[JURIST] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [official website; JURIST news archive] Friday promulgated an order to amend [amendment text] the Pakistani constitution, allowing the president to declare a state of emergency without parliamentary ratification and providing that any judge who has not taken an oath under the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007 [text] established under Musharraf's Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) [text as amended] ceased to hold office effective November 3. The move was widely seen as an attempt to validate and legitimize Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule [proclamation, PDF] and give constitutional cover to Musharraf's ousting of the country's Supreme Court and High Court judiciaries. Musharraf has promised to lift emergency rule on Saturday.

Last month, Musharraf amended the Pakistani constitution [JURIST report] to make the emergency and its accompanying orders immune from any legal challenge by deeming them always to have been validly made. Musharraf has the power to unilaterally amend the country's constitution under Article 2(1) of the PCO. AFP has more.