EMERGENCY IN PAK, SC REJECTS ORDER
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in the country on Saturday evening and issued a provisional constitutional order, the state-run Pakistan Television announced.
"The Chief of the Army Staff (General Musharraf) has proclaimed state of emergency and issued provisional constitutional order," the brief announcement said at 6.10 pm Pakistan time without giving any details.
Under the order, the constitution remains suspended, the federal cabinet ceases to exist and judges will have to take oath afresh. Eight Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency.
Dawn news reports that the Army has entered the Supreme Court in Islamabad and has detained Chief Justice Ifthekar Choudhry.
Private television channels are off air in Islamabad. Reports say barriers and barbed wires have come up at important points in Islamabad.
Pakistan Television said Musharraf, who is also chief of army staff, had issued a provisional constitutional order declaring an emergency. Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether he was eligible to run for re-election last month while still army chief.
Army pickets have also sprung up in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan.
A senior security official told Reuters that Musharraf would seek approval for the move from the cabinet later, after which there were expectations he would address the nation. The cabinet was due to start meeting at 7 pm (1400 GMT).
Sung by criticism it was adding to a sense of instability, the Supreme Court said on Friday it would reconvene on Monday and try to finish the case quickly, having earlier said it would take a break until November 12 -- just three days before Musharraf’s current term is due to expire.
Earlier Attorney General Malik Qayyum told the court that there was no move by the government to impose martial law.
US warning
About 139 people were killed on Oct 19 by an attempted suicide bomb assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto during a procession through Karachi when she returned from eight years of self-imposed exile.
Before the announcement on emergency rule, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had told journalists travelling with her to Turkey that Washington opposed any authoritarian measures and wanted elections to go ahead. "I think it would be quite obvious that the United States would not be supportive of extra-constitutional means," Rice said.
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