How right was Musharraf, when he said that he will never shed off his uniform, for we now see the real man in the skin, minus the uniform. A man whose lawyer pleads crying that his client’s aged old mother being unwell in Dubai, wants to see his son.
This is a former military dictator who brought into disrepute the sacred institution of our armed forces, whose officers and men today are insecure because of threats of terrorism, a consequence of a war the General hastily lead this nation into, without any planning or discourse to analyze the consequences of such an act. His obsession with an ill-planned Kargil operation cost this country lives of over a thousand sons of soil and diplomatic shame. Here is a man who felt no remorse in accepting that he handed over citizens of this country to foreign forces, instead of trying them within this sovereign country, where there existed laws, a constitution and a functioning judiciary. He has no regrets for his mistreatment of a daughter of Pakistan, Dr Shazia Khalid allegedly raped in Baluchistan. This is a man who unlike a gentleman and an officer broke the oath of office that he took to uphold constitution and never take part in politics.
He played to the international galleries to perpetuate his illegitimate dictatorship. He created another shameful feat when he sacked the judiciary, confined them with their wives and children to their homes. This is a man who stood up on 12 May 2007 and raised his fists glorifying the mayhem in Karachi as a show of force, an act which makes him guilty by confession of planned mass murder just the crimes committed by Pol Pot. His treacherous abuse of power, such as ordering murder of Nawab Bugti, has helped an insurgency to gain foothold. His crimes are innumerable and unpardonable, yet like a bad sore or a cancer, this country needs to surgically erase his memory, even if that means sending him into exile for life. Let it be remembered that people of Pakistan allowed a criminal to get away on pretext of visiting his aged old mother, although justice demands that he be tried under Article 6.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
