The New York Times is reporting Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was on the brink of declaring a state of emergency this week but backed away after a gathering storm of media, political and diplomatic pressure. Part of the pressure came from the Bush administration. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called General Musharraf at about 2 a.m. on Thursday and exhorted him not to declare emergency rule. Under emergency rule, Musharraf would have been able to restrict freedom of movement and assembly, suspend Parliament and curtail the activities of the courts. Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said emergency rule would have been a major setback.

Benazir Bhutto: “We are all moving towards democracy, and General Musharraf has said he wants to take the country towards democracy, so I thought the imposition of emergency would be a very retrograde step and take us further away from the goal of the democratization of Pakistan. I thought it would also lead to internal instability, because the political parties and the legal community were bound to protest the imposition of emergency. But I am very relieved to find today that those reports were speculative, untrue, and that emergency is not being imposed.”