Friends no more: Musharraf’s ‘abettors’ shied away from FIA team

None of his close aides accepted responsibility for 2007 emergency.

ISLAMABAD:

A number of close aides and members of the federal cabinet during General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s rule did not prefer to record statements regarding their alleged role in the proclamation of 2007 emergency rule by the former military ruler.

A top interior ministry official told The Express Tribune that many considered ‘abettors’ of Musharraf refused to give time to a three-member inquiry team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Among these prominent aides who held senior posts are then prime minister Shaukat Aziz, four provincial chief ministers, services chiefs and corps commanders.

Soon after coming to power, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had set up a Joint Investigation Team to conduct an inquiry into the 2007 emergency and fix responsibility. The team was headed by FIA’s Additional Director General Muhammad Khalid Qureshi and comprising two FIA Directors Maqsoodul Hassan and Hussain Asghar.

The team approached over 50 junior level police officials, 16 civil servants, then attorney general Malik Qayyum, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, two staffers of the state-run Pakistan Television and the former president of the bar association of Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench Taufiq Asif.

None of Musharraf’s close aides accepted the onus of responsibility for the 2007 emergency, and instead indulged in a blame-game. In its findings, however, besides Musharraf the FIA team recommended that the competent authority may also take into account the role of ‘various facilitators’ in the unconstitutional proclamation of emergency on November 3, 2007.

In the 237-page report, the FIA team did not mention reasons behind its failure for not recording the statements of various facilitators. Interior ministry officials said those who opted to remain away from the FIA were given suitable time to review their decision.

The FIA team mentioned that the defence ministry and the GHQ did not give access to desired information nor did former military top commanders attend phone calls from the FIA inquiry team members. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, chief of Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q), confessed to his role in the 2007 emergency rule but did not opt to record his statement before the FIA team, a member of the team revealed. His confidant Pervez Elahi was chief minister of Punjab in 2007, but he, too, distanced himself from the FIA’s mission.

A vocal member of Musharraf’s cabinet, Sheik Rasheed Ahmad did not choose to see the FIA officials to admit to or deny his role as abettor.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2014.