By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Monday asserted he was in full control, amidst reports of his house arrest that triggered a stock market crash.
“It’s a joke of the highest order,” Musharraf told a foreign reporter, even as lawyers across the country staged violent protests across the country against the emergency declared Saturday.
More worrisome for Musharraf was the “advice” reportedly tendered by a group of European envoys for the president to leave the country due to the intensely volatile situation caused by the emergency declaration.
The suggestion came as the president met some 80 envoys from across the globe to explain his reasons for imposing the emergency.
The envoys reminded the president a number of countries, including the US, Britain and Australia, had condemned the draconian step and called for the immediate restoration of civilian rule in Pakistan.
“When truth is not available rumours do take place,” Adnan Rehmat, the country director for Internews agency, told IANS while commenting on rumours that Musharraf had been arrested and army vice chief General Ashfaq Kiani had taken over.
The rumour had a huge impact on Pakistan’s major stock index, which plunged Monday afternoon as a result. Investors in the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) dumped shares, pulling the KSE-100 index down by 4.7 percent to 13,265.
However, Maj. Gen. Arshad Waheed, a spokesman for Inter-Services Public Relations, was quick to dispel the rumour, saying: “Some unscrupulous elements are spreading these rumours that are baseless and unwarranted.”
In the capital, there was an undeclared curfew around the Supreme Court building, parliament house, the presidency, the prime minister’s secretariat and the diplomatic enclave where several foreign missions are located.
The entire leadership of the opposition parties, except for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) remained under house arrest or were sent to different jails. PPP chief Benazir Bhutto, who had been in power-sharing talks with Musharraf, was conspicuous by her silence.
Unconfirmed reports said she was in Islamabad and met with Musharraf.
About 200 lawyers tried to stage a protest near the Supreme Court building but were baton-charged and many of them were arrested. Hundreds of lawyers are already under house arrest or detained in police stations. They include sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and about 60 other judges of the Supreme Court and the four high courts.
They had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) that was promulgated along with the emergency declaration.
Rights activists, prominent among them Pakistan Human Rights Commission chief Asma Jehangir, have also been detained.
Lahore saw the most violent protests by lawyers Monday, where police baton-charged their rally and also fired tear-gas shells. Reports said that many of the lawyers were arrested.
Some of the lawyers succeeded in getting into the Lahore High Court building and threw flower petals on rooms of the judges who have not taken oath under the PCO.
In Karachi, no lawyer was allowed to enter the Sindh High Court building while several leading lawyers including the president of the Sindh Bar Association were arrested. Those arrested included Sindh chief justice Sabihuddin Ahmed’s son, who refused to take oath under PCO.
Reports said Ahmed tried to leave his house but the police prevented him from doing so. He, however, said in a statement that he was still chief justice of the Sindh High Court and all steps being taken under the garb of emergency were illegal.
“Police beat us ruthlessly when we came to the Sindh High Court building in the morning and arrested a few dozen of our colleagues,” lawyer Akhtar Hussain said.
Reports from other major cities like Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and Faisalabad said that lawyers protested against the emergency and demanded immediate restoration of all judges of the Supreme Court and high courts.
Because of complete ban on electronic media, citizens were depending on hearsay and SMS services. Mobile telephone companies offering news updates also remained closed without giving any reason.
“We have closed our news service for the time being,” a Mobilink customer services representative told IANS while similar statements were made by other cellular companies.