Re: state of emergency
the drama over the emergency reminds me of the tamasha over “killer sms virus”.
if musharraf seriously wanted to impose the emergency, he would have just gone ahead and done it rather than telegraphing his actions two days in advance. moreover, pml’s women’s wing would be the last group of people to learn of governments intention in advance. instead the whole emergency threat was a big drama staged to meet some sort of strategic objective. what that objective was, i cant identify at this point. its possible that government wanted to send some message to the americans. timing of the emergency announcement around the jirga and musharraf pulling out of the jirga at very short notice leads me to believe that govt and bush administration were not seeing eye-to-eye on some important matter. its possible that musharraf was signalling his future course of action should americans act against musharraf’s wishes.
its also possible although highly unlikely in my view that drama was staged for domestic audience. certainly emergency had nothing to to with c.t.b.t court case. govt can always come up with new charges and lock c.t.b.t in jail if the brothers were to land in pak without govt permission. also the timing of emergency would be inappropriate because there is a long time to go before any of the important court cases come before the s.c. in the interim, govt can strike a deal with opposition which would be a much more secure way for musharraf to extend his rule than rather than an emergency. this is not to rule the possibility of emergency but that will be the last resort. also dont forget that shaukat aziz had announced while the cj was on trail that govt was looking into the possibility that emergency might be imposed.
word also on the role of the media which in pakistan specialises in turning man does not bite dog into a story. both the government as well as its opponents manipulate the media which is simply incapable of reporting anything beyond he said she said types of stories. government certainly is very good at this game. government’s manipulation becomes evident every time tariq azeem says one thing while durrani says something else. while all governments are manipulative, its the media’s job to cut through the spin and hold the government to account. dont think thats going to happen anytime soon though given the stupidity of people in our media and the chalaak nature of people in our government.