Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule today, deploying troops and sacking a top judge in a bid to reassert his flagging authority against political rivals and Islamist militants.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan's internal security has deteriorated sharply in recent months with a wave of suicide attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants, including one that killed 139 people.
Pakistan police deploy on the streets of Islamabad
State-run Pakistan Television said Musharraf had suspended the constitution and declared an emergency, ending weeks of speculation that the general who seized power in a 1999 coup might impose emergency rule or martial law.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to Turkey, criticised the measures as "highly regrettable" and said she hoped Pakistan would have a free and fair election in January as promised.
Witnesses said troops were deployed at Pakistan Television and radio stations, and most phone lines were down. Other troops sealed off the thoroughfare where the presidency building, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court are located.
Shots were heard in several neighbourhoods of Karachi, where there is strong support for former opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister.
Television channels said that Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, whose earlier dismissal in March marked the beginning of a slide in Musharraf's popularity, had been told that his services were "no longer required".
Chaudhry had been reinstated in July.
President Musharraf had been awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether he was eligible to run for re-election last month while still army chief. The court had said on Friday it would reconvene on Monday and try to finish the case quickly.
Chaudhry and eight other judges refused to endorse the provisional constitutional order issued by the president.
Aitzaz Ahsan, president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association
, told reporters at his home he was being arrested. "One man has taken the entire nation hostage ... Time has come for General Musharraf to go," he said.
Fellow lawyers shouted "Go Musharraf Go" as Ahsan was taken away by police.
The move is expected to put off parliamentary elections due in January, although Pakistan Television said that the cabinet, national and provincial assemblies would continue to function.
A senior security official told Reuters that Musharraf would seek approval for the move from the cabinet later, after which there were expectations he would address the nation. T
Musharraf had said he would quit as army chief if he was given a second term, and he had allowed Bhutto back into Pakistan to lead her party into the national elections.