Islamabad, Nov 4 : For the first time in Pakistan’s history, it was a coup against the Supreme Court, contrary to the perennial tradition of directing such strikes against democratic governments and politicians.

The strike is aimed at purging the superior judiciary of judges whom the government considers defiant, as they would not be called to take oath under the new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).

This is the fundamental objective of the coup. Dozens of judges of the Supreme Court and the four High Courts would be sent packing.

Constitutional experts will no doubt assert that the extreme action has nothing to do with the Constitution.

"A PCO can only be introduced when you go beyond the Constitution," one of them remarked.

Musharraf imposed the martial law without giving the move such name because without resorting to it, he could not suspend the Constitution or issue the PCO.

He had not called martial law his coup of October 1999 and adopted the nomenclature of Chief Executive instead of the Chief Martial Law Administrator as suggested by Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada to give it the semblance of a civilian rule.

Musharraf had retained Rafiq Tarar as the civilian President, who remained a dummy in the General’s presence.

This time again, to tell the world that civilians continue to rule Pakistan even after Saturday’s coup, the civilian façade – Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, Governors and assemblies – have been kept in place. The assemblies may now have an extended life.

The extreme step followed a nerve-shattering logjam between the apex court and Musharraf, starting on March 9 when the General filed a reference against then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Musharraf felt beleaguered and cornered by successive decisions of the Supreme Court and was in no position to undo them. His position was constantly on the decline since March 9.

He had accepted the July 20 decision of the apex court that reinstated Chief Justice Chaudhry, throwing away the reference.

Musharraf did so because his own position was not directly threatened. Initially, he had accepted the apex court ruling that had allowed the Sharif brothers to come back to the country, ending their exile, but later the government violated it by bundling Sharif out of Pakistan from the Islamabad Airport.

But Musharraf’s very position as the president for the second term was under the gravest threat this time from the apex court, which was likely to hand down an adverse judgement on his eligibility as the presidential candidate.

He acted to pre-empt that eventuality as it was being widely talked about that in a majority decision, the Supreme Court was going to disqualify him, The News reported.

Musharraf-apex court confrontation had reached a level where Musharraf and his associates firmly believed that he was going to be ousted. It was a nerve-shattering tussle.

Many ministers kept saying that there would be no use of resorting to an extreme action after the apex court judgement. They also said that the prevailing confrontational situation couldn’t be further prolonged. (ANI)