[JURIST] Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf [official website] defended his decision to suspend the country's constitution [JURIST report] and impose emergency rule in a nationwide radio and television address [recorded audio in Urdu; English-language paraphrase from Geo-TV] delivered late Saturday local time. Musharraf said the step had been "painful" but because of an ongoing clash between the government and the judiciary the government system was "semi-paralyzed" even in the face of terrorism and extremism. He said government officials were being humiliated by the courts and that law enforcement agencies had been demoralized by the conviction of top officers. Addressing Western countries, Musharraf said that "Pakistan is on the verge of destabilization" and called for international support in fighting extremism and transitioning the country to democracy. AFP has more. The Associated Press of Pakistan has local coverage.

ARE YOU IN PAKISTAN?  What do you think of Musharraf's emergency rule declaration? Email JURIST@pitt.edu

Also Saturday, Musharraf promulgated two new press ordinances prohibiting print and electronic media from publishing or broadcasting material aiding and abetting terrorism or defaming public officials. APP has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush praised attorney general nominee Micheal Mukasey [WH profile; JURIST news archive] in his weekly radio address [text; recorded audio] on Saturday, predicting that the former federal judge would be confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday. Bush specifically defended Mukasey's stance on waterboarding [JURIST news archive], saying that because "the program" was classified, Mukasey was not in a position to give an informed legal opinion on a technique he had no certain knowledge of. He suggested that the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] would set an unfortunate precedent if it blocked Mukasey's confirmation for that reason: "it would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee for Attorney General. And that would guarantee that America would have no confirmed Attorney General during this time of war."

President Bush's comments came a day after leading Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) [official websites] said that they would support Mukasey's nomination. Their endorsements in combination with those of GOP colleagues would likely give Mukasey the ten votes that he needs for his nomination to pass the Judiciary Committee and advance to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation. Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said [JURIST report] earlier Friday that he would not support Mukasey's nomination, citing Mukasey's continued reluctance to unequivocally denounce waterboarding as illegal torture. AP has more.

[JURIST] US State Department officials Saturday expressed concern and skepticism about Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's decision to declare emergency rule [JURIST report] in Pakistan and suspend the country's constitution in a move largely designed to thwart an increasingly activist Pakistani judiciary. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack [official profile] said in a press statement [text]:

The United States is deeply disturbed by reports that Pakistani President Musharraf has taken extra-constitutional actions and has imposed a state of emergency. A state of emergency would be a sharp setback for Pakistani democracy and takes Pakistan off the path toward civilian rule. President Musharraf has stated repeatedly that he will step down as Chief of Army Staff before re-taking the presidential oath of office and has promised to hold elections by January 15th. We expect him to uphold these commitments and urge him to do so immediately.

[JURIST] A Canadian-based filmmaker accused of intending to spread propaganda will face a secret trial in Iran on November 17, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Saturday. Mehrnoushe Solouki holds dual French and Iranian nationality and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) [university website]. She has been in Iran since December 2006 with the permission of Iranian authorities and was making a film about events following the 1988 ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war. Authorities detained her in February, confiscating her notes and footage and charging her with intending to spread propaganda. She was released in March after her family paid 100 million toumen (80,000 euros) in bail but was barred from leaving the country. In a September Internet posting [text, in French] Solouki said she is not a "militant" but an independent and impartial filmmaker, describing her film project in detail. Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] has been calling for her release [press release] and has asked the French foreign ministry to intervene. The Globe & Mail has more. Quebec University's Journal L'UQAM has local coverage [in French].

Solouki is just one of several people detained in what Amnesty International and other human rights groups have called [press release] an "attempt by Iran’s security authorities to sow fear into the wider community of journalists, writers, scholars and activists". Solouki's trial is bound to complicate already-strained relations between Canada and Iran [JURIST news archive]; Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi [CBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] died in 2003 under suspicious circumstances while being held by Iranian officials for photographing a demonstration outside a Tehran prison. She was allegedly tortured and raped [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Pakistan state television announced Saturday that President Pervez Musharraf [official website] has appointed a new chief justice for the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] after dismissing Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] in the wake of suspending the country's constitution and declaring emergency rule [proclamation, PDF] earlier in the day. Media reports said Chaudhry had been told his services were "no longer required." Previous declarations of emergency rule in Pakistan have required judges to take a new oath of office before continuing in their positions. Chaudhry had instructed his Supreme Court colleagues not to take any oath [order, PDF] under the new Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) [text], but Musharraf is reported to have personally administered the oath of office to Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar [official profile]. Representatives of lawyers groups who supported Chaudhry after he was suspended by Musharraf in March denounced the new appointment as illegal, saying Dogar was already the subject of a corruption probe. DPA has more. AFP has additional coverage. The Pakistan Tribune has local coverage.

ARE YOU IN PAKISTAN?  What do you think of Musharraf's emergency rule declaration? Email JURIST@pitt.edu

Musharraf made the emergency declaration Saturday as the country anticipated a Supreme Court ruling [JURIST report] on whether Musharraf had been eligible to run for re-election as Pakistan's president while still army chief. Media reports suggested that the court had already prepared a ruling against Musharraf but had not yet released it. The Provisional Constitution Order issued by Musharraf bars the high court or any court from making "any order against the President or the Prime Minister or any person exercising powers or jurisdiction under this authority." Earlier Saturday Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported the high court judges, quarantined in their building by Pakistan security forces immediately following the declaration, had derided the PCO as “illegal and unconstitutional”. Dawn opined, however, that

under the circumstances chances of a major rebellion on part of the superior judiciary appeared highly unlikely. In any case, legal experts said, the government must have contemplated such a resistance, and as has been the past practice during military rule, some of the judges will not be invited to take oath, some will refuse, and a few will accept the new order to provide legitimacy to the this kind of emergency rule.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Martial Law by Another Name in Pakistan | Topic: Pakistan

[JURIST] The Venezuelan National Assembly [official website] on Friday approved by 160-7 a set of proposed amendments to the country's constitution [press release, in Spanish], including reforms that would eliminate presidential term limits and augment the president's emergency powers. The proposed amendments passed a preliminary vote [JURIST report] in the Assembly in August; all of the constitutional reforms will be subject to a two-part national referendum on December 2. The package also encompasses provisions allowing the president to declare an indefinite state of emergency, lowering the voting age from 18 to 16, reducing the working day to six hours, and prohibiting discrimination.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has touted the constitutional changes as necessary to advance Venezuela's socialist revolution. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has warned that the reforms would violate international law [press release] by allowing the president to suspend due process guarantees during times of emergency. Opposition politicians have accused Chavez [JURIST report] of using the constitutional reforms to consolidate his power over Venezuela. The National Assembly is overwhelmingly comprised of Chavez supporters, as opposition parties boycotted elections in 2005. AP has more. Bloomberg has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Pakistan's Supreme Court [official website] Saturday rejected [order, PDF] a declaration of emergency rule [proclamation, PDF] issued by President Pervez Musharraf [official website] earlier in the day after paramilitary troops and police blocked off the Supreme Court building with the judges still inside. Musharraf made the declaration and suspended the constitution as the country anticipated a ruling [JURIST report] by the court on whether Musharraf had been eligible to run for re-election as Pakistan's president while still army chief. Referring to Musharraf's military capacity, an announcer on state television said that "The chief of army staff has proclaimed a state of emergency and issued a provisional constitutional order." Local media reports said Musharraf would address the nation in the evening local time. Dawn, Pakistan's leading English-language newspaper, said that no official reason for the declaration was given, but explained that "[d]uring previous emergencies in Pakistan, a provisional constitutional order has led to the suspension of some basic rights of citizens and for judges to take a fresh oath of office." It did, however, quote Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Tariq Azeem as saying that regional security concerns had stimulated the government to fulfil its responsibility to maintain law and order at every cost. Azeem emphasized, however, that there technically was no martial law in force and insisted that the emergency declaration was permissible under Article 232 of Pakistan's constitution [text].

Dawn reported that controversial Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive] - previously suspended by Musharraf in March and only reinstated by Supreme Court order in July - has been told his "services are no longer required" and that the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan, has been arrested and ordered detained for 30 days. Bloomberg has more. Dawn has continuing local coverage.

1:25 PM ET - The text of Musharraf's Proclamation of Emergency cites a "spate of attacks on State infrastructure and on law enforcement agencies", but devotes most of its attention to disagreements with Pakistan's judiciary, explaining the declaration of emergency in these terms:

Whereas some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive nd legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism thereby weakening the Government and the nation's resolve and diluting the efficacy of its actions to control this menace;

Whereas there has been increasing interference by some members of the judiciary in government policy, adversely affecting economic growth, in particular;

Whereas constant interference in executive functions, including but not limited to the control of terrorist activity, economic policy, price controls, downsizing of corporations and urban planning, has weakened the writ of the government; the police force has been completely demoralised and is fast losing its efficacy to fight terrorism and Intelligence Agencies have been thwarted in their activities and prevented from pursuing terrorists;

Whereas some hard core militants, extremists, terrorists and suicide bombers, who were arrested and being investigated were ordered to be released.

The persons so released have subsequently been involved in heinous terrorist activities, resulting in loss of human life and property.

Militants across the country have, thus, been encouraged while law enforcement agencies subdued;

Whereas some judges by overstepping the limits of judicial authority have taken over the executive and legislative functions;

Whereas the Government is committed to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law and holds the superior judiciary in high esteem, it is nonetheless of paramount importance that the Honourable Judges confine the scope of their activity to the judicial function and not assume charge of administration;

Whereas an important Constitutional institution, the Supreme Judicial Council, has been made entirely irrelevant and non est by a recent order and judges have, thus, made themselves immune from inquiry into their conduct and put themselves beyond accountability;

Whereas the humiliating treatment meted to government officials by some members of the judiciary on a routine basis during court proceedings has demoralized the civil bureaucracy and senior government functionaries, to avoid being harassed, prefer inaction;

Whereas the law and order situation in the country as well as the economy have been adversely affected and trichotomy of powers eroded;

Whereas a situation has thus arisen where the Government of the country cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution and as the Constitution provides no solution for this situation, there is no way out except through emergent and extraordinary measures;

And whereas the situation has been reviewed in meetings with the Prime Minister, Governors of all four Provinces, and with Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Chiefs of the Armed Forces, Vice-Chief of Army Staff and Corps Commanders of the Pakistan Army;

Now, therefore, in pursuance of the deliberations and decisions of the said meetings, I General Pervez Musharraf, Chief of the Army Staff, proclaim Emergency throughout Pakistan.

I hereby order and proclaim that the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan shall remain in abeyance.

This Proclamation shall come into force at once.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Martial Law by Another Name in Pakistan | Topic: Pakistan

[JURIST] The Alaska Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that the Parental Consent Act, a state law requiring parental consent before pregnant teens under the age of 17 can have an abortion, violates the teens' constitutional right to privacy. Writing for the majority in a 3-2 decision, Chief Justice Dana Fabe [official profile] said:

The State's asserted interest in protecting a minor from her own immaturity by encouraging parental involvement in her decision-making process is undoubtedly compelling. But by prohibiting a minor from obtaining an abortion without parental consent, the Act effectively shifts that minor's fundamental right to choose if and when to have a child from the minor to her parents.

[JURIST] Yahoo! [corporate website] General Counsel Michael Callahan apologized to members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Friday for failing to clarify his testimony before the committee regarding Yahoo's involvement in providing information to the Chinese government about Shi Tao [JURIST report], who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for divulging state secrets abroad. Callahan testified during a February 2006 hearing that Yahoo's subsidiary in China provided the Chinese government information about Shi without knowing why the information was requested, but later that year discovered that the information was requested as part of a Chinese investigation into state secrets. Callahan apologized for not directly informing the committee of the new information. Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) [official website] has scheduled a hearing [HCFA materials; JURIST report] for November 6 on the issue, and both Callahan and Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang will be asked to testify.

Shi Tao was a reporter for the Contemporary Business News in China who also urged political reform. In April 2004, he used his Yahoo! email account to send a message to a pro-democracy website in the US. After requesting and receiving personal information about Shi from Yahoo!, the Chinese government charged him with providing state secrets to a foreign entity. He was convicted in April 2005 and sentenced to ten years in prison. Reuters has more.

In April, the World Organization for Human Rights USA [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Yahoo! on behalf of an incarcerated Chinese activist, alleging that the company aided and abetted human rights violations committed by the Chinese government by providing Chinese officials with information, including e-mail records and user ID numbers, that helped them to identify pro-democracy activists. A 2006 Amnesty International report criticized [JURIST report] Yahoo! and other Internet companies for so-called "Internet oppression," alleging that Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google have been complicit in efforts by the Chinese government to silence government critics in violation of stated corporate policies.