(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-23 20:44

ISLAMABAD -- The Supreme Court said Friday in a ruling that it upholded the emergency and the Provisional Constitutional Order promulgated by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3, a local TV channel DAWN NEWS reported.

The constitution of Pakistan should be restored as soon as the situation improves in the country, the Supreme Court said.

According to the verdict of the Supreme Court, the emergency proclaimed by Musharraf was similar to the 1977 and 1999 emergency. The fundamental rights of people will remain suspended, the verdict said.

The Supreme Court said that judicial activism paralyzed executive and legislature departments.

A larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar heard the applications against the emergency on Friday.

Musharraf proclaimed a state of emergency in the country and promulgated the PCO on November 3, holding the constitution in abeyance.

The former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, together with several other judges of the Supreme Court, was sacked on November 3.

The Supreme Court verdict also clarified that those judges who refused to take oath under the PCO would cease to hold office.