On Musharraf's Deceptive Justifications for the Emergency

Deceptive Justification for the Emergency
written by Bash!

The main justification given by General Musharaf for imposing emergency is judicial activism. In his address to the nation he accused judiciary of ordering the senior bureaucrats to attend the court and humiliating them. He also said that the superior judiciary set free certain people who were confirmed terrorists. It will be surprising to note that the only instance of judiciary giving release orders of extremist forces is that of Jamia Hafsa (Islamabad). The bench of the Supreme Court judges, which passed these orders have now taken oath of allegiance to the present military regime under the Provisional Constitutional Order issued by General Musharaf.

Within two days of issuing proclamation of emergency, the present military regime arrested 55 members/supporters of HRCP and various other members of liberal factions of the society and on the other hand struck a deal with the extremist forces. Under this deal the military set free dozens of extremists who were admittedly handling an armed movement against the government in exchange for recovering a large number of military men who had been captured by the extremist forces. So, in the war on terror, present military regime of Pakistan jailed liberals (who are its only supporters in the war on terror) and set free the extremists.

It is thus wrong to assume that Musharraf is the last hope against extremism in Pakistan. In fact it is the civil society in Pakistan which has always worked to prevent the society from being enslaved by the extremist factions. It is essential for the allies of Pakistan in war on terror to understand that it would be much better if they trust the civil society instead of the General who is in the process of reversing whatever little good he has presumably done in the past, like giving a free hand to electronic and print media.

At present the only viable option is to go by the book and follow the country’s constitution. This means, first and foremost, the members of judiciary who have been sent home by Musharaf should be reinstated. Musharraf should step down, army should go back to barracks, the Chairman Senate should be sworn in as president of Pakistan, elections be held on time.

Without the first step, i.e. the restoration of judiciary as it existed on 2 November 2007, no measures will be of any use. Without a judiciary which has struggled its way to independence with the help of lawyers' community, elections will merely be a farce and we will continue to wait for the next army intervention. If another army intervention is needs to be stopped, it should be done now by teaching the army a lesson. While rest of the measures are merely procedural in the life of this nation, the independence of judiciary is the actual step which this nation has taken forward and in the right direction. Without this and with only supporting Benazir, we will end up with a selfish and brutal dictator as president and a twice proven corrupt prime minister. Thus it is essential to ensure that the rule of law is in place in the country so that the corrupt politicians can be stopped in their attempts to please or support Musharaf.

In one of Shakespeare’s plays Henry VI, in Act IV, Scene 2, while planning an evil coup for establishing complete dictatorship, one of the main players Dick the Butcher suggests ‘the first thing we do, lets kill all the lawyers.’ Musharaf did everything right as a brutal and selfish ruler to persist with his illegal rule.

For once the civil society of Pakistan has stood up unanimously in every corner of the country. Now it deserves to exist as such.

It is not the General who should be trusted in establishing the rule of law in Pakistan and for fighting the war on terror, it is we, the people of Pakistan, who should be trusted in choosing our own leaders and establishing a representative government for ourselves.

The writer is a lawyer and a human rights activist. He has now been released from prison.