Daily Times Editorial April 22, 2013

Musharraf’s continuing saga Musharraf’s saga since returning to the country shows no signs of coming to an end. New twists and turns emerge every day. Having spent a night as a 'guest’ at the police headquarters in Islamabad, the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) that had refused an extension of his pre-arrest bail and ordered him arrested, acceded to the request of the police that Musharraf being a high profile person, an ex-army chief and president, and threats against his life emanating from many quarters, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban terrorists, Laal Masjid aggrieved, Bugtis, etc, Adiala Jail Rawalpindi, where he would normally have been sent, was full of terrorists who could pose a serious security threat to Musharraf’s life. The Jail authorities too were reluctant to take the responsibility for Musharraf's safety inside Adiala Jail. The arguments having weight, the ATC accepted the police’s request to declare Musharraf’s farmhouse in Chak Shahzad a sub-jail and house him there under strict security for 14 days until his next appearance before the ATC. The charge in the ATC against Musharraf stems from an FIR instituted against the former COAS and president in 2009 for removing and confining 60 judges of the superior judiciary in their official residences after the promulgation of an emergency on November 3, 2007. In addition to this case, Musharraf faces charges in the murder cases of Benazir Bhutto and Nawab Akbar Bugti as well as the Laal Masjid affair. While a three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) has been set up to hear the five petitions for charging Musharraf with treason on the same charge of the treatment of the superior judiciary and will hear the case today, the Laal Masjid report presented in the SC in March has been made public. It does contain some strange recommendations. While giving the army authorities a clean bill of health, it pins the blame for the operation on Musharraf, then prime minister Shaukat Aziz and Musharraf’s political allies at the time (which arguably would include the PML-Q and the MQM). Can it be envisaged that when Musharraf was be-all and end-all, being simultaneously COAS and president, that the military authorities had no say or role in the handling of the Laal Masjid operation? While the report singles out the authorities at the time for blame, it ignores the role of the militants holed up inside the Masjid. One may recall their vigilante actions to ‘cleanse’ society of perceived ‘sin’, defiant armed resistance to the writ of the state from within the Masjid, and their myriad provocations, including killing a security forces officer, the immediate cause of the triggering of the operation. The report goes on to recommend that Jamia Hafsa be allotted the plot on which it stands and be rebuilt, without going into the issue of the illegal occupation of the Jamia Hafza militants of the adjacent Children’s Library. It then indulges in homilies about mainstreaming madrassa curricula and allotting plots for madrassas in every housing scheme! Perhaps the background of the retired judge who is the author of the report in the Federal Shariat Court has coloured its conclusions. Meanwhile in the farmhouse in Chak Shahzad, visitors are not allowed, even family members have to seek permission, and his lawyers and All Pakistan Muslim League party leaders were not allowed to see him on Sunday. Adiala Jail staff is deployed at the sub-jail and responsible for Musharraf’s kitchen out of concern at the risk of attempts to poison him. The charge of terrorism under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act has been added to the FIR against Musharraf on the orders of the ATC. It would appear therefore that the jaws of the self-inflicted trap are closing around Musharraf. However, all the calls for a trial on treason charges emanating from different directions seem to be ignoring the elephant in the room. While the proclamation of an emergency is an embarrassment for incumbent COAS General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and others in the military top brass, the judges of the SC hearing the treason petitions could be seen as a party in the case and therefore not in a comfortable position to hear the case. On the other hand, no one seems to be mentioning the coup of 1999 that overthrew a democratically elected government. Perhaps because that would be even more embarrassing for the judiciary that gave that coup its endorsement and even allowed Musharraf to assume the mantle of Chief Executive for three years with powers to amend the constitution. Once you open the door a crack to the ghosts of the past, it is difficult if not impossible to keep some inconvenient ones out.