Lal Masjid operation report

Musharraf on backfoot again but military exonerated of responsibility

The political administration has been held accountable, the military top brass has been let off, is what the summary of the Lal Masjid Commission report reveals. The report is another blow to the former president Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, whose ill-fated return to the country continues to turn for the worse. The controversial 2007 operation in the federal capital still leaves a scar for both liberals, who question how such a high number of arms were accumulated, and conservatives, who question how such a high number of people were killed by the government without any accountability. The commission has also attempted to settle the question of how many people died by putting the number at 103. However, doubts about the figure still remain.

The commission has recommended that murder cases be registered against those identified and recommended that the former rulers be forced to pay compensations to aggrieved families. While the 304-page report submitted to the Supreme Court by the commission on March 22 has recommended that the lack of accountability could not be condoned for this “human tragedy.” The report has said that “history could not easily digest the notion that the then president, the prime minister, the cabinet particularly interior minister and other concerned ministers of Parliament and political parties, were not aware of the operation.” It has continued to say that “the political leadership at the helm of affairs cannot be absolved of the responsibility for the incident, particularly when it carries criminal liability.” The report has also expressed wonder at if the decisions were being taken by the president alone without being questioned. Surely, the commission is right in saying that accountability should be across the board. But its recommendation to absolve the military of responsibility shall remain controversial. The fact that the legal requirement of invoking Article 245 to call in the military in aid of civil power was met does not belie the fact that the Chief of Army Staff was the imposter president at the time.

The Lal Masjid’s Commission’s report remains a controversial one, but at least opens up the space for some accountability. It has called for compensating aggrieved families in the short term while, controversially again, recommended that the Jamia Hafsa plot be returned to the seminary. In the long term it has recommended that seminary syllabus be “broadened to include modern sciences…to integrate them into the national system” and that town planning should make sufficient provision for amenity plots for mosques and modern madrassah schools. The fact that the difficulties of implementation were the ones that led to the Lal Masjid operation has not been factored in. That said, the Lal Masjid Commission report, at least, is one step forward towards creating a more accountable state, and another step backwards for the retired general who once claimed the throne of president.