Musharraf’s advocates
I am sure most of you have seen the Al Pacino starrer The Devil’s Advocate. Everyone has some advocates. Musharraf has them too. A very interesting lot it is. From Ayman Al Zawahiri to Hamid Karzai, from his political allies to a rag tag army of the so-called “senior constitutional experts”. Let me start from Zawahiri.
When we thought that the old devil was dead he seems to have come up with an almost humorous video lecture. Ary One World broadcasted a video of him yesterday which I missed. Apparently the devil of a man was speaking in English. From the news reports that I have seen he has issued a chargesheet against Musharraf. How very shrewd. I am sure you remember the 2004 US elections when Bush was struggling in the election and he old pal O-Sam-a bin Ladeen appeared on television to give him a leg up in the opinion polls. Something of the same sort here too. By issuing a chargesheet he has tried to make a mockery of the impeachment process and by weaving his own manic views into the popular resentment against Musharraf he has tried to give the western neo-cons an excuse to support him. But the only hitch is that the world is mature enough today to tell such dirty tricks apart. No sir we are not sinking for this one. While we impeach the liability of a president Zawahiri can also kindly go to hell. We all know he is no well wisher of democracy in Pakistan either.
The comes Karzai. Have you ever wondered whenever Musharraf is in a troubled spot how Karzai starts urging the US to invade Pakistan? He indeed has done it again. He wants the US to fight the make believe elements inside Pakistan. Why? To keep the Pakistani generals under pressure, what else? Remember the day long march kicked off against Musharraf the US launched a strike inside Pakistan. This is the same theater of the absurd I keep talking about. And yet I am afraid that this one will not work either. Why should it? The Pakistan army has finally learnt that the more it makes concessions in the war on terror the more it comes under pressure. Pakistan can certainly do better today by not letting such elements win.
And then of course there is this shameful lot of so called senior constitutional experts who keep facilitating Musharraf. One example is Sharifuddin Pirzada who never gives a hint of either being Sharif or Pirzada. Then there are a host of others. SM Zafar? Hafiz Pirzada? Maybe there should be a law barring any Pirzada to become a lawyer. I mean listen to their twisted arguments. Without any hesitation they claim that Musharraf has never done any unconstitutional thing. Excuse me! What did you just say? Never? Then please explain how did an army chief become the president of the country. Oh perhaps there is a law stating that a uniformed officer can contest elections. But sorry there is no such law. We know Musharraf toppled an elected regime and appointed himself the head of government and state and then sought legitimacy through the courts. The crime was committed first and then it was justified. I mean this is two plus two. Plain logic. No matter how much you try to justify it the fact remains that the toppling of an elected government, abrogating and then amending the constitution arbitrarily falls under the purview of high treason. Anyone aiding or abetting a traitor is considered a traitor too. So if a court chooses to take oath under a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) imposed by a usurper and then redeems his actions it also commits high treason punishable which deserves capital punishment. Likewise if a group of lawmakers tries to legitimize his acts no matter through parliament since it was in essence an unconstitutional act we are talking about it also indulges in the same crime. Musharraf is an illegitmate head of state and anyone tries to call his actions constitutional should die of shame. Otherwise if you allow the subversion of the constitution a legitmate act particularly when a verdict in its support is obtained through the manipulation of courts then any suicide bomber can walk into the Supreme Court or the parliament with a bomb and ask it to make him the president of the country per force and change the constitution in such a way that his excesses are no more considered crime and that he cannot even be sacked. There is one thing no law or constitution can cancel out, in fact every law and constitution is supposed to be built on it, namely the COMMON SENSE. Now tell me where does Musharraf stand right now? Can anyone in his right state of mind and conscience justify such nonsense? Sirs, don’t follow the constitution you call yourself the custodian of but at the very least have enough shame not to call us stupid.
And finally to those politicians who think that Musharraf’s departure can in any case be averted I have this to say: Wake up, he is already gone. What remains is mere formality to be completed within a couple of days.
Popular Posts