Since, Pakistan gained independence in August of 1947 it has been under political turmoil. As a result its Army has emerged as a very strong force in the country. Either because of the strong army or the complacent politicians a true Pakistani democracy has never been well established. In the last sixty years of independence none of the parties elected to rule have completed a single term. No doubt we have some of the most corrupt politicians, they come into government, do corruption, after a coup occurs they go into self imposed exile and then are brought back again claiming “democracy saviors”. So, right now I am not supporting any one… but I must ask myself: Which country doesn’t have corrupt politicians? It does not mean that there should be Martial Law imposed, dictatorship is not a solution. One of the primary reasons of not having strong democratic institution in Pakistan is lack of free judicial system , democracy is based on strong and fair Justice System but unfortunately, it has been under political influence since creation of Pakistan. This was first time in the history of Pakistan that Judiciary was trying to be independent, fair and courageous enough to question the government especially a dictator on its illegal decisions but Musharraf wont let this happen because he would have to answer to general public. That was one of the reasons he previously (March, 2007) suspended Chief Justice of Pakistan due to corruption charges. The Chief Justice is not corrupt, all he did was ask the government to produce those people which are held by Intelligence agencies without any charges due to so called “War on Terror” and Musharraf did not like that. Due to strong country wide protests, Chief Justice was reinstated.

Now the current crisis started when Musharraf wanted to be elected as President from current pro-government Parliament but at the same time stay as Chief of Army Staff, for that he brought major amendments in Election commission charter to be eligible to run election. He wanted to hold all the powers before the next year elections. His election win was challenged by the opposition parties in the Supreme Court, its decision was due and there was good chance that it would have been against him. So, before it was about to happen, he declared the State of Emergency (Martial Law) and constitution was suspended.

Most of the critics, including myself believe that Musharraf with the help of intelligence agencies has been engineering the circumstances inside Pakistan to gain support from West for staying in power (fighting the war on terror). Western allies would think, if Musharraf is not there as head of that country, it will collapse. It’s the country that has nuclear weapons etc etc. All of this he’s done to prolong his dictatorship and to gain Western support. Now the US also has major concerns over its declining popularity worldwide and supporting Musharraf isn’t going to help. At one end of world we are fighting a war to remove a dictator and at the other we support a dictator. Recently, Pakistan’s most corrupt former Prime Minister (Benazir Bhutto) was brought back from self-imposed exile to make a power sharing deal with a dictator. All the corruption charges were dropped against her; she owed billions of dollars to public due to her corruption while she was in power. Musharraf admitted that US played important role in that deal.

Please don’t think that I am blaming west for Pakistan problems but our (US) foreign policy’s double standards play a major role and most of the time we are kept in dark. It’s Pakistani people’s own fault because if you don’t want to change then no one else can change you.

Currently, following are the highlights after Martial Law was imposed:

Constitution has been suspended

Freedom of movement restricted

Private TV channels taken off air

Suspects can be denied access to lawyers

Supreme Court Chief justice plus many other judges are being sacked and are under House arrest

Lawyers and political activists are being arrested

Basic human rights are suspended