A Despotic Fight

A Pakistani Despot

On the 3rd of November 2007, president Pervez Musharraf suspended the Constitution and took absolute military control of the state. He claims to have done this due to a state of national emergency. This sounds like a reasonable step. It is understandable that a state might have to limit certain rights of the people during an emergency situation. There are many countries that have provisions for just such a situation. Yet in this instance we must examine the situation more closely. Declaring a state of emergency is something that politicians can use as a political ploy to achieve some of their own goals that could not otherwise be resolved to their satisfaction.

A State of Emergency

It is perfectly understandable that a government might suspend certain constitutional rights in a state of emergency. One would expect the country to cooperate with the situation until the emergency resolves. In Pakistan, this particular state of emergency has seemingly required surrounding the judicial court with armed guards and forcing them to disband. This would seem to indicate that the Pakistani emergency is very real but has nothing to do with any outside threat that could harm its people. Rather, it would seem to indicate that the danger lies in the government itself and nowhere else. I am quite certain that the judges of the Supreme Court are not military insurgents who are armed to the teeth and pose a real security risk to Pakistan. In a similar sense, the various radio broadcast stations are not threatening immediate destruction. Rather, the emergency switch to despotism is the real emergency in Pakistan and requires immediate action.