Emergency Rule in Pakistan
I go to bed complaining about the giant floodlight that Hollywood installed outside my bedroom window, and I wake up reminded that there are bigger problems than what we get riled about here in the western world. In Pakistan the media has been shut down by President Pervez Musharraf and 11 judges on their Supreme Court have been confined to the Supreme Court building over the potential verdict in their decision over Musharraf’s election vicotry in October [bbc].
Since Metroblogging is a world wide network of blogs there are bloggers we know affected by this. Some important Metroblogging posts to check out if you’re following this story and want a local on the ground perspective come from Metroblogging Karachi [mbk], Metroblogging Lahore [mbl] and Metroblogging Islamabad [mbi].
Currently the only media sources in Pakistan seem to be the BBC and Al-Jazeera English. Internet connectivity still seems to be working. What Metroblogging will be doing is if the bloggers at our sites in those cities do not feel safe in posting material under their own names to their own MB city sites, they hopefully will be able to forward information to Metroblogging proper. Any such reports will be posted Metroblogging.com [mb].
From the thread by Sean Bonner on metroblogging.com:
“We are all safe here in Karachi. All news channels are blocked & so [are] all news sites like cnn.com. Local calls are also blocked. I have heard from relatives abroad that it is being reported that traffic in karachi is bleak & Martial Law has been enforced. I want to clarify that there is nothing like that. Yes the traffic is a bit less but only because the president is to address the nation anytime. Also there is no Martial Law announced yet!”
I’m currently talking with a few of our bloggers via IM and things seem calm though they are confirming the news/phone block however the net it still up and running so far. More soon.
We’ll do out best here to keep you updated as things happen. Also we’re all hoping our fellow Metrobloggers, and everyone else, are okay.
Today’s a good day to remember our soldiers in Afghanistan, who may well have to deal with some pretty horrific fallout (hopefully the metaphorical kind) as a result of the bad news in Pakistan.