‘Enemy’ Forced Emergency Rule, New Pakistan Leader Says

In his first press conference since taking office three days ago, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan said Saturday that he was forced to declare a state of national emergency because “the enemy has penetrated the inner defenses of the country.”

He did not specify which enemy, but the president described Wednesday’s midair explosion and plane crash that killed military ruler Zia ul-Haq and 10 of his senior generals as “a dastardly crime.” He promised to publicly announce the results of an ongoing U.S.-Pakistani investigation into the disaster as soon as they are known.

Ishaq Khan, 73, who, as chairman of the Senate took office as Zia’s constitutional successor just hours after the general’s death, also emphasized that the state of emergency he has imposed is a mild one.

“The emergency itself does not hurt anybody,” he said. “It doesn’t break any bones.”

No Rights Suspended

None of the citizens’ constitutional rights have been suspended, he said, and the emergency is intended only to allow his government to act quickly “if a particular emergency arises.”

The new president repeated that national legislative elections will be held as scheduled on Nov. 16, but he also made clear that he does not agree with Zia’s recent decision to hold the balloting on a non-party basis, which would have hurt Zia’s principal political foe, Benazir Bhutto.

The issue, he said, is in the hands of the courts, but he indicated that he believes the formation and participation of political parties is a constitutional right.

In an attempt to reassure the millions of Pakistanis who fear that his is just a caretaker government and that another round of martial law is imminent, Ishaq Khan said: “The armed forces have no role under the constitution other than the defense of the country, the security of the country and to act in aid of the civilian power when asked to do so.

“It goes to the credit of the leadership of the present armed forces that they have exercised utmost restraint and discipline in the present tragedy, and they have put their whole weight behind the constitution.”

Threatens to Use Force

Ishaq Khan, who became the country’s first civilian president in more than a decade when he took office, took pains to picture himself as an open-minded and moderate constitutionalist. He added that his government is prepared to meet any additional threats with full force.

“We would spare no efforts whatsoever to take the most drastic measure conceiveable against any person who is found to be indulging in such subversive activity,” he said when asked whether two recent explosions in Karachi were part of an organized terrorist campaign against Pakistan.

Speculation in the Pakistani press about who might have been behind the attacks and Wednesday’s explosion of Zia’s C-130 military transport plane has focused on Pakistan’s two principal neighboring rivals, India and Afghanistan, and on the political supporters of Bhutto’s father, whom Zia ordered arrested and executed after overthrowing him in 1977.

Pressed about India, with which Pakistan has fought three wars since independence in 1947, Ishaq Khan said emphatically that his government has no evidence to implicate anyone or any nation yet.

“I think it would be pure speculation on my part if I say at this stage who can be responsible,” he said. “I would not like in these matters to levy any allegations against any power, any country--friend or enemy--without sufficient proof.”

In a prepared statement before answering questions, Ishaq Khan again stressed that his government will stand by all international commitments made by Zia, particularly its support for the Afghan moujahedeen resistance, which has been fighting a Soviet-backed Communist regime in Kabul from bases in Pakistan, and its close friendship with the United States.