Daily Times

Former military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s claim in an interview that the Nawaz Sharif-led government was pressuring courts in cases against him and that former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif came to his rescue has left the government as well as the military in an uncomfortable position. Although the government has out rightly rejected Musharraf’s claims, both legal and political circles have called for the state institutions to come clean on the issue. While government representatives regretted that Gen Musharraf did not realise the implication of his statement, legal experts believed that his statement implied that there was an understanding between him and the state institutions.

Musharraf had made these claims during a talk show he said he was grateful to the former army chief. He had further added, “I have been his boss, and I have been the army chief before him. He helped out because the cases are politicised, they put me on the ECL; they turned it into a political issue.” He also stated that the courts work under pressure behind the scenes and then give decisions. That’s where Army Chief played his role in releasing the pressure that government was putting on the courts. Apart from murder cases of Benazir Bhutto, Nawab Akbar Bugti and Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, the retired general is facing treason charges for imposing emergency rule in November 2007, arresting judges and limiting their powers.

Musharraf had left the country for Dubai in March earlier this year after the interior ministry issued a notification to remove his name from the exit control list (ECL). The government notification followed the Supreme Court’s order to lift the ban on his foreign travel. But the order from the top court had come with the rider that the federal government or the three-judge special court trying the retired general for treason was free to make decisions to regulate his custody or restrict his movement. The statement of Musharraf, if proven true, indicates an understanding between him, the government and the judiciary, refuting earlier claims of Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan about former military general’s return to Pakistan. Moreover, it further complicates the political situation in the country amid the Panama case in the court, as well as the rising tensions between the government and the opposition.

On the flip side, the possibility of a political motive behind the statement cannot be ruled out either, as the PML-N government is under severe pressure from the PTI and the Panama case. Moreover, since former President Asif Ali Zardari has announced his return to Pakistan, there is an outside possibility that the former general might be thinking the same. Otherwise, the statement could have come under the tenure of General Raheel Sharif as well.

Analysts have not ruled out the possibility of the choice of the new army chief, which has been termed rather quiet as compared to his predecessor. The civil-military relations were stable for the most of General Raheel Sharif’s tenure, despite certain occasions where strife looked apparent. Whatever the case maybe, the situation demands an impartial inquiry into the situation. There is every chance that this is a move to pressurise government in conceding ground in the case against him — also giving much needed political clout to opposition parties. *