Pakistan to lift State of Emergency

One month ago -- on November 3rd to be precise -- Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf addressed the nation to impose a state of emergency: “In view of the disturbed environment, the terrorist environment, the bomb blasts, the situation in the frontier, I can assure you that it is the emergency which reinforces the hands to control all this and keep it in check. It will ensure absolutely fair and transparent elections.”

Musharraf also suspended the constitution, banned public rallies, shut down all private television and radio channels and dismissed judges who refused to swear the oath of office under the emergency rule -- including the country’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Protests continue

Thousands of people, mostly lawyers, human rights activists, members of the opposition and journalists were arrested and put in jail. But this couldn’t silence the protests against Musharraf. Quite the opposite: the calls for Musharraf to give up his dual role as president and army chief grew even stronger.

On November 28th Musharraf was forced to give up his uniform, a step which he described as a bitter pill to swallow and the most difficult decision he had ever taken in his life.

But Musharraf’s critics are still not satisfied. Despite keeping his promise to give up his army post lots of restrictions remain in place. Like the ban on legally challenging the emergency rule.

Doubts remain

Mohammed Ramzan Chaudhry, a lawyer in Lahore, is convinced that the elections will not be free and fair “… when people are behind the bars, when segments of the civil society are terrified to come out. We have no permission to go on the roads and launch our protest. Our voices have been corrupted. Under these circumstances there is no chance of free and fair elections.”

Nonetheless, the opposition, namely the two ex Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, have meanwhile declared -- after considering a boycott -- to be ready to participate in the elections.

Because, according to Nawaz Sharif, they have no other choice: “We want to get together and save the country from really being destroyed by one man. Because the country’s fate is now in the hands of one single man who’s playing with its fate.”

Broken deals

Benazir Bhutto feels betrayed by Musharraf; with whom she was negotiating a deal before returning from exile:

“I negotiated with him (Musharraf) for a peaceful political transfer to a democratic Pakistan. I did that to avoid the mess in which we are today. But instead of following the roadmap that we had worked out, General Musharraf suspended the constitution. And I came to the conclusion that he simply wasn’t interested in giving the opposition a fair chance in the elections.”

Musharraf has apparently tried everything to influence January’s elections in his favour. But his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) still has to win the absolute majority of votes to keep him in power. As opinion polls indicate, the odds are against him. One recent survey, conducted by the Washington D.C. based International Republican Institute; found that two-thirds of Pakistanis want Musharraf to resign immediately. The elections might give them a chance to prove their point.