pervaiz Elahi have said in various
statements that the assemblies will be dissolved
on Nov. 15 as scheduled and that elections will
be held on time.