Coming full circle

Indict the Commando for his crimes; send on parole; give date of hearing. If he doesn’t return, try him in absentia.

Well, sort of: Mr Nawaz Sharif is back in the prime minister’s chair; his party has a big majority in the National Assembly and a huge one in the Punjab Assembly, so no too clever by half moves can be made by the Opposition like the last time around when the PPP mounted a coup against its own coalition partner and had Shahbaz Sharif’s government dismissed by the president, which was soon reinstated by the courts.

But why is the circle not complete? Simply because the man who dismissed an elected government; sacked and imprisoned the superior judiciary; said he would “kick” Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif; arrested Nawaz Sharif when he returned home after the Supreme Court, no less, had allowed him to return; and sent him abroad on the same plane that brought him to Islamabad, and generally misruled the country for well on nine years, sits not in a jail cell awaiting trial, but in a sort of confinement in his 17-star luxury farmhouse in Chak Shehzad.

I might as well tell you that after his accuser in the judges case withdrew his charge, I wrote a letter to My Lord the Chief Justice of Pakistan as one whose human rights would be trampled upon if Musharraf was let off scot-free. For, alongside others, my wife and daughter and I had been harassed by Musharraf’s goons who literally shoved still and video cameras into our faces while “recording” our presence at demonstrations demanding the restoration of the judiciary, and generally made a nuisance of themselves.

As one who had been lathi-charged and tear-gassed by the Islamabad police led by an absolute oaf of an SP whose name escapes me, and who seemed to take pleasure seeing women and children tear-gassed and then lathi-charged, and who sat or lay on the road leading to the Chief Justice’s House, gasping for breath.

But I did not mail it: for the simple reason that this is a time of immense joy for all of our countrymen and women: when an elected civilian government handed over power seamlessly to civilian caretaker governments, who in their turn, are now in the process of handing over to other civilian elected governments. Allah be praised. Masha’allah.

I did not mail it because the so-called Commando, now a sorry figure who actually escaped from court — I ask you — a man who once also threatened Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto in the following words: “The last punch will be mine”, has punched himself out cold. There he sits, surrounded by luxury and 20 batmen and official cooks and gardeners and chauffeurs and telephone operators (being a former full general) with nowhere to go, no one to call.

I had suggested in “What goes around, comes around” in this same space on April 25, ’13: “So, I say ... 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 ... 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, … pleading for Musharraf … 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?

“ … That Nawaz and Shahbaz and (the late) Abbas Sharif were not allowed … to bury their father? …That Asif Ali Zardari was not allowed to visit his mother … 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 ... 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 … ”.

So there we have it friends, indict the Commando for his crimes; send him on parole; give him a date of hearing. If he doesn’t come back, try him in absentia and make him a pariah in the rest of the world.

And now to the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the room: the Deep State, in regard to Pakistan’s diplomatic and security-related dealings with the rest of the world and particularly with Afghanistan and India, in that order. I disagree with those (e.g., author and journalist Ahmad Rashid in today’s IHT) who say that the new government should not “wrest” policymaking but “create a partnership in which the establishment concedes negotiating power to a civilian prime minister”.

Why should the onus of creating this “partnership” be placed on the shoulders of the elected prime minister? This is by no means to suggest that the establishment’s input is not essential in the making of foreign/security policies. Of course it is critical.

An excellent starting point are the peace overtures the prime minister has already made to our neighbours by saying Pakistan’s soil will not be allowed to be used against any other country. This is the way to go: to live in amity and brotherhood and stop playing our silly little games.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2013.                                                                                          

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