It would be difficult to find a more apt sum-up of the popular reaction to the Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf’s coup against the system he set in place himself as President. With one fell stroke on November 3, Musharraf swept aside not only the Constitution, but also hobbled the independent judicial system and rolled back years of glasnost in the electronic media, the latter one of his most touted achievements in power.

Citing “threats to the existence of Pakistan itself” brought on by rising extremism and “a judiciary working at cross-purposes with the government”, he declared a state of Emergency and promulgated a new Provisional Constitutional Order under which judges had to seek a fresh oath. Simultaneously, new decrees were issued providing for stringent curbs on the media, including forbidding “the projection of anything…that defames, and brings into ridicule or disrepute, the head of state, or members of the armed forces or executive, judicial or legislative organs of the state.

All privately-owned television news channels, including foreign ones such as BBC and CNNwere blacked out even before the declaration of Emergency. Thus it fell to the print media—also under threat of punitive action—to inform Pakistanis that most of the judges of the Supreme Court and many of the judges of the provincial high courts— including two high court chief justices— had refused to take oath under the new Constitutional Order and that, in fact, seven judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, had even declared it unconstitutional before they were put under house arrest.

While some sitting ministers described the declaration as “Emergency Plus”, most people were under no illusion as to the nature of the new set-up.

“This is Martial Law,” pointed out Khalilur Rahman Ramday, one of the ousted senior judges of the Supreme Court. “A state of Emergency can be declared under the Constitution, but no order can replace the Constitution. This is patently illegal.” Pointedly, General Musharraf issued the orders as army chief, not as the President.

Musharraf has claimed that the federal and provincial cabinets will continue to govern “as nearly as may be, in accordance with the Constitution” and the existing legislatures—all except that of the North West Frontier Province, which was dissolved in September—will continue to exist till the expiry of their terms. But with fundamental rights suspended and no real Constitutional sanction, the cabinets and the legislature are unlikely to be anything more than rubber stamps.

Unlike in 1999—when the General had also suspended the Constitution and issued an order after his coup against premier Nawaz Sharif’s government— most people expect this spell of direct martial rule to be far harsher, as already evidenced by the nationwide brutal crackdown on dissent and the arrests of hundreds of protesting lawyers and civil society activists.

What makes this spell of martial rule different is that in 1999 Musharraf had the backing of a large segment of the population, which was fed up with Sharif’s misrule and Benazir Bhutto’s alleged corruption. He also had the backing of most of the judiciary which validated his takeover for an initial three years and there was no lawyers’ movement against him. He was also welcomed by the media as a liberal who opened up the sector.