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Musharraf makes last-minute change to Constitution

Although Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will end emergency rule today as promised, he will first amend the Constitution to protect his decisions from court review, the Pakistani attorney general said. Meanwhile, a UN envoy warned upcoming elections have already been rigged.

Malik Mohammed Qayyum said that government legal experts were finalizing the amendments and that the changes would be announced before the state of emergency is lifted. He provided no details.

"The president will lift the emergency to restore the Constitution and the fundamental rights," Qayyum said on Thursday.

Musharraf, who has acknowledged breaching constitutional protections, purged the judiciary, jailed thousands of opponents and silenced television news channels after he suspended the Constitution and declared emergency rule on Nov. 3.

The US-backed leader said he acted to prevent political chaos and to give authorities a freer hand against Islamic militants. Critics accuse him of making a power grab before the old Supreme Court could rule on the legality of his continued rule.

Meanwhile, a UN human rights envoy on Thursday told lawmakers in Washington not to send any delegation to monitor the upcoming election in Pakistan, which she said was already rigged by Musharraf.

"There is no point in monitoring the elections or watching the poll -- the rigging has already happened," said Hina Jilani, a prominent Pakistani attorney who is also the UN special envoy for human rights defenders.

She made the remarks after lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on the political crisis in Pakistan sought her opinion on the prospect of monitoring the Jan. 8 polls.

Jilani, cofounder of the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, charged that Musharraf had already destroyed institutions such as the judiciary and the press.

Earlier, Democratic lawmakers Sheila Jackson Lee and Jim Moran had told Jilani they were considering the possibility of going to Pakistan as part of a congressional delegation to monitor the election process.
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