Unwarranted Harassment
By Dr I. Kamal
CA
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearer is dumb.
So he opened not his mouth;
In his humility his judgment was taken away,
His innocence who shall proclaim?
Isiah 53:7
As a number of newspaper articles and talk show hosts have pointed out, former President Parvez Musharraf has been getting a raw deal at the hands of those whose duty it is to uphold the law.
For the past seven years, corrupt politicians and sections of the paid and prejudiced media in Pakistan have been repeatedly putting the blame for Benazir Bhuttos 's and Bugti’s murder, the Lal Masjid incident, etc., etc., on General (Retd.) Musharraf - so much so that the public has been duped into believing it, confirming the assertion by Josef Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
The myth of his involvement in BB’s murder was created several months after her assassination by some members of a political party which had always required a martyr in order to survive, and felt that there was more glamour in being martyred by a head of state rather than by the same bunch of terrorists who had made several attempts on the life of Musharraf himself. It was also done to point the fingers away from where they had started to be pointed, as indicated on several talk shows by interviews with former party leaders and by questions about BB’s driver who was shot dead after her assassination under suspicious circumstances. Bugti’s so-called murder was the result of a military combat in which he was engaged against the armed forces of Pakistan. The lies about the Lal Masjid case have been exposed by the official enquiry report that has recently come out.
Musharraf voluntarily came back to Pakistan, endangering his life, because he felt that things needed to be righted, and in order to clear his name. His attempts to participate in the elections were thwarted by a fickle Returning Officer on the basis of objections from men on the street, negating the fundamental legal principle of a man being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Amidst a list of candidates full of NAB (National Accountability Bureau) offenders, loan-defaulters, tax evaders and a former Prime Minister whose arrest was ordered by the Supreme Court but happily ignored by the Administration, Musharraf was the only candidate who was debarred. Early in May, 2013, a four-member bench headed by the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court debarred Pervez Musharraf from politics for life on the premises that he had abrogated the Constitution twice. This is the same Chief Justice who, three weeks earlier, in response to a writ filed by Barrister Bacha had stated that the Supreme Court and parliament had approved Musharraf’s acts. The following is a verbatim reproduction of a news item dated April 11, 2013 published in The News International, Pakistan:
"SC, parliament had approved Musharraf’s acts
News Desk
Thursday, April 11, 2013
From Print Edition
PESHAWAR: Chief Justice Peshawar High Court (PHC) Dost Muhammad Khan observed on Wednesday that it was necessary to challenge the 17th Amendment in the Constitution before challenging all the illegal steps of former military ruler General (R) Pervez Musharraf.
He said the Supreme Court and the Parliament had already approved all the actions of Musharraf. The PHC chief justice gave these remarks while hearing a writ petition filed by Barrister Bacha against Musharraf.
The writ has adopted before the court that all the actions of Musharraf from Oct 12, 1999 to 2009 are illegal. The writ states that the former military ruler abrogated the constitution and deposed the superior judiciary. It said Musharraf allowed the US to conduct drone strikes in Pakistan, which not only caused the death of innocent women and children but also challenged the country’s sovereignty.
Despite all his acts, the writ says, Musharraf has returned to Pakistan to take part in the general elections. Therefore, it says, a case of treason should be registered against Musharraf.
However, the court disposed of the case with the observation that it was necessary to challenge the 17th Amendment before accepting the plea of the petitioner as the Parliament and the apex court had approved all these steps."
Related views about the necessity to open the full “Pandora’s Box” of former supporters of military generals were expressed in the recently constituted National Assembly by veteran, God-fearing politicians such as Abdus Samad Khan Achakzai and Sheikh Rasheed.
As Shakespeare wrote, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them (Twelfth Night, Act ii, Scene 5)”. Musharraf virtually had greatness thrust upon him when the Pakistan Army reacted in response to the powers that were, who were ready to send him along with 200+ airline passengers, including women and children, to a fiery death with just a few minutes of fuel remaining.
Musharraf always acted in the best interests of his country, and he always made sure that all his actions met the legal and constitutional requirements under the laws existing at that time. Now he is being subjected to the same harassment which is the lot of so many under-trial prisoners in Pakistan – refusal of bail without credible reason, postponements, delays, remands upon remands, changing of judges and prosecutors, and adjournments without a hearing. The views of Transparency International on the status of the judicial system in Pakistan are known to many of the readers. Perhaps Musharraf can draw some comfort from the following excerpt from a speech by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, eminent scholar and undivided India’s valiant freedom fighter, to his British judges (translated from the book “Jail Mein Azad” by Mohammad Farooq Qureshi, page 31):
"History bears witness to the fact that, whenever the ruling classes have taken up arms against freedom and truth, the courts have provided them with the easiest and surest weaponry. The power of the court is a force which can be used for both justice and injustice. In the hands of a just government, this force is the best means of delivering justice and truth, but in the hands of tyrannical governments there is no greater weapon for revenge and injustice.
“Apart from the battlefields, the greatest injustices in human history have been meted out in the edifices of the courts. From the holy founders of religion to the discoverers and inventors of science, there is hardly any pure and truth-oriented group which has not been made to stand in court among common criminals.
“The list of the injustices dealt by the courts is very long and history is not yet done with lamenting over it. In that list we see a pure human being such as Jesus Christ who was made to stand among thieves in the court of a foreign ruler; we see Socrates who had to drink poison only because he was the most truthful person in the country; we see the mouthpiece of reality, Galileo of Florence, who could not deny his observations and findings because it would have been a crime to deny them in the court of truth.”
The authorities are baffled because there is no case against Parvez Musharraf. The best they could do is to keep him silent during the crucial elections, which they have successfully done. Now there is much talk about guarantors and safe passage. Before he came to Pakistan, Musharraf had said that his only guarantor is God Almighty. A true soldier does not run away from hardship and death. He stands firm.
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