British slam Musharraf's 'coup within a coup'

LONDON: Pakistani President Parvez Musharraf's grim visage was splashed across the front pages of most British newspapers on Sunday as the media came down heavily on his imposition of an emergency on the beleaguered country.

Britain has a large number of Pakistan-origin residents who maintain close links with home. A large section of the community was glued to private Pakistani channels such as Geo TV - before they were yanked off the air - Saturday evening as events unfolded in Islamabad and other parts of Pakistan.

BBC News and Sky News also closely followed the events.

On Sunday, newspapers reported the events with screaming headlines, and universally framed the developments as a 'crisis'.

Reporting the event with the headline 'Desperate Musharraf declares martial law', The Guardian said, "(The) greatest threat to Musharraf's power was the Supreme Court, which was due to rule in the coming weeks on the legality of his controversial October 8 re-election as president.

"As the result of an opposition boycott, he received 98 per cent of the votes. The legal challenge has now been quashed, but emergency rule raises a range of new problems, including the possibility of widespread public protest and a further breakdown of Pakistan's battered state institutions," the newspaper added.

It also ran a side story with the headline 'Final shreds of Pakistan's democracy are ripped up'.

The Independent reported the developments with the headline 'State of emergency: Pakistan in crisis as Musharraf acts'.

Noted commentator Tariq Ali wrote a scathing analysis with the headline, 'Pakistan takes yet another step into the dark night'.

He wrote, "For anyone marinated in the history of Pakistan, yesterday's decision by the military to impose a state of emergency comes as no surprise. Martial law in this country has become an antibiotic: in order to obtain the same results one has to keep doubling the doses. This was a coup within a coup."

"The Supreme Court's declaration that the new dispensation was 'illegal and unconstitutional' was heroic, and, by contrast, the hurriedly sworn in new Chief Justice will be seen for what he is: a stooge of the men in uniform."

"If the constitution remains suspended for more than three months, then Musharraf may be pushed aside by the army and a new strongman installed. Or it could be that the aim was limited to cleansing the Supreme Court and controlling the media. In which case, a rigged January election becomes a certainty."

"Whatever the case, Pakistan's long journey to the end of the night continues," Tariq Ali maintained.

The Sunday Telegraph reported the main developments with the headline: 'Soldiers take over Pakistani cities', and carried a detailed analysis by its South Asia commentator Ahmed Rashid with the headline 'General will fail to rule through fear'.

Rashid wrote, "Despite the power of the massive military machine at his disposal, Gen. Musharraf has also signed away his chances of a long political survival. Never before in Pakistan's long, tortured history of martial law and states of emergency has a general so massively unpopular tried to sustain his rule by force of arms.

"How long the army stays with Gen. Musharraf is now the most important question. The army knows that it will become even less popular as a result of this state of emergency and the fact that he remains both army chief and president.

"Sooner rather than later, he will become a liability for the army and it will be easier to blame him for Pakistan's ills rather than the entire military establishment. That could set in motion another coup.

"To rule now through fear, without a modicum of political support, will prove impossible even for the wily general. Pakistan, the seventh largest nation in the world with 165 million people, stands at the cusp of the global crisis - terrorism, nuclear proliferation and Islamic radicalism. It has become a home for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, there is increasing fear of Islamic radicals getting hold of nuclear or chemical materials, and it is the key to stabilising Afghanistan.

"The spread of anti-Westernism and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism point to a bleak future. The international community cannot afford to let this - Gen Musharraf's second coup - go unanswered," Rashid contended.

The Sunday Times reported the events with the headline 'Pakistan in turmoil as 'martial law' is imposed', and carried related stories with the headlines 'Musharraf spoils for a fight as he declares emergency rule' and 'Bloody showdown looms as Bhutto seizes chance'.

Christina Lamb wrote in the paper, "When Benazir Bhutto flew back to Pakistan just over two weeks ago, ending eight years in exile, she was widely criticised for returning in a deal with a dictator, though she insisted that her 'understanding' with General Pervez Musharraf was the only way to avoid bloodshed.

"By declaring a state of emergency, Musharraf has not only torn up that deal but once more transformed Bhutto into Pakistan's main hope for democracy.

"Her only option now is to take him head-on as she did Pakistan's last military dictator, General Zia-ul Haq, 20 years ago. The two-time former prime minister had been spending the weekend with her family in Dubai when she heard the news yesterday. By jumping straight on a plane back to Karachi, she showed that confrontation with the men in uniform was exactly what she intended," Lamb wrote.