ISLAMABAD, May 6: Declining to rule out chances of imposition of emergency in the country, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Sunday that the Constitution allowed the option but its use depended on conditions and circumstances as laid down in the book.

Speaking at a news conference at the Prime Minister’s House, he said the government had volunteered its machinery to facilitate the caravan of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to travel to Lahore by road, adding that had it been perturbed by the event it would not have done so.

Informed sources told Dawn that the prime minister had earlier discussed with President Pervez Musharraf at a meeting in the morning the situation relating to the judicial crisis and Justice Iftikhar’s address to the LHC bar.

Brushing aside any serious threat posed to the government by the growing lawyers’ movement and the welcome extended to the Chief Justice in Lahore, the prime minister said parliament and all other institutions were functioning without any disruption. There was a provision in the constitution to impose emergency and there were certain circumstances explained in the constitution required to impose emergency, he said.

It is for first time that Prime Minister Aziz has said something about imposition of emergency. It may be mentioned that the word emergency was used also by Justice Iftikhar in his speech at the Lahore High Court when he said that Articles 3 and 4 pertaining to human rights could not be suspended even in emergency.

Referring to claims by some analysts that the rousing welcome for the Chief Justice was a referendum against the government, Mr Aziz said: “To me Gen Pervez Musharraf’s Naukot public rally was a referendum in which more than 200,000 people participated and expressed their confidence in government’s policies.”

The prime minister said the May 12 rally in Islamabad would be in support of the presidential reference because the opposition was bringing out processions against it.

He was evasive when asked if the Islamabad rally would cost the exchequer as much as the president’s Liaquat Bagh meeting in Rawalpindi which, according to BBC, cost the government Rs320 million. “We trust and value writings of our own media more than foreigners’ because they are expected to keep their analysis within the limit of national interest,” the premier said.

Asked if there was any chance of mediation on the issue of presidential reference as had been suggested by senior League Senator S.M. Zafar in an interview, Mr Aziz said: “To us the reference was a legal and constitutional matter”. He said using the presidential reference for meeting political ends or hurting the public interest was not in the interest of anyone and the Supreme Judicial Council should be allowed to work in a free atmosphere to adjudicate.

Responding to a question, he said the government had given freedom to the media which needed to use it judiciously and without hurting national interests. He said the government had not ordered blocking of the transmission of some private television channels in Sindh, adding that in fact it ensured that the transmission was restored as early as possible. He said the next budget would be people friendly and focus on accelerating the rate of economic growth to over seven per cent.

When asked about the power crisis in the country, Mr. Aziz said the government had taken up new power generation projects like Ghazi Barotha with 1,400MW and Chashma I & II with 310 and 200MW capacities, besides providing funds to IPPs to run their plants at maximum capacity.

He said the sale of electric fans had jumped to five million units this year as against 3.5 million last year and similar was the case with other electrical appliances, like air-conditioners and refrigerators.