Need for caution

For the sake of democracy

The decision to try former dictator Pervez Musharraf by the PML-N government is indeed a bold one. The military in the past literally got away with murder. No civilian leader had the guts to bring them to book for their misdeeds.

Ayub Khan was the pioneer in setting the tradition of the army deposing a civilian government. He ruled with an iron hand for a little over a decade.

In the process he destroyed all political institutions. Deposed by his handpicked military strongman Gen. Yayha Khan he did not have to pay for his crimes.

Yayha who presided over the breakup of Pakistan and Ayub both died peacefully at their homes. Ironically the Hamood ur Rehman Commission Report probing the causes of the East Pkistan debacle was only partially made public, that too some 30 years too late.

Thankfully Zia ul Haq, another general, who after sending Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the gallows ruled this hapless country for eleven years in the name of Islam, died in a mysterious plane crash. Otherwise he too would never have paid for his sins.

The nation is still reeling under the legacy of these generals. The last but not the least being Musharraf himself. Most of the problems including terrorism, the decay of institutions and schism in the society can be traced back to these Bonapartists.

Musharraf must be ruing the day he decided to return from his comfortable exile in London and Dubai. Everyone is wondering what persuaded him to come back at his own peril?

Obviously the general is suffering from a messiah complex, a trait not so uncommon in strongmen. Musharraf actually believes that not only did he do no wrong his era was a blessing for the Pakistanis.

At a dinner in Lahore hosted by a friend in August 2007, when asked by an invitee in my presence, why do leaders like him develop a messiah complex, Musharraf did not deny the charge. According to him the Pakistani nation had prospered in every field under his rule and should be thankful to him for this benevolence. This was at the height of the judicial crisis and amply demonstrated how divorced Musharraf was from reality.

Nonetheless now his fate hangs in the balance. He is at the mercy of those very forces at whose expense he ruled for so long. Of course he did not only depose Sharif, he also humiliated him. Ultimately the whole Sharif family went into exile to Saudi Arabia as a result of international intervention.

As for the judiciary, initially it validated Musharraf’s takeover. The apex court had no qualms in giving the military dictator carte blanche to amend the constitution as well – and for three long years. But ultimately the same judiciary became his nemesis.

Indeed history is being created in Pakistan. No one could have envisaged that a general could be tried for high treason under Article 6(A) of the constitution for his sins of omission and commission.

It is indeed a bold and courageous step on part of the PML-N government to embark on this strategy in the first few weeks of its induction. The obvious question being asked is: What will be the reaction of the military to these moves?

Till now the military leadership has maintained a stony silence on the whole matter. But soon it will have to take a position on one of its own being tried for high treason.

It is possible albeit not probable that Nawaz Sharif might have discussed Musharraf’s fate with the COAS Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. It is certain however that Sharif’s move is dictated by personal as well as political considerations.

Personally Nawaz could not have forgotten the manner in which he was tried for treason by an anti-terrorism court. Elevating Musharraf at the expense of more senior generals was a cynical move by Sharif as prime minister. He had mistakenly assumed that a Mohajir COAS handpicked by him would be more loyal to him than the institution.

Sharif soon realized his mistake and tried to cut his army chief down to size. In the ensuing tensions in the wake of the Kargil misadventure Musharraf booted him out.

On a political level trying Musharraf at this stage diverts the attention of the people from the deep crisis of state fraught with rampant terrorism and economic chaos. Sharif must have calculated that in the next six months the President, COAS and the Chief Justice of Pakistan are all due to retire. Hence this gives him a window to start consolidating power.

However he has to tread carefully on the path he has chosen for himself. In the past his efforts to amass power in his own hands met with disastrous results. Ostensibly he was successful in sacking one of his army chiefs, Gen. Jahangir Karamat.

He was within his rights as prime minister to do so. But when he tried the same recipe with Musharraf while in mid-air between Colombo and Karachi the generals on the ground deposed him even before their chief had landed back home.

Notwithstanding probity of bringing the military under firm civilian control, the question that begs an answer is whether ‘the most powerful institution’ will take it lying down? Musharraf and Kayani are not the best of friends. Like Sharif, Musharraf mistakenly assumed that his hand-picked nominee would be loyal to him rather than the institution. It can well become the question of the institution rather than the person.

A lot of analysts feel that the former dictator’s trial will be divisive in the sense that it will open a Pandora’s Box. If November 3, 2007 emergency-plus was treason what was October 12, 1999, they contend.

Why cherry-pick and try Musharraf for treason for imposing emergency and not touch the mother of all coups that deposed Sharif? The apex court validated the October 12, 1999 action and some of the judges of the present Supreme Court including the CJ took oath under Musharraf’s provisional constitutional order (PCO). This might be legally covered by subsequent amendments in the constitution but why not try the former dictator for his original sin?

Then a number of the present cabinet members and of the ruling party were part of the Musharraf team. Were they not party to the military dictator’s misdeeds?

Nawaz Sharif has also decided to reopen Swiss cases against Zardari. Whatever the truth behind the PPP government’s double-dealing with the Supreme Court, the matter smacks of a political vendetta harking back to the politics of the 1990s. What about other beneficiaries of the NRO? Or is it that the whole matter is Zardari specific?

A perception is building that Sharif is afflicted with the same syndrome that dominated his previous rule – which ended disastrously. Hopefully better sense will and should prevail this time, for the sake of the country and democracy.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today