Musharraf ‘treason’ says a lot about Pak

As we go into our Lok Sabha election, it is useful to note that while conditions of democratic normality have never obtained in Pakistan, the indictment of former military ruler and President Pervez Musharraf on Monday for “high treason” suggests a looming instability of which the top jehadi outfits, with deep ties to the security establishment, could take advantage of and prejudice India’s security.

Did Pervez Musharraf as Army Chief usurp power from elected PM Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999 and then rule his country with an iron hand for nine years? Did Gen. Musharraf, as his country’s President after the coup, commit human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture? Did he try to cleanse Pakistan of democratic politics by ensuring that PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif stayed in exile abroad so that he could run the country free from political interference?

The answers to these questions is an undeniable yes, based on open facts. In addition, under Mr Musharraf’s instructions, Sardar Akbar Bugti, a famous Baluch tribal chief who had rebelled against the Pakistani establishment in his old age after holding numerous top official positions, was hunted down and killed like an animal in his lair. The former Pakistan President or his henchmen (within the security forces and outside of it) are also reasonably suspected to have orchestrated the assassination of Ms Bhutto within days of her return to Pakistan to take part in the national election in 2008.

It is important to note that no effort was made at any stage in Pakistan to charge Mr Musharraf with “high treason” — for which he could face the death sentence or a lifetime behind bars — any time after he was ousted. For that matter, at no point was he charged with any offence. Indeed, no military dictator in Pakistan has been taken to the courts for throwing out civilians, which is a grave enough business and in no way different from the charge of high treason against Mr Musharraf for mangling the Constitution.

If a former Army Chief is to face trial for being a traitor in a country virtually run by the Army, even when the Army is not officially in control, then there is something serious in the matter. And that does not mean that civilian democracy has become so powerful as to start trying Army bigshots, serving or retired. What it does mean is that the jehadis, who had a grouse against the Musharraf regime especially after the 2007 attack on the Lal Masjid, are on the rampage and influencing public in key ways.