President Musharraf has declared a state of emergency, blaming the judiciary and militants for creating a crisis in the country. He insists his actions were necessary in order to save Pakistan democracy from destruction. Of course, I’m sure his actions had nothing to do with the growing feeling that the judiciary were about to invalidate his recent election, nothing at all. (See Anil @ dorfblog for more legal analysis)

A new supreme court has been put into place and the old supreme court taken away because they refused to ratify the state of emergency as constitutional:

The justices were ordered to sign a “provisional constitutional order” enabling the emergency decree … At least 6 of the court’s 11 justices gathered in the court and rejected the order… [Link]

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and seven other Supreme Court judges were taken into custody after they termed the provisional constitution illegal. Troops took them away to an undisclosed location. [Link]

Troops are on the streets and the broadcast media (radio and TV) have also been shut down. The purpose of this action seems to be to stop news inside the country more than to stop news from going out. International media seem to have a fairly good picture of what is going on, and of course the Pakistani blogs are still up.

If you want to follow along at home, your best bet are the metroblogging blogs: Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. And I hope to have an update from our blogger on the street, Venial Sin, in a while. Until then, the best we’ve got are clips of the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan, talking to journalists on the phone, while under arrest, from the toilet [Hat tip, Anil].

Reaction from the USA has been muted, as expected. The US government has bought a pig in a poke. Of course, the American authorities — Secretary Rice, the Ambassador, the Chief of Centcom — all claim they tried to talk Musharraf out of it:

Ms. Rice said she has had several conversations with General Musharraf in the past few weeks — the last one two days ago — in which she appealed to him not to declare emergency powers. The American ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, had also been exhorting General Musharraf and his top deputies against making that step, Ms. Rice said. [Link]

On Friday, U.S. officials had tried to pressure Musharraf to avoid declaring emergency rule or martial law. Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, met with Musharraf and had tried to encourage him to back down from his plan. [Link]

And they probably did. This isn’t good for the USA either. Still, now that it has happened, the US is stopping far short of unequivocal condemnation:

“We were clear that we did not support it,” Ms. Rice said… “We were clear that we didn’t support it because it would take Pakistan away from the path of democratic rule.” But even as she criticized General Musharraf’s power grab, Ms. Rice stopped short of outright condemnation of General Musharraf himself, even going so far as to credit him for doing “a lot” — in the past — toward preparing Pakistan for what she called a “path to democratic rule…” [Link]

In a statement last night, the Pentagon said the emergency declaration by Musharraf did not impact the US military support of Pakistan or its efforts in the war on terror. Spokesman Geoff Morrell said: ‘Pakistan is a very important ally in the war on terror and he [US Defence Secretary Robert Gates] is monitoring the situation there…’ [Link]

Everything seems to be in a holding pattern until it becomes clear what the popular reaction will be. For our Pakistani readers in need of legal levity (the sort prohibited by recent decrees) here’s Manish’s letter from Delhi to Islamabad, complete with advice on how to get along during a state of emergency. Stay safe.