Six weeks of martial law has made one thing clear. President Pervez Musharraf took the extra constitutional step exclusively to muzzle the independent media and force the defiant judges into submission. Since the Nov. 3 so called emergency rule, which in effect is total martial law, the establishment has used brute force and all illegal and immoral means to target the two states of the pillar, which basically work in tandem to hold the two other states of the pillar -- government and the executive -- accountable.

All the steps of the previous Shaukat Aziz regime and the Muhammadmian Soomro government after Nov. 15 were aimed at ensuring toothless media and judiciary so that all acts of the government and Musharraf are not challenged at any forum. No questions are asked and no criticism is made.  In short term, the government has succeeded in subverting the fundamental rights of the people to express freely through media and in case of victimization seek relief from independent courts.
     While the judges are arrested and kept at their homes, the media first faced black out on cable television after imposition of emergency rule on Nov. 3. The television channels were given a `black law’ or Pemra Ordinance, which was a 14-page document giving guidelines to journalists on how to `behave.’

Those who accepted those orders by the government were put back on air, while others continued to suffer and so much as that the transmission of two prominent broadcasters, GEO and ARY One World, was forcibly blocked from Dubai. While GEO was able to start its transmission from Dubai after more than a week while still off air in Pakistan, ARY One World accepted the black laws and its transmission was unblocked by Dubai government and it was put back on air on cable television in Pakistan.

Consequently, as a reward for accepting the black law, Pemra on Dec. 11 issued another black law detailing more harsh broadcasting conditions for television channels. Without identifying any broadcaster, the new order accused television channels of anti-state activities and limiting their news presentation by ordering them not to do live-in interviews or the commonly practiced phone-in reporting. The people in general and journalists in particular see the new law as an attempt to block the coverage of January 8 elections, which by all standards by the look of them promise to be the most rigged national elections after the 2002 balloting.

The Pemra law of Dec. 11, is the “most serious and an attempt to restrict television channels from election coverage,” according to a statement by Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) that day. The statement issued by Mazhar Abbas, Secretary General PFUJ, said it was surprising that without mentioning names the PEMRA issued warning to channels for violating its rules and went to the extend of accusing them of inciting violence.

"It’s not only a warning but a threat to all television channels and an attempt to silence the free media," it said while demanding the withdrawal of the threatening letter. If PEMRA has any case they should come out with evidence and follow proper legal course, the statement said.
 
"PEMRA is a black law from the very first day and the fresh amendment has made it the blackest anti-Press law since the Press and Publication Ordinance of the 60s," it said.

PFUJ strongly condemns PEMRA for accusing some channel with accusation of "anti-Pakistan," which is not acceptable without evidence and vowed to resist such pressures.

PFUJ feared that government wanted to impose complete ban on television channels before elections or convert majority of them into state control media.

"It appeared government is not ready to tolerate private television channels and such warning and threats is to increase pressure on free flow of information," it said.

Yet, the media people and the deposed judges supported by lawyers, civil society, students and some political parties have refused to submit to dictatorship. The demonstrations by media to protest against curbs has entered a sixth week and the judges are continuing to show defiance while the lawyers, civil society and students are on the streets protesting. By no means, this is the longest struggle by democratic forces in the country to fight for their rights. This nation has seen very long periods of up to 11 years of dictatorship, twice in Pakistan and, thus, the struggle continued for all those years.

In fact, the fight for rights is a continuous process in Pakistan since independence more than 60 years ago. During the breathing space of short-lived democracies provided by the military, the media fought against civil martial law administrators, who didn’t like criticism by the press a bit.
 
Therefore, the six weeks of protests by the journalists is by no means a ticket to freedom land. It is long struggle and it appears that it will continue even beyond the January elections as the next government will again use the same Pemra and its rules and laws to regulate the independent media.

Talat Hussain, director news at AAJ television, whose programme `Live With Talat’ has been shut down on the orders of the government, said that the government through Pemra is trying to create scare among the journalists so that they resort to self-censorship. He said the issuance of new black law a few days before the lifting of emergency on the proposed date of Dec. 15 is an indication that the government doesn’t want media to independently cover the elections and report the truth. The independent media won’t accept such pressure tactics, he said.

Hamid Mir, a senior anchor and Executive Editor at GEO television channel, whose programme `Capital Talk’ was forcibly shut down by the government rejected the new pemra law and said it was an attempt to sabotage the struggle and movement of the press against black laws. He said the government as yet has not been able to prove that the reporting by television channels was hurting the interests of the State.

The freaked out Musharraf regime is not only targeting the local media, particularly the television channels, the crackdown has been extended to foreign media as well. A week after the martial law, the government expelled three journalists working for the UK's Daily Telegraph after finding its editorial offensive. Apart from the United States administration, which since Nov. 3 has stood by Musharraf because the Pakistani president has displayed will to serve their interests, the governments of most countries, human rights bodies and the parliaments have condemned the acts of Musharraf regime. The world of today is too wise to understand that all these steps are not meant at fighting terrorists and extremists.

As Aitzaz Ahsan said, the only terrorists in Pakistan are he himself and three other lawyers who are still in jail or under house arrests. The police has the sole job to beat up lawyers, students, civil society members and journalists, while the security agencies suffer consistent failures at the hands of terrorists and extremists.

The Human Rights Watch has already called upon the international community to take concrete steps to prevent Pakistan's descent into a police state. "The world should not stand by as Musharraf engages in the systematic destruction of free speech, first inside Pakistan and now outside the country as well," the Human Rights Watch has said.