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Bomb-drunk Pakistanis wake up to the reality of emergency

The proclamation of emergency in Pakistan, that has suspended fundamental rights, is fast dampening the pro-government euphoria that the six nuclear blasts had generated late last month.

The common man is baffled why the government had taken this step, although the whole nation supported the nuclear blasts.

Former law minister Iqbal Haider says that by suspending their fundamental rights, the Nawaz Sharief government has expressed no-confidence in the patriotism of the common man. The emergency has created insecurity among the people, he said, pointing out that India has not deprived its people of their fundamental rights after the Pokhran blasts.

The Pakistan People's Party has announced its intention to challenge the proclamation of emergency in the Supreme Court. The party's deputy information secretary, Munir Ahmed Khan, told newsmen in Lahore that emergency was imposed with a mala fide intention and that the ''government wants to enforce a civil martial law on the pretext of a new situation to gag the opposition voice.''

The PPP and many other critics of the emergency are of the opinion that the real target of the emergency are the courts, whose powers have been taken away. Munir Ahmed Khan said the emergency under Article 232 of the Constitution means that the judiciary has lost its powers, and at least 20 articles which guaranteed life and liberty, dignity of man and privacy of home, freedom of movement, expression, association, religion, language and property, all stand suspended during the emergency.

Pakistan's former advocate-general Quraban Ali Chauhan says a very large number of petitions pending in high courts and the Supreme Court relate to fundamental rights. They are all affected by the emergency. The rulers, he alleged, were taking advantage of the people's support to the nuclear blasts and moving towards personal rule.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also taken strong exception to the proclamation of emergency. Its chairperson Asma Jahangir said the people believe that the real purpose of emergency was not to aid national security but to safeguard the autocratic powers of the rulers.

Former president Farooq Leghari has alleged that the emergency is meant to make the prime minister a ''civilian dictator.'' He said there was no threat to the security of the country on the pretext of which the emergency was imposed.

Leaders of the Pakistan Awami Ittehad say by imposing a state of emergency, Sharief has punished those Pakistanis who forced him to go in for nuclear tests.

UNI

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