Musharraf indicted

Let justice take its course

Having harboured hopes of a bright political future with the backing of a Facebooking multitude, since his rather tepid landing back home prior to the elections 2013, Gen Pervez Musharraf has had to face many a rude shock. First, the evaporation of the promise of a ‘huge’ fan base followed by relentless legal grilling is something that he perhaps had not anticipated. With a number of serious cases registered and being actively probed against him, the former commando is already incarcerated, albeit in his own home. As if things were not already bad enough, a Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has now indicted him in the Benazir assassination case on three counts: murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation for murder. The half a dozen other accused in the case include among others former Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Saud Aziz and the then SP Khurram Shahzad.

The previous PPP dispensation had not made any headway into the investigation of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, one of the causes of alienation of some of its dedicated cadre though the assassinated twice former prime minister had nominated Gen Musharraf as one of his would-be assassins. So now this is one of the three major cases – the others being the Bugti murder case and the judges’ detention case – in which the former military dictator is under investigation. Since the very PML-N government that the now-retired general had ousted in a coup post which the Sharif family and the party leaders and workers were at the wrong end of the dictator’s ruthless stick, is back in office after a 13-year hiatus, there may be some doubts in some minds about the long arm of law dealing Musharraf equitably – especially when the higher judiciary too had to face the boot at his hands twice in 2007.

Despite this sordid history, which does not really paint Musharraf in glorious colours in any way, the former coup-making general should be dealt with in a manner that is not just transparent but quite visibly unbiased. That does not mean that investigation should favour him just because he had occupied high office once, but nonetheless there should be no hint of apparent or hidden vindictiveness. The difference between dictatorship and democracy should be obvious by the absence of a witch hunt and law and justice should be allowed to take its own course.