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Both the U.S. and UK governments strongly condemned President Musharraf’s decision to impose emergency rule, but the question now is how will they deal with him?

President Pervez Musharraf’s attempts to tighten his eight-year grip on power and his recent declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan dealt a blow to his American and British allies, who have been urging him to avoid this step.

President Musharraf cited “growing extremism” and “hostile judges” when he imposed emergency rule on Saturday. He suspended the constitution, sacked the nation’s top judge and brought in strict media curbs. (See video: State of emergency declared in Pakistan )

On Monday, hundreds of lawyers were arrested as protests erupted outside courtrooms in several Pakistani cities.

“It has never happened in the history of Pakistan that such a huge number of lawyers have been arrested,” said one former Karachi High Court judge, Rashid Razvi.

Both the U.S. and UK governments strongly condemned President Musharraf’s move, but the question now is how will they deal with him?

Their hopes of forming an alliance of convenience between President Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto – leading to elections in January – have been dashed, and their biggest challenge now is how to work with the Pakistani president while at the same time denounce his actions.

Both the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged President Musharraf to return to the democratic path which he has left.

“It is vital that the government acts in accordance with the constitution, and abides by the commitment to hold free and fair elections on schedule which President Musharraf reiterated to the prime minister when they spoke on 1 November,” Miliband said.

Condoleezza Rice had a similar line: “It is in the best interests of Pakistan and the Pakistani people for there to be a prompt return to the constitutional course, for there to be an affirmation that elections will be held for a new parliament.”

Rice also said the U.S. aid to Pakistan will be reviewed. However, much of this aid is linked to counter-terrorism and she said she doubted if President Bush would want to “set aside” these.

According to AFP, the U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said “We are reviewing all our assistance programmes (to Pakistan), although we are mindful not to do anything that would undermine counter-terrorism efforts.”

Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesman said the United States suspended annual defence talks with Pakistan because of the political situation.

However, the Pentagon press secretary said the emergency had had no immediate impact on U.S. military co-operation.

According to the BBC, the strongest U.S. message came from the White House, which demanded President Musharraf to relinquish his dual role as chief of the army. “President Musharraf needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before retaking the presidential oath of office,” said the statement.

President Musharraf had vowed in September that he would quit the army before being sworn in for a second five-year term after winning an October 6 presidential election. That step was expected by November 15, the end of his current term, pending a Supreme Court judgement on the legality of the election. This upcoming ruling is widely thought to have precipitated emergency rule, amid speculation it would have gone against the Pakistani president.

Now Bhutto says she thinks that emergency rule could delay elections by “at least one to two years”. “I very strongly feel that Pakistan’s very future as a moderate state is at stake.”

Despite growing international pressure on President Musharraf, the U.S. and UK will have to continue to depend on the Pakistani president as an ally in the war against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and in the war against Al-Qaeda.

Many analysts agree that the United States cannot really afford to alienate the Pakistani military. Indeed, Western states now fear that the present crisis could weaken some elements of the normally disciplined Pakistani army.

Overall, however, President Musharraf’s actions are a disappointment for the “forward strategy of freedom” proclaimed by President Bush in November 2003 as he championed the spread of democracy throughout the greater Middle East “and elsewhere”, as he put it.

The strategy for Pakistan was for a gradual return to democratic rule, but the opposite is happening, and yet the Bush administration is watching!

“Everything that is happening today is illegal, unconstitutional and against the orders of the Supreme Court,” sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said in an interview published in local daily The News.