Pakistanis at Tufts react with skepticism to General Pervez Musharraf's 'state of emergency'
Luke Burns
Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Features
On the night of Saturday, Nov. 3, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency throughout his country. In doing so, he suspended the constitution, fired the chief justice of the Supreme Court, shut down many media outlets and filled the capital city of Islamabad with police officers.
The state of emergency, which has effectively placed Pakistan under martial law, is still in effect, with protests being roughly shut down and opposition leaders being placed under house arrest. The move has drawn strong words from U.S. leaders, who say it threatens democracy in the country, and has gained steady media attention as a potential cause of upheaval in the region.
At Tufts, where many members of the university's thriving international relations community come from Pakistan, the situation has been discussed and analyzed throughout the past week. Pakistani students and professors interviewed agreed that the state of emergency is a ploy for power by Musharraf, but they were optimistic that his decline ultimately may lead to democracy in Pakistan.
Adil Najam, an associate professor of international negotiation and diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy who is originally from Islamabad, has been traveling to Pakistan and writing regular op-ed columns in a Pakistani newspaper. Najam said that the events currently taking place in Pakistan have been in the making for some time.
"The situation has been bad for maybe a year," Najam said. "It's not just what happened on [Nov. 3]."
Senior Rida Bilgrami agreed. She moved from Pakistan to the United States when she was 17 and her father still works in Islamabad. She said she sees the current situation as another in a string of political problems for Pakistan.
"During the years when I was growing up there, there [were] always a lot of political situations," Bilgrami said. "So this is something that's been building up for a while ... it's not something that's come out of the blue."
The state of emergency, which has effectively placed Pakistan under martial law, is still in effect, with protests being roughly shut down and opposition leaders being placed under house arrest. The move has drawn strong words from U.S. leaders, who say it threatens democracy in the country, and has gained steady media attention as a potential cause of upheaval in the region.
At Tufts, where many members of the university's thriving international relations community come from Pakistan, the situation has been discussed and analyzed throughout the past week. Pakistani students and professors interviewed agreed that the state of emergency is a ploy for power by Musharraf, but they were optimistic that his decline ultimately may lead to democracy in Pakistan.
Adil Najam, an associate professor of international negotiation and diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy who is originally from Islamabad, has been traveling to Pakistan and writing regular op-ed columns in a Pakistani newspaper. Najam said that the events currently taking place in Pakistan have been in the making for some time.
"The situation has been bad for maybe a year," Najam said. "It's not just what happened on [Nov. 3]."
Senior Rida Bilgrami agreed. She moved from Pakistan to the United States when she was 17 and her father still works in Islamabad. She said she sees the current situation as another in a string of political problems for Pakistan.
"During the years when I was growing up there, there [were] always a lot of political situations," Bilgrami said. "So this is something that's been building up for a while ... it's not something that's come out of the blue."
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