Musharraf too hot to handle for PML-N, PPP in power

ISLAMABAD: Acrimony between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) apart, they equally pour scorn on former military ruler Pervez Musharraf although they pursued expediency in dealing with him while being in government only to avoid triggering tension with the powerful centres.

They are disdainful about Musharraf for their own separate serious reasons. But their commonality in taking on him is auspicious, encouraging for democracy and discouraging for unconstitutional interventions. Their ongoing denunciation of Musharraf runs counter to the policies they adopted vis-à-vis the dictator when they were at the helm of affairs. The only motivation that forced them to handle him with care and not tackle him under the law was that they shunned annoying the Establishment.

In his incessant diatribe against the judiciary for ousting him from power on a flippant charge, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif often poses a question if there is any court that will also make Musharraf accountable for the crimes he committed and then himself answers it saying there is none. But it was his government that let the former general fly out of Pakistan without any hassle when it could have restrained him by placing his name on the Exit Control List (ECL).

At the time neither the Supreme Court nor the special court that was trying Musharraf on high treason charge or any other superior or subordinate judicial forum was in a mood to retain him in Pakistan to face the grave charges. It was left to the federal government to stop or allow him to slip out of Pakistan on “medical grounds”, which later proved to be just a pretense to race out of the homeland in order to rid himself of the court cases and their subsequent outcomes. In reality, not a single judicial or government body was prepared to hold him in Pakistan. Everybody fell in line with the script.

However, the Nawaz Sharif government had filed the high treason case against him for violating the Constitution after forming the three-member special court only after it was coerced into doing so by chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry led Supreme Court otherwise it would have faced contempt proceedings for not implementing the judicial order. It was during this tenure that Musharraf had also been rushed to a military hospital when he had come out of his Chak Shahzad farmhouse to attend the court hearing. Controversy surrounded this episode as to who facilitated this. But it was clear that he was deliberately allowed to go to the medical facility.

Nawaz Sharif has now categorically stated that the real reason behind his ouster is the high treason case his government had instituted against Musharraf. He is not much off the mark, but he did not highlight this aspect earlier. However, it was known even at that time that he was not disposed to filing this complaint in the special court but had been left with no option by the then chief justice.

PPP chief Bilawal has called Musharraf a downright assassin of his mother, Benazir Bhutto. But it was his father’s government that had accorded a guard of honour to the dictator when he had departed the presidency. It had not picked up the courage to arraign him for her murder. Rather, the trial remained at a pathetic snail’s pace during its entire term. It also did not halt his departure from Pakistan after Musharraf had left his office. He faced no problem, difficulty or curb whatsoever throughout Zardari’s five-year rule.

The PPP remained totally indifferent to the murder case when it was being heard by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) for a long time. However, it is now pursuing the appeal in the high court, which is obviously a much belated change of mind. Owing to his continued absence from the ATC, his trial has been postponed that will resume when he will be available.

In the beginning, senior PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervez Elahi was also accused of complicity in Benazir Bhutto’s murder along with four others, but the PPP later gave up the charge against him and made him the deputy prime minister.