…if he doesn’t come back on his own
Ah, that other letter that the government wasn’t writing to a foreign body. The one to Interpol, for them to issue arrest warrants for former ruler Pervez Musharraf, in relation to the murder of Benazir Bhutto. Things are only going to get more interesting on this front.
Now, amongst the many, many times the generalissimo violated the constitution, was his refusal to address a joint session of the parliament more than once. The constitution decrees it to be mandatory once a year. The one time he got on that stage, however, he was booed down the way only politicians can manage; he couldn’t handle it. But later, when he used to be asked why he didn’t go there again, his response was that it would be an affront to the office of the president, facing such ridicule again.
In the interests of consistency, it would do him well to realise how bad a former president and chief of the armed forces would look, being dragged into the country by force. He should come back of his own free will. The polity had been tutored, ad nauseum, about how his parents hadn’t taught him to be scared (under the assumption that instincts like fear or, say, feeling chilly, have to be taught.) If that indeed is the case, perhaps the former army chief needs to demonstrate this marvel of modern parenting and come back to face the courts.
Certain judicial proceedings, like Mr Musharraf’s upcoming one, or even the prime minister’s ongoing contempt of court saga, counter-intuitively provide a good, rather than bad image of the country abroad. It gives the impression that all is not lost. That there is rule of law in the country and that there is accountability at the highest echelons of power.
The murder of two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who would have been running the country today had she been around, and for the investigations into the same to fizzle out into nothing, give the country a worse name than any long drawn out trial possibly can.
