> Pak govt to declare emergency

Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, facing the biggest test to his eight-year military rule, may declare a state of emergency because of deteriorating security in the nation, Junior Information Minister Tariq Azeem said.

``Given the external and internal threats we are facing, especially on the border areas, the possibility of emergency cannot be ruled out,'' Azeem said in a phone interview with GEO television. Rashid Qureshi, the spokesman for Musharraf, earlier denied reports the president plans to suspend citizens' rights.

Opposition to Musharraf has escalated as he plans to ask lawmakers for a second five-year presidential term before parliamentary elections in January. A key ally of President George W. Bush, the 63-year-old Pakistani leader faces dwindling support in the U.S., where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he would consider sending in American troops if Musharraf didn't to take a tougher line against al-Qaeda.

``Everything is being done because the president wants to stay in power,'' Nasir Aslam Zahid, a former Supreme Court judge said in a phone interview. Musharraf doesn't want to seek re- election in a new parliament because opposition parties and Islamic groups are drawing increasing support in Pakistan.

Musharraf attended a meeting with the government's lawyers and top military officials to discuss the possibility of imposing emergency rule, GEO reported earlier. Local Aryone World television reported the president may declare a state of emergency today.

`Bad Idea'

``This would be a really bad idea,'' Michael Krepon, co- founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington said in an interview. ``It would weaken his ties with Washington. It would especially weaken his ties with Congress.''

Under Pakistan's 1971 constitution, the president can suspend legal and parliamentary rules if ``the security of Pakistan, or any part thereof, is threatened by war or external aggression, or by internal disturbance beyond the power of a Provincial Government to control.''

In that case, the right to speak, move around the country or form a political party can be suspended. Elections scheduled for January could be put off because the period of the National Assembly can be extended for as much as 12 months.

The decree to impose emergency rule has to be submitted for parliamentary approval within 30 days, and the decision can be challenged in the Supreme Court, former judge Zahid said.

``There is no truth to the report of emergency rule,'' Musharraf's spokesman Qureshi said in a telephone interview from the capital, Islamabad. Musharraf didn't attend any meeting to discuss the imposition of emergency rule, he said.

Opposition Escalates

Pakistan's opposition parties have demanded Musharraf quit as president and army chief and restore full civilian rule in the country, while the religious parties oppose his support for the global war against terrorism.

Opposition protests intensified after he suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in March. A panel of judges ordered Chaudhry reinstated last month.

Musharraf, a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, is also dealing with a series of terrorist attacks in the country that killed more than 160 people in the past month. The attacks followed an army raid at Islamabad's Red Mosque on July 10 that killed 75 pro-Taliban militants and ended a challenge by clerics who wanted to impose Islamic law in the capital.

``Pakistan's challenges won't be mitigated by imposing emergency rule and the government should think twice before taking such a drastic step,'' former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said in phone interview with GEO. ``This would be negative for the restoration of democracy at a time when we're heading into elections.''

Elections on Time

Musharraf said on July 18 that emergency rule would not be imposed in the country and that elections would be held on time, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

A survey of Pakistani public opinion released July 31 by the Washington-based International Republican Institute, an election- monitoring group, found 64 percent of voters opposed another term for Musharraf as president, an increase of 24 percentage points from the February-March poll. When asked who best could lead the nation now, 42 percent said Bhutto, while 30 percent favored Musharraf.

Bhutto said in an interview on Aug. 7 she is trying to strike a political bargain with Musharraf that will enable him to remain president and allow her a new term in power.

The arrangement would allow her to return to Pakistan after eight years in exile and become a prime minister empowered to fight Islamist threats. Her popularity could shield Musharraf from challenges he has faced from democracy proponents since his 1999 coup.

A state of emergency could provide ``some room for him to take defensive steps,'' if Musharraf is convinced of a direct threat to his rule, Daniel Markey, senior fellow for South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington said in an e- mail interview. ``A long state of emergency would be politically costly and demonstrate weakness of the ruling government, not strength.''

Islamabad, Aug 09: The government of embattled Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday it may impose a state of emergency because of "external and internal threats" and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border.

Tariq Azim, Minister of State for Information, said talk from the United States about the possibility of U.S. military action against al-Qaida in Pakistan "has started alarm bells ringing and has upset the Pakistani public." He mentioned Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama by name as an example of someone who made such comments, saying his recent remarks were one reason the government was debating a state of emergency.

But it appeared the motivation for a declaration of an emergency would be the domestic political woes of Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism who took power in a 1999 coup.

His popularity has dwindled and his standing has been badly shaken by a failed bid to oust the country's chief justice — an independent-minded judge likely to rule on expected legal challenges to the Musharraf's bid to seek a new five-year presidential term this fall.

The Pakistani government's comments on a possible emergency declaration came hours after Musharraf abruptly announced he was canceling a planned trip to Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday to attend a U.S.-backed tribal peace council aimed at curtailing cross-border militancy by the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The decision to cancel the trip appeared linked to the government's deliberations over declaring a state of emergency.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at length with Musharraf in a call that took place in the early hours of Thursday in Pakistan, a senior State Department official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, refused to discuss the substance of the 17-minute conversation.

During a state of emergency, the government can restrict the freedom to move, rally, engage in political activities or form groups and impose other limits such as restricting the parliament's right to make laws or even dissolving parliament.

"These are only unconfirmed reports although the possibility of imposition of emergency cannot be ruled out and has recently been talked about and discussed, keeping in mind some external and internal threats and the law and order situation," Azim told The Associated Press.

"I cannot say that it will be tonight, tomorrow or later. We hope that it does not happen. But we are going through difficult circumstances so the possibility of an emergency cannot be ruled out," he added.

Pakistani television networks reported that a declaration of an emergency was imminent, but other senior government officials said no final decision had been made.

Azim referred to recent Pakistani military action against militants in northwestern border areas that he said had resulted in the deaths of many soldiers.

Violence has been rising in the lawless region where critics say a September 2006 peace deal with local Taliban has allowed Islamic militants to thrive. The U.S. has called the deal a failure, saying it gave al-Qaida an opportunity to regroup in the region.

Meanwhile, Musharraf on Wednesday pulled out of a "peace jirga" in Kabul that is to bring more than 600 Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders together with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan's Foreign Office said Musharraf had phoned Karzai Wednesday to say he couldn't attend because of "engagements" in Islamabad, and that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz would take his place. Afghan officials said the jirga would proceed as planned without Musharraf.

In Washington, the State Department said the U.S. understands Musharraf's decision to pull out of the planned meeting in Afghanistan.

"President Musharraf certainly wouldn't stay back in Islamabad if he didn't believe he had good and compelling reasons to stay back," McCormack said. "Certainly we would understand that."

Musharraf is under growing American pressure to crack down on militants at the Afghan border because of the fears that al-Qaida is regrouping there.

The Bush administration has also not ruled out unilateral military action inside Pakistan, but like Obama, has stressed the need to work with Musharraf.

The government of embattled Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday it may impose a state of emergency because of "external and internal threats"

Embattled President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday decided against imposing a state of emergency in Pakistan, a senior government official told AFP.

"The president has rejected the suggestions to declare a state of emergency as proposed by his political allies," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Private television channels meanwhile quoted the leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, as ruling out the possibility of emergency rule.

Musharraf met Thursday morning with senior political aides to discuss whether or not to impose emergency rule, prompted by escalating security concerns and political instability in the country.

Earlier, government sources had said the president was reluctant to impose an emergency but that he had been under pressure from key aides to do so.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem had said that emergency rule had come under consideration because of "internal and external threats".

The president had been considering imposing emergency rule since Tuesday, when he met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other senior aides, the official sources told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Musharraf is under pressure on many fronts, facing growing discontent with the autocratic nature of his government as well as an upsurge in militant violence in volatile tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Among concerns raised at Tuesday's meeting were the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, which have become staging posts for Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives, and threats by US officials and presidential hopefuls to take unilateral military action against the militant bases, the sources said.

Musharraf's aides had argued that Pakistan cannot afford further instability, especially with the capital's security already breached since security forces raided a mosque that had been taken over by Islamic radicals.

The July 15 operation at the Red Mosque, which resulted in more than 100 deaths, was followed within days by a suicide attack at a political rally that claimed 15 lives.

But emergency rule could have further exacerbated disconent, as it would autmotically have extended the tenure of the current parliament for one year, derailing national elections that are scheduled for early in 2008.