State of Emergency!

Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, has very recently declared a state of emergency. He stated that Islamic extremism caused him to take such measures. What does this mean for his country? Well for starters; the constitution has been suspended, troops have been deployed in the capital, the independent media has been silenced, politicians opposing Musharraf have been rounded up, phone lines have been cut, and the nation's chief justice has even been replaced. Seems more like a dictator taking over than a state of emergency.

The "emergency" is apparently due to Musharraf's leadership being threatened by reappearance of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Other threats to Musharraf worth taking not of is a fairly defiant Supreme Court, and increase in Islam in the area. From what I've gathered, this isn't so much a state of emergency for the people of the country, but an emergency for Musharraf's future as leader of the country. Being one of our key allies in the War on Terror in the area, this whole ordeal holds a lot of importance for the United States.

Many political officials in other countries are getting involved in this, seeing this as a very dangerous situation. The U.S. is asking Musharraf to bring back democracy to his country, and Britain is also getting involved. As most of you know, Pakistan is a very important to both the U.S. and Britain in regards to stopping terrorism, making them a very important ally. This whole state of emergency could blow the whole relationship open though, as I don't think we could as easily validate our alliance with a country who basically threw democracy out the window because their leader is afraid of losing power.

Personally, I find this whole thing very interesting. What to do, what to do. By openly criticizing Musharraf we risk losing him as an ally. However, by allowing this to continue, more rights could be taken away form the population of Pakistan for an extended period of time, or even for good. Personally, I kind of find this pathetic. To me it sounds like this guy is afraid and can't get his country to think like he does. To combat this scenario, he chose to put the whole place on lockdown until everyone decides he's awesome again. If it was up to me, I'd demand he give them their rights back and restore the constitution. Thankfully, it isn't up to me, and people with more tact and charisma are in charge of our international affairs. I only hope they make good decisions and don't lead our country into even more violence.