Emergency rule to be rescinded

Opposition parties are likely to boycott the upcoming elections.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Hours after being sworn in for a new term as president, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he hoped to end the country’s state of emergency Dec. 16, a move that could resolve most complaints from his Western backers before parliamentary elections in early January.

But a group of 32 opposition parties, including one of the country’s largest, announced Thursday that it will most likely boycott the elections, a move that could undermine the vote’s legitimacy and hurt Musharraf’s image internationally.

In a speech broadcast to the nation Thursday night, Musharraf said he put the country’s derailed democracy back on track with the emergency rule he declared Nov. 3. But his critics say the emergency’s real purpose was to purge the country’s independent judiciary and ensure Musharraf’s election to another five-year presidential term, which had been held up in court.

Dressed in a black tunic, Musharraf took the oath a day after stepping down as army chief and donning his general’s uniform for the last time in an emotional ceremony Wednesday.

Musharraf said he would lift the emergency Dec. 16 because of an “improvement in the general situation,” saying that “the democratic process is continuing.”

The date is significant because Dec. 15 is the deadline for political parties to decide whether they will participate in parliamentary elections. Opposition political parties have been debating whether to boycott elections, scheduled for Jan. 8. On Thursday Musharraf said elections would be held “come hell or high water.”

Opposition party leaders suggested that government officials are blackmailing them to participate.

“If they are sure there is no boycott, they will lift the emergency,” said Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, one of two major opposition parties.

The party was one of 32 that decided Thursday night to boycott the elections, but that decision will be final only after the group tries to persuade two other wavering parties to join the boycott. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the country’s most recognized opposition leader, has indicated that her party will participate in the election.

Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror who seized power in a bloodless 1999 military coup, has been fighting for his political survival in recent months. The outcome of the power struggle in Pakistan is seen as crucial beyond Pakistan’s borders, especially because of the growing strength of Islamic militants in the country’s remote border areas and because Pakistan is the world’s only known nuclear-armed Islamic nation.

The decision to end the emergency comes after months of turmoil in the country, starting when Musharraf attempted to fire the country’s independent chief justice in March. This sparked protests that soon turned into anti-Musharraf rallies, which led to a newly independent Supreme Court that reinstated the chief justice and began ruling against Musharraf.

He said he needed to declare an emergency and suspend the constitution because of a hostile judiciary and Islamic militants.

In the days after the emergency, Musharraf purged the country’s court system, firing more than 60 senior judges who refused to sign a new oath to him.