Trying Musharraf

CHICAGO: This is apropos the article by Mohammad Ali Ehsan “Trying Musharraf” (January 14). From the argument that the writer makes, it seems that the rule of law is not applicable to the military. Therefore, when any officer, even if he is retired, is prosecuted for violating his oath of office and the Constitution, the writer makes it seem that he should be rescued by his institution.

General (retd) Pervez Musharraf should have been prosecuted for overthrowing an elected government in 1999, along with all those who aided and abetted him, which includes elements of the judiciary, as well as the political class. It was a golden opportunity for the country to set the right precedent. Dictatorships have inserted many unwanted clauses into the Constitution, which the political class has been too weak to rescind.

Pakistan needs to free itself from the oligarchs strangling it, as well as from motivated individuals impregnated into the system, who are passing off as objective journalists, all with loyalties and an agenda of their own. An opportunity like this one does not come every day. The lack of conviction and will has been the bane of Pakistan.

Feroz Daruwala

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2014.

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