Musharraf’s trial: Govt rebuffs ‘selective justice’ charge in NA

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar says SC asked opinion on Nov 2007 emergency, not Oct 1999 coup.

ISLAMABAD:

The government on Thursday dismissed opposition’s allegation of ‘selective justice’ for trying former military dictator General (retd) Pervez Musharraf only for suspending the constitution on November 3, 2007 and not for the October 12, 1999 military coup.

“Supreme Court sought the government’s opinion on an existing petition regarding the acts of Musharraf on November 3, 2007 which did not mention the October 1999 coup,” clarified Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in response to the point raised by PPPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

Fahim had said the government’s decision to try Musharraf merely for the November 3 emergency reflected that it wanted to protect some people.



“I wish Makhdoom Amin had gone through the petition to which the government had submitted its opinion prior to accusing it of double standards,” said Nisar, adding that the PPP government would have given the same opinion had the court asked their view on the petition.

Nisar said he wanted to make it clear that the government neither wanted nor would accept criticism on Pakistan army. He urged members neither to regard “Musharraf as a former army chief in the dock nor to link it with the entire institution but to take him [Musharraf] as a criminal.”

Earlier Fahim said his party had announced full support to the government but it wanted to save some individuals. “This is unacceptable. Justice should be across the board. We condemn it as the abettors of the dictator are equally responsible,” he added.

Awami Muslim League (AML) leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called for the trial of all the dictators since 1956.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai endorsed the government’s viewpoint that it had merely acted upon the direction of court on an already existing petition.

Fazlur Rehman of JUI-F said the government should have taken political leaders into confidence prior to its decision regarding Musharraf.

Swiss case

Swiss letter controversy also echoed in the National Assembly on Thursday.

PPP objected to the government’s decision of making a committee to probe into the Swiss cases record.

During the budget debate, opposition leader in the lower house Khursheed Shah said the PML-N was again on the track of victimisation by resurrecting the Swiss cases issue. “PML-N’s tolerance is running out. We had enjoyed good relations with N-League for the last 14 years and did not revive cases against Nawaz Sharif.”

Shah claimed that Premier Nawaz had apologized to the PPP’s slain leader Benazir Bhutto over Swiss cases and told her that these cases had been registered by Senator Saifur Rehman, not him.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan rebuffed the PPP legislator’s assertion and asked as to when this discussion took place. Nisar said his leadership never apologised to anyone and it was the PPP which was interested in getting a provision inserted in the Charter of Democracy that PPP and PML-N would not pursue cases against each other after coming to power.

Nisar said after a long discussion PML-N had finally succeeded in convincing Benazir that such addition was likely to reinforce the public perception that CoD was an agreement between two parties to wash out cases against each other.

He said: “We did not write two letters to Swiss authorities; nor did we ask the Supreme Court to take action. Instead, we are acting in compliance with the apex court’s directives”. He said his party in the past had delivered hard hitting speeches against President Zardari for not implementing the court orders; PML-N had not accused him and had asked him only to respect the system.

Khursheed Shah said the PPP had no objection over formulation of the committee and was not going to ask for pardon. The PPP only wanted to ask the government not to forget the background and political reasons behind initiation of such cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2013.