Clock ticking: AG, Nawaz pore over treason trial

Musharraf’s aide claims process marred by revenge.

ISLAMABAD:

A day after the apex court set a three-day deadline to finalise a mechanism for Muharraf’s treason trial, the government’s top lawyer Munir A Malik called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday to discuss the case.

The Supreme Court on Monday had declined a request by Malik to give the government a 30-day period to complete political consultations and finalise the mode of trial.



With little time to spare, Attorney General Malik is aggressively pushing the government’s consultative process for streamlining details of the former president’s trial under Article 6 of the Constitution.

According to sources, the draft mechanism prepared by Malik will include the government seeking assistance from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) during the case proceedings.

As a first of its kind high-profile treason case, legal experts are keen to figure out what method the government adopts for the trial.

However, most legal minds agree that despite a short three-day period given by the apex court, the mechanism of the trial is unlikely to differ greatly from other criminal cases, particularly the one adopted for murder trials.

View from the other side

Yet nowhere else are suspicions and apprehensions looming as large as in the former general’s camp.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a close aid of Musharraf has voiced his concern at the treason case being initiated against the former president.

“General Musharraf voluntarily chose to come back to Pakistan to face all ‘falsely registered’ cases against him. However, his right to a free and fair trial is being denied,” claimed the aide – himself a former high-ranking officer in the army.

Raising the spectre of a conspiracy, the aide claimed that it feels like a special law is being applied on ‘army walas’ and that a rift is being created between the military and civilians.

“We have no free access to General sahib, how can we prove ourselves innocent in the trial?” he asked. Musharraf is currently in solitary confinement in another case relating to the murder of Baloch nationalist, Akbar Bugti.

Incensed by the news of an imminent treason trial, Musharraf’s friend claims that “it seems that the former president has been put on the death row.”

Questioning as to how aggrieved judges could possibly dispense fair justice, the aide says that as long as those affected by the former president’s decision oversee the process, it will be marred by revenge.

However, sounding a note of defiance, the aide claims that the former general will present all the facts that led to the imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007. “The crux of the analysis is that Musharraf was stuck between a rock and a hard place: save the country, or hold the constitution in abeyance.”

According to the aide, the former president did what every patriotic Pakistani would – “he saved the country”.

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