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Musharraf ready to face treason charges, but not alone, SC told
[Pak Daily Times]  Pervez PervMusharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... 's counsel told the Supreme Court on Monday that the former president was ready to face treason charges, but the guns should not be pointed at him alone. During the hearing of five identical petitions against Musharraf for subverting and holding the constitution in abeyance, his counsel Advocate Ibrahim Satti contended that the role judiciary played by validating successive martial laws in the past is also not something to be proud of and treason charges should also involve all those who never objected or collaborated, abetted and conspired since 1956. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja directed the caretaker government to facilitate all the three counsel representing Musharraf to meet their client after they complained that they had not seen him for the last four days. "We all are sailing in the same boat since 1956," the counsel argued. "And this boat full of people should be sunk!" retorted Justice Khawaja. The court also observed that it would ensure no injustice is done to anybody, as everyone is equal before it. Tracing the history of previous martial laws in the country, Satti argued that the world had never accepted validation of martial laws either by parliament or by the judiciary in the past. Therefore, if any action by way of treason charges has to be taken then his client should not be discriminated against rather the charge should implicate all those who aided and abetted such acts in the past. It is a wrong perception, the counsel recalled, that late General Ayub Khan clamped martial law on October 7, 1958 rather it was imposed by the then president Sikander Mirza, and which was validated by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the president was very much in the office and that it was in the interest of the state. After the verdict Gen Ayub become the president on October 27, 1958. He said Ayub Khan himself violated the constitution and handed over the powers to Gen Yayha Khan, but the apex court protected all acts of Gen Yahya in the famous Asma Jillani case because there was an interim constitution of 1962 and that the National Assembly speaker was then performing as the acting president. Likewise, Satti said, the Supreme Court validated the 1977 martial law of Gen Zia ul Haq  ...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...in the Nusrat Bhutto case by invoking the doctrine of necessity because Chaudhry Fazal Ellahi was then functioning as the president. He said that in the same fashion the Supreme Court legalised the October 12, 1999 martial law by Gen Musharraf because Rafiq Tarar was in the office of the president and all the courts were functioning smoothly. The hearing of the case has been adjourned until today (Tuesday). Posted by: Fred 2013-04-30 |
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