Editorial: DAWN - 26 June 2013

High treason

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced in the National Assembly that former military dictator Pervez Musharraf is to be tried for high treason under Article 6 of the constitution and it is now for the law to take its course. Gen Musharraf is to face charges of abrogating the constitution of Pakistan and for illegally removing the supreme judiciary to prevent it from working through the imposition of an emergency in November 2007. The ex-dictator must be rueing the day he made the ill-advised decision to return to the country prior to the elections. He quickly discovered that umpteen thousand Facebook followers did not translate into political capital or votes. His reception was at best lukewarm and with the outcome of the election so decisively in favour of the PML-N the charges he is now called to answer were virtually a foregone conclusion. He has spent much of the last two months under house arrest at his home on the outskirts of Islamabad.
Both the principal opposition parties, the PPP and the PTI, have supported the PM’s announcement. Attorney General Munir Malik submitted the government’s stance to the Supreme Court in response to the court’s request for clarification on the position of the government relative to petitions seeking to try the former dictator. Legal processes are now in train. A high treason charge is the most serious that the state can level against an individual or group of people, and it invariably attracts the most stringent of penalties worldwide. In effect the matter has now become sub judice and it is not appropriate to comment on the conduct or outcome of any judicial proceedings. It may, however, be possible to see this event as the beginning of the end of a part of Pakistan’s history that had military dictators shaping the destiny of nation as they pleased. Inevitably there will be those that will see this move as a settling of scores by Nawaz Sharif, who was once bounced out of office by Musharraf and sent off into exile and the political wilderness – but that would be a narrow perception. Musharraf chose to return to Pakistan, nobody forced him to and he came in the mistaken belief that he would ride a wave of popular sentiment and possibly even come to power again. But he returned to a different country from the one he left even so recently, a country that is beginning to find its feet in terms of rule of law. He could have lived a life of fading obscurity but chose otherwise, and now reaps the whirlwind of his own delusions.

Afghan threads

Afghanistan has rarely enjoyed peace in all of its history as a unified state with fixed (even if disputed) borders. The prospects of peace in the country look no brighter today than they did when the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban in late 2002. With the US and other countries’ forces on the brink of withdrawal, the Taliban opening an office in Doha and an election imminent the muddled weave of Afghan destiny is no closer to resolving into order from its current chaos. India has now been urged by John Kerry to support the Afghans in the upcoming elections, saying that it has ‘a central role in helping the government of Afghanistan improve its electoral system...’ There is no doubt that the system is deeply flawed, with the last election being seen by virtually all who observed it as massively corrupt; and the legitimacy of the Karzai government dubious at best. India has emerged as a significant donor to Afghanistan, and has deep concerns about the future role of the Taliban in any government. Bringing India in to ‘assist’ Afghanistan electorally is unlikely to play well to any Pakistan government, no matter how intent it may be on repairing ties between the two states.
As Kerry listens to the Indians so the spat between President Karzai and the Doha Taliban rumbles on. The Taliban, in a move calculated to rub Karzai the wrong way, flew their flag and announced that they were now doing business on behalf of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – implying that their political office had somehow acquired embassy status. This enraged Karzai and Kerry has had to intervene in an effort to smooth the waters. But it is obvious that there is no easy road to peace and that the Taliban are determined to grandstand themselves and are playing with a strong hand. Symbols are of vital importance, and the value to the Taliban of a flagpole and fluttering flag and a nameplate on the gate is substantial. Both are said to have been removed but the point has been made. Pakistan is said to have been part of the brokerage team that ‘facilitated’ the opening of the Taliban Doha office, and is a major stakeholder in the process now afoot. Tread lightly John Kerry and have a care as to who you co-opt in pursuit of your Afghan exit.