The emergency imposed by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will be lifted within a month provided the law and order situation in the country improves further, a top government lawyer said today. | |
| Attorney General Malik Qayyum said the security situation in Pakistan was the "main reason for the imposition of emergency and its continuance". |
| |
| "In any case, it won't go beyond two months because we don't want to make it a permanent feature. If the law and order situation improves or if there are no untoward incidents, it will be much sooner than that," said Qayyum, who has emerged as a key figure in the decision-making process in the past few weeks. |
| |
| He made it clear that the government intended to end the emergency in a month if the law and order situation improved. "I don't see the emergency continuing forever or even after two months," he told Dawn News channel. |
| |
| "The emergency had its effect and the situation is fast improving," Qayyum pointed out. |
| |
| Musharraf had cited the internal security situation, especially a spurt in activities by extremists, and judicial "interference" by the superior courts as the main reasons behind his decision to impose emergency on November 3. |
| |
| Asked about the arrest of a large number of lawyers, who have been at the forefront of protests against the emergency, Qayyum said most of them would be released "within days". |
| |
| Only lawyers against whom there was evidence and those detained for "heinous crimes" would be held by authorities, he said, adding such cases were "very few". |
| |
|
| |
