Daily Times

Mr Nawaz Sharif
announced in the National Assembly on June 24, 2013 that his government would support the trial of General (Retd) Syed Pervez Musharraf for treason. Sharif has very few options in the current scenario and it seems he desperately needs a diversion from the problems his government is facing right at the start. The massacre in Quetta, attack in Ziarat, foreign mountaineers’ killings in Fairy Meadows, blast in a Shia Mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and requesting the IMF for a loan are shockers for a bewildered nation. The third time PM does not know where to look. Then he found an escape: the Musharraf trial! He made the announcement, and bingo, it hit the bull’s eye. All failures of the new government were, for the time being, washed off by the media. Hamid Mir and his like spew venom to their heart’s content. They declared Musharraf guilty even before the trial. In short, all kinds of ‘headlines’ changed. Government failures, terror attacks, questionable budget, power breakdowns and everything else became secondary. The Finance Minister got a break to quietly extend the deadline for the IMF payment. IMF is no friend of Musharraf anyway because his government paid the loans and refused any new ones.

The work-style of the third time PM is no different from his two earlier terms. He must pick up a quarrel as a habit. His earlier terms are remembered for attacks on courts and army chiefs, and now the attack is on a former president. So there is no surprise, the third time ‘new’ PM is the same as before.

Now let us look at the substance of Sharif’s announcement. He threw in words like ‘constitutional requirement’ and ‘answerable for his deeds’, etc. Everyone is answerable for their deeds in the eyes of the law of the country. So will be PM Sharif. But then ‘everyone’ means everyone, justice cannot be and should not be selective. This is what is clear in Article 25 of the constitution. Selective justice is neither justice nor credible in the eyes of the world. So it has to be for all who have violated the constitution or abetted and supported the violation. The slate is to be cleaned from 1958 and every one of the ‘abettors and supporters’ have to be in the dock. Also, how can law be enforced only when the National Assembly members are sent home and not when thousands of innocent people are killed by terrorists and violations become a routine for the corrupt?

As for the analysis done by competent legal minds on TV networks, justice will demand that all those who violated the constitution in any way, including abrogation, should be tried along with supporters and abettors. In the National Assembly this was hinted at by Khursheed Shah, but he soon lost his point in the frivolous demand of removing photographs! Once again trying to punish all those they dislike before a trial! A very strange attitude from the so-called ‘law makers’. The most hurtful act was the hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and I hope that when Shah mentioned all dictators, he actually included the dictator who hanged Bhutto, and those who lost half the country and their abettors and supporters.

The real fact is that PM Sharif has earned a short-term escape from the realities of his early failures, but the trial of Musharraf is not as simple as some simpletons think. If looked at carefully, PM Sharif will also need to stand in the dock as an abettor, supporter and beneficiary of the worst martial law in our history. He owes his political career to Ziaul Haq and no one else. Also in the dock should be all those members of the judiciary who validated the suppression of the constitution at different times. Then there will be members of the armed forces to queue in the dock along with other civil servants and politicians. The list is long and may even include those who distributed sweets when politicians were gotten rid of and those who supported the referendum, including Imran Khan, several journalists and media men. If we are going back to 1958 for cleansing then shouldn’t we recall the support given to General Ayub Khan by Bhutto? I personally remember Bhutto’s powerful speeches supporting General Khan against Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah.

This cleansing, then, should be done thoroughly and completely. The law must be enforced in all areas. PM Sharif must immediately enforce the law and order, from traffic violations to millions of dollars corruption, billions of money laundering, the constant terror attacks, and corruption in religious sects, the judiciary, journalists, civil servants and men in uniform. Law should be enforced on rapists, big-time thieves of electricity, blackmailers, kidnappers, holders of unexplained huge assets in foreign countries, tax evaders, land grabbers, smugglers, drug mafias, etc. This list is still not complete. It may never be complete because new avenues will be discovered by criminal minds, maybe like cyber crime.

There is a lot to do to become a ‘born again’ clean nation. The previous government must have taken stock of the complications and decided not to get involved in the trial exercise. PM Sharif had set out his priorities as provision of electricity to the public, enforcement of law and order and control of terrorism and improvement in economy. He has made no headway so far in these public interest matters except the issuance of ‘statements’ and ‘condemnations’. The offers of oil supply and bonds to get rid of circular debt have vanished.

I evaluated the third term PM’s chances of success as slim in my articles earlier. His slogans worked no more than election ploys. His priorities have changed now. Service to nation is abandoned, and personal vendetta in the garb of total cleansing has taken over.

One wonders how far it would take him!

The writer is the former CEO Pakistan National Council of the Arts; Chairman Fruit processing Industries; Chairman UNESCO Theatre Institute Pakistan; COO ‘ICTV’ USA, and currently, Senior Vice President APML (Central). He can be reached at naeemtahir37@gmail.com