Mansoor Jafar Al Arabiya Although the honeymoon period of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is not yet over, he created quite a stir in the political atmosphere last week by announcing that he would try former military dictator General [retired] Pervez Musharraf for “treason” and “subversion of the constitution”. Addressing parliament, Nawaz Sharif said: “General [retired] Musharraf will be tried for dissolving the Supreme Court on November 3, 2007, arresting all judges and subjecting them to torture after the chief justice refused to carry out his illegal demands. He [Musharraf] will be tried under Article 6 of the constitution which carries the death sentence.” General Musharraf was considered responsible for the Kargil war with India which created bad blood between him and then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who finally dismissed him on October 12, 1999 while he was visiting Sri Lanka. Sharif ordered that Musharraf be replaced with a junior general and refused to allow his plane to land in Karachi, but his fellow generals acted swiftly and toppled Sharif's government while Musharraf was still on the plane. He declared martial law after landing and later had Nawaz Sharif sentenced to death for hijacking his plane. Sharif was later pardoned as part of a Riyadh-brokered deal that included his leaving Pakistan to live in exile in Jeddah. What has stunned the nation is the fact that Nawaz Sharif is refraining from trying General Musharraf for subverting the constitution by toppling an elected government and imposing military rule. He is merely trying Musharraf for crimes against the judiciary, committed eight years after he had become the illegal ruler of the country. Nawaz Sharif received mixed responses for the move. The majority praised him for taking a historic step which will protect democracy from future military adventurers. Workers and supporters of his party were joyous, since Nawaz had vowed in his election campaign to hold General Musharraf accountable for treason and subversion of the constitution. But, letting Musharraf off the hook for his biggest crime will allow all previous generals who had imposed martial law before him to go scot-free along with those who abetted and supported military regimes in exercising illegal power. Furthermore, it will also facilitate the superior judiciary which had justified military rule by citing the infamous “doctrine of necessity”. This move will also exonerate politicians, including Nawaz Sharif himself, who had been sidekicks to military dictators and who rode into the political arena sitting on their laps. I support those who believe that this half-cooked treason trial of a military dictator who has been the chief facilitator of US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan is merely eyewash to preempt the anger of the masses at the recent budget which includes tougher taxes for the common man who is already crushed under heavy taxation. Nawaz Sharif has presented his first budget with increased indirect taxes on the common man and the reduction of subsidies on power and food. This is in complete opposition to his electoral promises and has already in five weeks in office earned him the public wrath which it took the PPP-led regime many years to earn. With this move, Nawaz Sharif is trying to kill many birds with one stone. This compromised treason trial will soothe party workers who have been demanding the death penalty for Musharraf for overthrowing the second government of Nawaz Sharif. It will not drag all previous military-dictator generals into the dock for posthumous hanging like the British parliament did to General Cromwell. Thus it will preempt another military coup against Nawaz Sharif, who was notorious for stubborn confrontations with military and civil establishments in the past which led to the premature termination of his two governments. And most importantly, it will not create any bad blood in his relations with the US and UK at the beginning of his third and probably last innings in government. To try Musharraf for treason under Article 6 of the constitution, the government will have to empower the secretary of the Ministry of Interior to formally prosecute the accused before a special court to be established by the government comprising three senior judges of the High Court. Legal experts say the sincerity of the Nawaz government in prosecuting General Musharraf will become clear if it fails to constitute the special court in time to start the trial. So far, the military generals have preferred to keep quiet about the imminent legal retribution of their former boss. However, their role is believed to be active in providing General Musharraf with a VIP arrest in his magnificent farmhouse protected by his private guards on the outskirts of Islamabad where he enjoys all sorts of luxuries, and conducts meeting with US senators and other guests. But the investigators probing his role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto have been refused entry by his guards. The late Field Marshal Ayub Khan was the first military dictator who abrogated the newly enforced constitution in 1958 and laid the foundation for future military dictatorships. General Yahya Khan was the second who grabbed power on the pretext of unrest and caused the country to be dismembered. Third was religious-minded General Ziaul Haq who called the constitution a piece of paper, and permitted the institutionalized intervention of the army in all spheres of life. The fourth dictator, General Pervez Musharraf not only trampled the law but also crossed all limits of morality and decency, putting every state institution under his feet, mercilessly killing thousands of Islamists, selling them off to the CIA, and incinerating hundreds of unarmed girl students with phosphorus bombs. The movement against his illegal rule included all sections of society including lawyers, intellectuals, religious scholars, journalists, civil society, etc. Pakistan believes in democracy and the rule of law and has made huge sacrifices for the sake of those causes. The recent struggle over the last few years has given the nation an independent judiciary. Punishing a military dictator has always been the dream of the nation which had spent 60 percent of its history under military dictatorships. Realizing this dream could put the country back on the road of the rule of law. Yet, the maneuvering of the law and selective prosecution will further deprive the nation of this dream. This trial is the test of Nawaz Sharif's sincerity with the nation and its future. – Mansoor Jafar is editor of Al Arabiya Urdu based in Islamabad. Follow him on Twitter @mansoorjafar
