BLOOMINGTON, IL, US: This is with reference to the arguments put forward by former army chief General (retd) Mirza Aslam Baig that he should not be judged the way he has been in the aftermath of the Asghar Khan case as he took an oath of allegiance under the Indian Army Act of 1911 and not the 1973 Constitution. What General (retd) Baig forgets is that he took oath under the 1973 Constitution when he assumed command of the army after General Ziaul Haq’s death. If his arguments are to be accepted, then we are also to assume that in accordance with his interpretation, even after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he perhaps still owes his loyalty to British colonial Raj although he had been paid salaries and perks by the taxpayers of this country.
This offensive argument exposes the sickening mindset of men like General (retd) Baig, who have forgotten that unlike the British Indian Army, which was raised to help the colonial Raj in an occupied colony, the Pakistan Army belongs to a sovereign state and is there to serve the people of this nation, who are sole masters of their destiny and every citizen, including paid civil and uniformed servants, have sworn allegiance to uphold the Constitution and strictly work within the confines of law. If General (retd) Baig had been a four-star general in any other country, such as the US, the UK, India, China, Iran, etc, he may have had to spend the rest of his life in a prison for violating the Constitution.
Let ‘heavens fall, but justice be done’ in Pakistan by the Supreme Court, which is the competent authority to interpret our Constitution and give judgments that are binding on all. It is time to strictly enforce rule of law in Pakistan, otherwise it will either disintegrate or become another Somalia, where men and pirates rule and the law of the jungle prevails, where might prevails over laws and the law is slave to whims of individuals and their own concocted, self-serving interpretations of it.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2012.
