Confusion about what the coming days could bring can be gauged from Benazir Bhutto’s travel schedule. The News (November 1) reported that at a “hastily-arranged press conference in Karachi on Wednesday, she said she had postponed plans to visit her family in Dubai upon hearing rumours that the government could impose emergency in her absence. The next day the newspaper reported that she had left for Dubai on Thursday afternoon: “(She) told the media that she left for Dubai to see her ailing mother Begum Nusrat Bhutto and her children who were disturbed after the bomb blast incident in the homecoming parade for Benazir on Oct 18.” She is scheduled to return in time to address a rally in Rawalpindi on November 9.

The Daily Times’s editorial on Friday connected the timing of the rumours to the impending Supreme Court verdict on the re-election of President General Pervez Musharraf. The verdict is likely to come early next week. “Emergency or martial law” would allow the government “to suspend the normal application of the Constitution, allowing the General Musharraf establishment to postpone the January 2008 general elections.”

In his Friday Times column, Najam Sethi weighed the possible outcomes of the verdict: “The Supreme Court’s judgment on the fate of General Pervez Musharraf will have a profound impact on Pakistan’s future. If the judges should decide to accord legitimacy to President Musharraf, he will take off his uniform (which is what everyone wants him to do), hold relatively free elections (which is what everyone wants him to do) and enable a merited successor to take over as army chief (which is what everyone wants him to do). This will provide a degree of continuity and stability... But if the judges decide to sway with the wind and try to knock out General Musharraf, he will impose martial law, scuttle the court, and reverse the transition to democracy. Pakistan would plunge into an abyss of fear and uncertainty. The domestic political process would be derailed and the international community would become anxious. There would be protests and repression.”

... contd.