Need for a Truth & Reconciliation Commission
ByAziz Narejo
TX
The first order of the day for the government should be to act on the 3rd November, 2007 order of the seven-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and restore the judiciary as it stood that fateful day. They don’t have any excuse for not doing so any more.
As I join the masses in Pakistan in their jubilation at the departure of a military dictator, I write these lines to address the present rulers in Pakistan. I know they have already started drum-beating to take credit for the departure of the general but I must warn them that they may soon be mourning again if they let the military dictator go without standing trial for his crimes against the elected assemblies, the Constitution, the people, and the country. There may come another long-booted savior to kick them out and put them behind bars or even hang one or two civvies next time around.
The civilian government has to change the way it has been doing business. They have to establish rule of law and have to discard the corrupt and inefficient elements they have inducted in their present governmental setup. The people must see that things have changed. At present it is merely the continuation of the decade of another civilian failure of the 1990s.
The government has to close doors on any future military adventurer. To do so it has to bring the military dictator and his collaborators to face the law. It must establish a “Truth & Reconciliation Commission” with people of unimpeachable character like Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, Asma Jahangir and others like them to look into the crimes and excesses of military as well as civilian rulers, bureaucrats, business leaders and others.
