What goes around, comes around

I say to Musharraf's supporters: whatever is going on is due to kind ministrations of people you hold in high esteem.

Why in heaven’s name did Maulana Aziz (of Red Mosque fame)’s lawyer, by the grace of the Almighty now elevated to the Islamabad High Court (IHC), sit on judgment on the Commando when he appeared before the IHC for confirmation of his bail? Is this not a conflict of interest situation when one of the cases against the Commando is to do with the Red Mosque? Indeed, why did the court administration send the case to him to hear? Patently unfair, I say and one which should be taken notice of by the honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Having said which, and knowing two wrongs do not make a right and all that, let me say to those who are now propagating this on the internet, particularly my course-mates on our course discussion board: Gentlemen, recall that another army dictator, Ziaul Haq, elevated an avowed enemy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s, Maulvi Mushtaq, to be the chief justice of the Lahore High Court, a post that Bhutto had refused to give him, to preside over Bhutto’s trial.

A criminally wrong move ab ignitio, for the High Court is a court of appeal, not a trial court. A move made, obviously, to deprive Bhutto of one court of appeal. Recall too, sirs, the way in which Maulvi conducted himself in that kangaroo court: the slights and the abuse that he aimed at the former president and prime minister of this poor country on a daily basis, even going to the extent of asking the accused if he was Muslim and then remarking that Bhutto was a Muslim in name only, a remark so very injudicious that even the loaded-against-Bhutto Supreme Court of Anwarul Haq expunged these remarks of Maulvi’s.

I write what I do for the information of the hundreds of thousands of young people who are alleged to have been energised this time around to make their presence felt in these elections: young people who know jot about this country’s democratic leaders’ travails and tribulations under army dictators and their henchmen. And the personal hate and rancour that informed the agenda of these dictators.

So, I say to the Commando’s supporters: understand that whatever is going on is due to the kind ministrations of the people you hold in high esteem; and that what goes around comes around. Personally, I abhor unfair behaviour towards anyone, and will always stand up for those who are dealt with unfairly.

Which brings me to the matter of the Commando wishing to go to Dubai to meet his dear mother, a lady I have admired since long for being the working woman that she was. May she have good health and may these days of peril for her son go easy on her. Indeed, may the Commando himself stay safe.

But we could all do without Ahmad Raza Kasuri’s histrionics on live TV when he pretended to cry, dry-eyed, in front of the Supreme Court, pleading for Musharraf to be allowed to go to Dubai to see his mother. May I remind Kasuri of the time when his leader (until 1976, when Kasuri stood in line for a PPP ticket for the ’77 elections despite having registered a murder case against ‘Saab’ — his word for ZAB — in 1974!) was the victim of judicial murder and his wife and daughter were not even allowed to attend his funeral rites by an army dictator.

May I remind Kasuri of the fact that Nawaz and Shahbaz and (the late) Abbas Sharif were not allowed to come back to the country by another army dictator, the Commando himself, to bury their father? May I remind Kasuri of the fact that one Asif Ali Zardari, now the president of the country, was not allowed to visit his mother when she was gravely ill because he was in the Commando’s prison? What goes around, sirs, comes around, remember that.

As to the Commando being allowed to go to Dubai to visit his mother, I am all for it: he has already made enough of a fool of himself by first coming back and then by his cowardly behaviour. If he doesn’t come back to face the charges against him, good riddance: he could be tried and sentenced in absentia if found guilty. The country could very easily do without him and his malevolent influence, now blaming x and then y for his own actions.

As an aside, and because the Commando has himself accused Shaukat (Shortcut) Aziz of triggering the 2007 emergency, our courts would do well to indict him too and issue Red Warrants for his arrest on charges of treason and worse. Serves him right for first doing the Commando’s bidding and then ditching his boss.

As to the Commando being delusional about the amount of support he enjoyed, whilst I know that my platoon-mate Brigadier Abdul Haque went to the Karachi airport despite his bad back (respect!), could someone enlighten us as to how many of the “over 150 Generals, Admirals and Air Marshals” who gathered in a five-star facility in Islamabad in support of the Commando a year or so ago, went to the Karachi airport to receive him, or were present in court when he appeared, or protested outside his house against his arrest? Precious few, I’ll bet.

Now then, while this little diversion provided by the Commando’s arrival and subsequent antics was quite hilarious, it has also led some to think that the elections might be postponed due to the flurry of judicial activity generated. Additional fuel for this theory is provided by the deteriorating security situation in the country with the TTP trying to influence the elections by threatening to, or actually carrying out acts of extreme terror against the MQM, the PPP and the ANP.

Now then, whilst it is absolutely unfair that the JI, the PTI, the PML-N and Maulana Fazl’s JUI run open campaigns while the three others cannot, it is imperative that the elections are held on schedule so that the winning party/combination too face the problem presented by the seemingly all-powerful TTP. It is only then that they will understand the magnitude of the problem.

All Pakistan must get together to rid this country of the murdering terrorists, otherwise this country is done for.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2013.