ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: The absence of ruling Pakistan Muslim League’s secretary-general Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed from one of country’s hottest political dramas appears intriguing both to his friends and foes though a major American newspaper has quoted him calling President Pervez Musharraf’s weekend proclamation of emergency rule and suspension of the Constitution disastrous a “de facto martial law”.

A family source said on Monday the senator, who is also the chairman of the upper house Foreign Relations Committee, was in China on a ‘private visit’ and would return after about a week, which is likely to see some more of the consequences of the action the president has taken as Chief of the Army Staff.

No information was immediately available about the purpose of Mr Hussain’s China visit for which the source said he left on Saturday, the day General Musharraf put aside the Constitution and his already sweeping presidential powers to assume absolute executive and legislative powers in what looked like martial law without being called so.

The senator’s absence must have been felt by the president’s loyalists as not many of them seemed articulate like him to defend their leader getting all brickbats from outside their camp while critics unaware of a key ruling party official’s absence from the country could wonder whether what they took as his silence on the issue was a sign of disagreement.

But Mr Hussain had not been as silent, as Sunday’s Washington Post quoted him as calling the president’s action “de facto martial law” and saying that he had repeatedly tried to persuade him against the move in recent days but was outvoted in an inner circle.

The senator, according to the Post, predicted that these moves would be disastrous for General Musharraf and the country and said: “The way forward has to be democratic and constitutional. Any other course is a recipe for disaster. More importantly, it will not be accepted by the people of Pakistan and it will not work.”

The Post quoted Mr Hussain as saying that General Musharraf had convened a meeting of his top advisers on Wednesday to discuss options where 20 out of 25 favoured emergency rule.

In his comments in recent months, Mr Hussain has been publicly opposing a resort to emergency rule as a solution to the president’s political troubles, inviting the ire of those who advocated such a course and eventually won the day at an uncertain cost.