Musharraf declares emergency rule
Updated on 03 November 2007
Pakistan leader Pervez Musharraf has imposed emergency rule, deploying troops and sacking a top judge in a bid to reassert his flagging authority against political rivals and Islamist militants.
State-run Pakistan Television said Musharraf had suspended the constitution and declared an emergency, ending weeks of speculation that the general who seized power in a 1999 coup might impose emergency rule or martial law. The other, independent television shows are reported to have been taken off air.
Security in Pakistan has deteriorated sharply in recent months, with a wave of suicide attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants.
The recent return of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto following years of exile sparked another suicide attack in the country, which killed 139 people. Bhutto is thought to be on her way back to Pakistan from her trip to Dubai.
Musharraf is currently awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether he was eligible to run for re-election last month while still army chief. The court said on Friday it would try to finish the case quickly.
However, the latest developments have changed everything. As witness reports suggest that troops have been deployed at Pakistan Television and radio stations, and most phone lines were down, exiled formed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the country was "heading towards anarchy."
Other troops sealed off the thoroughfare where the presidency building, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court are located.
Speaking to Indian news channel CNN-IBN, Sharif described the emergency powers as a form of martial law.
