Military Rule: ‘Declare dictators as traitors’

Dictators had abrogated the Constitution, usurped people’s fundamental rights.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday admitted for regular hearing a petition asking that all former dictators of Pakistan be declared traitors for abrogating the Constitution and their civilian allies be permanently disqualified from holding public office. Advocate Rana Ilmuddin submitted that Sikandar Mirza, Yahya Khan, Ayub Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf had abrogated the Constitution and usurped people’s fundamental rights in order to suppress opposition to their dictatorial regimes. He submitted that politicians had helped these dictators come to power and stay in power. The petitioner said that Musharraf’s political party should not be permitted to register with the Election Commission, and if it had already done so, its registration should be cancelled. He asked the court to declare all violators of the Constitution as traitors and disqualify their “accomplice politicians” from public office.  The court admitted the petition for regular hearing and directed the registrar’s office to place it before a judge on Friday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2012.