The government is in a tight spot in Musharraf treason case
Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf has won a legal battle, the final outcome however is yet to unfold. It is for the government now to decide if it wants to really take the case to its logical conclusion or use the court verdict as an opportunity to wriggle out of the Musharraf trial.
The PML-N government decided to pursue the treason case against Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution after inner debate in November 2013. The government nominated Musharraf as the sole accused responsible for imposing emergency which was subsequently declared by the Supreme Court to be an act of treason. It suited Musharraf to include more people in the conspiracy for three reasons. First, this helped diffuse the focus on Musharraf as the sole author of the emergency. Second, inclusion of a large number of important politicians and military personnel as collaborators was likely to build a strong pressure on the government forcing it to reconsider the idea of filing the case. Third, it helped project the image of Musharraf as a man who was forced to impose emergency, perhaps reluctantly, under strong pressure from the Prime Minister and his colleagues as well as powerful army generals. For Musharraf the politician, the image was supposed to be helpful.
The Special Court has partially accepted Musharraf’s plea and ordered the government to also include the names of the abettors in the fresh petition, particularly those of former PM Shaukat Aziz who according to Musharraf sent the proposal for the imposition of emergency, the then Law Minister Zahid Hamid who forwarded the proposal and former CJ Abdul Hameed Dogar who later validated the measure. The immediate outcome of the verdict is the resignation by Zahid Hamid from the position of federal minister. In case the government is willing to take the pressures, it can either go into appeal against the verdict or resubmit the complaint after including the required names. If it drops the case it would be accused of having chickened out after wasting millions of rupees on the case.
