Gen Pervez Musharraf (rtd) is back in the headlines. Though the man who likes to boast of having gifted Pakistan a free media is not breaking rank to speak out against the ongoing muzzling of the fourth estate. In fact, the one-time president-general has remained uncharacteristically unforthcoming on all fronts. Thereby allowing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman to shine the spotlight his way. For Justice (rtd) Javed Iqbal has dropped the bombshell that the former military dictator secretly handed over up to 4,000 Pakistani nationals to foreign countries; primarily the US. Not only that, Musharraf’s former man at the Interior Aftab Sherpao was in on it, too. And this was a deal sealed for hard cash. Except that this is not anything that anyone in this country did not already know. After all, the good general admitted as much back in his 2006 memoir, In the Line of Fire. Where he gloated that the US had paid untold but vast amounts to Pakistan for its handing over of terror suspects. As if this were all the proof required to silence the naysayers over the country’s commitment to the war on terror. Of the 689 militants captured by the state, some 369 were handed over to the Americans. Including Palestinian national Abu Zubeida whose ‘head’ afforded Islamabad a $5 million lump sum. Interestingly, Musharraf appeared to drop all such claims in the Urdu translation of his book. Admittedly, the numbers that are being floated today are significantly higher. And the NAB chief is right to point out that no concrete action was taken against the former military strongman. Which of course begs the question not only as to where the Supreme Court was at the time — but what is going to be done about it now? In an age of global rendition by the CIA, allies like Britain and Pakistan were all too happy to play along. Indeed, the Blair regime stands accused of picking up its own nationals from British streets and flying them directly to the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. But the fact Bush and Blair have never been subjected to due process does not mean that Musharraf cannot be. Let this be added to the ever-increasing charge-sheet against him. And then he can also formally answer this and other questions; including claims that MI5 sent British terrors suspects to Pakistan, on his watch, all so that the ISI could torture confessions out of them. This is even more important given that the US is threatening to cut yet more civilian aid to this country on the basis its human trafficking record. And while this is an important issue and one in which Pakistan must perform better — the State Department fails to mention in its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report instances of government-government trafficking. For what is the CIA rendition programme, if not this? Gen (rtd) Musharraf seems to be the man who still holds several keys to matters of the national interest. Thus the time has possibly come to bring him home once and for all. * Published in Daily Times, April 18th 2018.