November 04, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 22, 1428

KARACHI, Nov 3: Media organizations and members of the legal fraternity spearheading the pro-judiciary movement bore the first assault of the establishment empowered by the proclamation of emergency issued by the chief of the army staff on Saturday evening.

As anti-government lawyers, anticipating a police crackdown, betook themselves to safety, officials of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) ensured that television news channels remained off air and confiscated the equipment of a local FM radio station known for broadcasting independent news bulletins.

“A Pemra team supported by the area police raided our office and seized the equipment forcing us to go off air,” Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Country Manager of FM-103, told Dawn. “Our stations in other parts of the country have been operating as usual but we are not able to understand the action against the Karachi station.”

The channel has already approached the Sindh High Court for the past actions of the regulatory body, which asked for the suspension of independent news bulletins. The matter is still in the SHC, which allowed the broadcast of the bulletins till the final decision.

Judges take a new oath

The Governor’s House arranged an oath-taking ceremony under the new provisional constitutional order (PCO) following the imposition of emergency rule, where 11 out of 27 judges of the Sindh High Court, excluding the chief justice, were invited. By the time we went to press, six judges had reached the Governor’s House for taking a new oath.

Lawyers prepared themselves for a protest amid fears of midnight police action against the leadership. Senior office bearers of the legal community were untraceable with no plans of agitation against the emergency rule. However, a few of them who spoke to Dawn remained cagey about their strategy.

“We have not yet decided any protest plan against emergency rule,” said Naeem Qureshi, Secretary of the Karachi Bar Association. “As tomorrow is Sunday, there is a strong possibility of putting off the protest till Monday. We don’t have any reports of lawyers’ arrests, but I can’t comment for the hours to come,” he added.

Crackdown planned

The sources, however, maintained that a major crackdown against anti-government lawyers was planned and the government machinery was put on alert to obstruct any protest plans chalked out by the legal fraternity and opposition parties.

“We can’t allow a single protest demonstration under emergency rule,” said a top government official asking not to be named. “Those who stage a protest would obviously face the music.”

The city police was put on high alert by the security agencies and following the imposition of a state of emergency by President Pervez Musharraf as chief of the army staff, mobility of police was increased around the metropolis.

“There are no extra measures as such,” said Capital City Police Officer Azhar Ali Farooqi. “There has always been security for government installations and increased mobility remained there to ensure foolproof security.”

No clear line of action

Opposition parties and civil society voiced their serious concerns about the developments, but nobody came up with a clear line of action to protest against emergency rule. Almost all the anti-government parties condemned the latest episode but promised that they would define their parties’ strategies later.

“President Musharraf is behaving like a bull in a china shop,” said Iqbal Haider, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). “We expect each and every political party to condemn such action and protest against the martial law,” he observed.

He said the HRCP was coordinating with other organizations to come up with a final plan of protest against emergency rule.

Though practically inactive, the Mohajir Qaumi Movement was the first among opposition parties to react against emergency rule.

“It’s a cowardly act,” chairman of the MQM Afaq Ahmed was quoted as saying by his lawyers. “The people of Pakistan would not accept such a measure and will stand against it. We believe in democratic norms of politics and condemn such kind of policies.”

Benazir Bhutto’s legal adviser Farooq Naek said that a proclamation of emergency issued by the chief of the army staff could only be described as “martial law.”

“There is no other way of describing such an unconstitutional measure. In a state of emergency, a PCO is not issued. Nor is there any necessity of taking a new oath from judges,” he added.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a major ruling coalition partner in the centre and Sindh, however, expressed surprise over the imposition of emergency rule and decided to wait before making any comments.

“We are not avoiding comments but actually waiting for the details of the PCO,” said Faisal Sabzwari, an MQM MPA. “We expect the details shortly so then we would be in a better position to comment.”