The Pakistan government is trying to intimidate the Supreme Court, which is hearing the legal challenges to President Pervez Musharraf's controversial October 6 re-election, a human rights watchdog has alleged.
Government ministers, Human Rights Watch pointed out, have repeatedly indicated that should the Supreme Court rule Musharraf's election illegal, the military could suspend the Constitution, impose martial law and fire the judges.
"The government is attempting to frighten the judiciary into submission and is holding Pakistan, its Constitution and its people hostage to Musharraf's desire to cling to power," the Human Rights Watch said.
"Musharraf should publicly state that he will accept the decision of the Supreme Court and withdraw the threat of martial law," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"Musharraf seems to be giving the Pakistani people an impossible choice: democracy if he succeeds in his bid to stay in power or martial law if the judiciary tries to prevent him from remaining in office," said Adams.
"After eight years of military rule, Pakistan needs legitimate parliamentary and presidential elections to get back on the path to genuine democratic rule," he stressed.
Asking the United States, Britain and Pakistan's other allies to insist upon rule of law, he warned that otherwise, they would be seen by Pakistanis as supporters of an "abusive military strongman."
"The Bush administration's continued support for a coup-maker holding onto office by his fingernails is pushing Pakistan into a growing crisis," said Adams.
Since taking power in a 1999 coup, Musharraf has remained as army chief and president, even though the Pakistani Constitution prohibits the chief of the army from holding political office, Adams says.
In 2003, Musharraf pledged to cede one of the posts by December 2004. But he publicly reneged on this pledge a year later.
On September 28, the Supreme Court dismissed legal challenges to Musharraf holding the office of army chief and president on technical grounds, but it did not rule on the merits of Musharraf holding both offices simultaneously.
On October 5, in response to further legal challenges, the court allowed the election process to move forward, but said that the results of the election would be prevented from taking legal effect until it finished considering the challenges.
Pakistan's Constitution requires the National Assembly, Senate and the four provincial assemblies elect the president.
Musharraf was elected on October 6 by an indirect vote of national and provincial assembly members.
Pakistan's opposition parties resigned their seats or boycotted the election in protest, leaving only Musharraf's supporters, who enjoy a majority in the electoral college, to elect him.
Musharraf has "arbitrarily amended" the Pakistani Constitution to empower the presidency, sideline and weaken elected representatives, and formalise the role of the army in governance, he said adding, since the 1999 coup, the military has enjoyed impunity for abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture, "disappearances", arbitrary arrests and the persecution of political opponents.
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