Looks like they are getting all set to smoosh the Mushy! :(

Shame on you Dawn that ever since the Ex-President Musharraf has returned to Pakistan you have been persistently calling him either the Ex-Army chief or the Ex-Military Dictator Musharraf. Please be fair to him as President Musharraf has done lot of good things as well for Pakistan much more than the inept and corrupt politicians.

Is Musharraf the only person who violated the constitution? What about other politicians and are Ex Premiers who took oath on the same constitution that they will serve the people and will not indulge in any misdeed? Mussharraf violated constitution may be twice, but politiicans did it many times!!! any one out there to file a petition against them!!! Seems like every tom , dick n harry can go to supreme court and file petitiona against anyone for treason!!!

Musharraf should be allowed to contest the election.I am confident that he will loose from all the seats. Soon he would realize that there is no support for him in this country. By disqualifying him from election process we will be making him a hero.Only a deocraticilly elected goverment can try him under article 6.PPP goverment did not try him because both PPP and Musharraf had a hidden agrement between them.

The first lock of the Pandora Box is broken today and we will see as the lock breaking process goes on many big names will get involved in this case. I believe it will be a difficult case.

please let me know what was the purpose of storing weapons inside the Lal masjid by the mosque Imam and also let me know if somebody blew gas pipeline then should government take any action or not against those terrorist

I am no admirer of Pervez Musharraf. He should certainly be brought to trial for his "misdeeds". However, instead of embarking on a witch hunt we should make sure that justice is done in the true sense. The most important question that needs to be answered is whether he single handedly deposed the then government or were others also a party to his act? Those who were on the ground while he was in the air and those who later sanctified his "unconstitutional" act and granted him the leeway to ammend the constitution are equally complicit in that "act" and should also be brought to trial.

Musharaf must be on ECL

we need to change our culture of intimidating opponents may it be musharraf. He had been holding highest position in the country for a long time and must be given due respect irrespective of political and personal differences. we need to move forward, in my humble belief he didnot violated constitution as he was welcomed by the masses at that time as well as the judiciary allowed him to amend even constitution. so he alone is not responsible for all ills.

If General Musharraf is tried for treason, almost all citizens of Pakistan including judiciary army, police, media, etc. must also be tried for treason because, in one way or the other, all of us are involved in breaking the law and constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Please start reading the Constitution and match with the real happenings and activities of all the Govt and private citizens, police, controlled and uncontrolled media, judiciary, police, for the past 65 years. How many will be able to scape? Bring all those to treason who collaborated with the Marshal Law of Ayub Khan, including Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Jamat-e-Islami who supported Zia -ul Haq's Marshal Law. Bring all those to treason who conducted 1971 election of Yahya Khan and given power to rule including Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Bring all those judges to treason who took oath from General Musharraf and previous dictators and allowed them to continue !! There is no end.Why General Musharraf alone?? Is the islamic republic "clauses" in the Constitution of Pakistan being implemented either by the Govt or Judiciary, the guardian of constitution? Where are these laws of Islam in the country as written in the beginging of the constiyution?? Are we not violating and breaking our own laws and constitution ?? Prof Dr. Syed Mohammed Hasnain

Lets hope President Musharraf gives valid arguments in his defense. Lets hope he points the SC order that restored the power in him to amend the constitution. If this is the case Iftti should also be summoned to the court why was he part and parcel of that judgement.

Trial is the best thing, for Musharraff and Pakistan. Dr. Hasnain is absolutely correct.

its time that nawaz sharif should also be tried for storming the supreme court.I cant believe that the current supreme court treated him like an innocent arch angel.The supreme court of pakistan has got soft corner for him otherwise eveybody has been taken to task for anything and everything done in pakistan

This traitor should be brought to trail for good. All the people supporting his case, are actually supporting his misdeeds against all the institutions and the common people of the country. If people argue that he had a such and such position in the country. Then that just makes his penalty equally big. As w/ a higher position also comes greater responsibility.

Let us hear Musharaff response. This will set the stage.

Can someone give me a name of a chief justice from any country in this world (except Pakistan) who before any trial, before hearing someone, before even the case begans and in a un-related case passes a comment that "XYZ is here, if anyone has courage proceed against XYZ". Is there any shame left in this country? its not about musharraf's trial or whether he did right or wrong. That can come later. However who gave him the right to pass such a commnet? Was it intended for Taliban? was it a message to politicans? A chief justice of any country in this world is the final authority on right and wrong (after God). You never hear about them on media. They are not into politics. They quietly do their job and maintain neutrality. And here we have a person who is on television every day and who passes comments and gives opinions and now is instigating as well. However in a way he is appropriate person to be CJ of a nation where a person puts head money on another and no one says a thing, where girls are being shot for studying, where serving general is worshipped but ex-general is suddenly the worst person there is, where15000 politicans are saadiq and ameen. Shame on us for that.

Musharraf is not the exception as citizen of the country, as former military ruler he is on the path of treason trial in the court of the law,It is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan. Let the court & the law take its course of action according to merit, equity, justice & fair play.

This man is a yesterday's story. Forget about him.

The last 5 years of so called democracy were far far worse than Gen. Musharraf era.

To General Musharraf, the ex-president of Pakistan: you are a great hero in the hearts and minds of millions of Pakistanis. You have done the right things for the country and for the people of Pakistan with the best of your abilities. The silent majority of this country is with you and will always be with you. Fight the ill -constituted, corrupt minded, false charges with full zeal and enthusism as you have always done on the battle ground for the country. We respect your wisdom and dignity. You saved the nation from destruction and humiliation many times during your time. You dared to kick IMF out of the economy of Pakisitan and managed to keep dollars at 60 Rupees to benefit the country and the people. You created, by giving licenses, to numerous TV Channels and allowed freedom of speach. You gave freedom to unknow, immuture reporters, like Hamid Mir to become anchors, who capitalizes every second in his show to disrespect your name, the ex-president of his own coubtry. You have been different from othres, you stopped their corruption, loot and plunders. You deserve respect and reward from nation , not the humiliation as we witness these days in Capital talk and judiciary's compound. The conspiracy of a party in taking revenge will inshah Allah not succeed!!

Lets not over complicate the issue and deal with issues one at time. General Musharraf appears to have quite balantly broken a mutiple number of laws and therefore must answer these charges.

Both the Judges and both lawyers who filed application are from JI . It is not free and impartial judiciary.

General (R) Pervez Musharraf is a very patriotic person, he should not be tried in any case. In his tenure Pakistan was enjoying peace and prosperity. I hope this care taker government and Chief Justice will provide him justice in all his cases.

Pervez Musharraf is an "Iron Man" of Pakistan just like Margaret thatcher an "Iron Lady " of Great Britain who died today at the age of 87. I pray to Allah to create more Pakistanis like Parvez Musharraf to save Pakistan.

Dr. Sahib: It has to start from somewhere. If these acts of military take over are not stopped and the people responsible for such take overs are not punished, such crimes will continue./

My Friends: Compare all current politicians with General Musharraf. Can you point a finger towards the General of corruption. His tax return is clean and he have no problem in sharing his assets and his tax returns with public. Look at all other politicians and compare their honesty with the General and see what you come up with. If you want to help our nation; please pay attention to three things, and that will be 1. Education, 2. Education and 3. Education. Let's educate our nation for next 20-25 years and see the difference. This will take much more then 1.5% of our current budget for education. I would say it will take about 10%.

The chief justice is a Musharraf PCO judge,he remained at supreme court from 1999 to 2007. until allegations came up against the same son who till now remain free despite fresh allegations of spending Rs 330,000,000 of Riaz Maliks money.Justice is must for all.Yes Musharraf abused his power when he put Justices under house arrest,now whats the diffrence between Ifikhar chowdhry and Musharraf its tit for tat.

Why only General Mushrraf only, what about Zuliquar Ali Bhutto who had a role in dismemberment of Pakistan, it was not only a military defeat but the politicians including Bhutto had a role in that debacle. What about PNA who initiated what Pakistan is experiencing today, religious extremism which has lead Pakistan to the brink of disaster.

And if that happens it will be another dark chapter added to the History of Pakistan, where the Judiciary may deal with preferences one more time.This case cannot be settled without the involvement of others, parties and politician around him and then what will happen to all those who have committed a similar crime in the past.

Dr. Hussain. I agree with you that there have been many, many culprits in destroying the essence of Pakistan. However, accountability has to start from someone. What Musharraf did was atrocious and he derailed the Country for the next fifty years. He should get an exemplary punishment so that the next generations of generals get a loud and clear message that they can not play around with the constitution of Pakistan. What kind of doctor and professor are you who is objecting to a cleansing process?

First Bengali Head of the State ,Khawja Nazimuddin was humiliated and kicked out , Second Bengali Mujibur-Rehman was not allowed to be a PM. First and second Sindhi PM were hang or killed, all done by the Bureaucracy ,this time first Urdu speaking ex-Head of the state.

Well then lets try Musharraf and see if he is really guilty of all that he's blamed for then ??????? No ? Or do we still have nay sayers for due process of law.

Dr. Hasnain. Your comments are 100% correct. Chief Justice of Pakistan(Iftikhar) and all the Judges who took oath in Oct.1999 are also part of treason charges. But Looks like Every judge interprete Law the way they want. the most unjustice u find in pakistan in justice department, they most thieves and corrupt people u find in the depart who should caught thieve(Police). The case against Mushraf is nothing more then personal hostility of the Judge with Mushraf as Several Judges have break this law or help breaking this law in last 3 Army take over. So all these judges should be charge under treason law as they supported if there is any justice in pakistan Justice department. this is the voice of most of the people in pakistan and over seas pakistan.

Well said Mr. Fareed. Shame on Dawn and its writers. Musharraf was endorsed by the supreme court and the current CJ, thus was a duly appointed President. Dawn should show some courtesy and address him as Mr. Musharraf or ex-President. But then again there is no civility even in the Pak media.

According tot he constitution only the government can bring treason charges. They have not, and will not because the Supreme Court allowed his presidency. So why is this bench taking up this matter from private lawyers and wasting everybody's time? the Supreme Court has also joined the witch hunt it seems.

Other than Zardar, Nawaz family, and many big names in Pakistan, Iftiqar Choudry himself is a corrput person.. what happened to cases against his son, does anyone knows what was the refrence against him when Musharraf replaced him? Pakistani courts are now proving how corrupt they are and have been... Like Islamic politicians who use Islam to fool people, the courts and lawyers misuse 'law' the way they want. PAKISTAN KA ALLAH HI HAFIZ.

Seems people are blaming every citizen for the deeds of the powerful one. Note, A normal citizen don't have to do anything with what Mush, Bhutto, Yahya, Ayub etc. have done to Pakistan. They are too busy to meet both ends for themselves and their families. Good luck with the prosecution if anything can happen to the riches in Pakistan.

plain hypocracy

Justice Munir, Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia-ul-Haq, Molvi Mushtaq, Justice Anwar-ul-Haq all of these had also subverted the constitutions and their actions caused several civilian casualties. Why all these culprits were spared and only Musharraf is targeting ???? Answer: The difference between the aforementioned culprits and Musharraf is that he is Non-Punjabi. If you open Pandora box try all across the board. I don't see elections in near future

according to costitution ....clause 4A(2) any person aiding or abetting or collabotating the act mention in clause (1) shall like wise be guilty og high treason..clause 4C 2A..any act of high treason mention in clause 1 and 2 shall not be validated by any court including SC&HC...the present CJ and others judges validated his act..and allowed him to amend the constitution..the judges also comes under high treason..Nawas shreef took oath to protect the consitution..but he signed agreement and went in excile..what about Zia ul huq.he also violated and article 62 and 63 becomes invalid....oe we are heading towards another judicial murder..mauli mushtaq and present CJ belongs to same province...or history will repeat..the present CJ and many judges still under the PCO oaths

everywhere in this world, people judge their leader based on economic data.He paid off the debt.Reserve was good.Stock market performing well.Law and order was good .What else you want

Lal masjid and Bugti is not the problem of this country. go and ask any poor they wants bread and milk to feed their children.We have to decide whether we want Fanatic people or Jobs.Both cannot go along with.

Let the ball roll. Musharraf will come out of this stronger despite the fact that this issue is being brought up to play to the gallery which is primarily the religious right and some in the Punjab who are hell bent against Musharraf. The fact is that Musharraf has legal coverage against his takeover. Secondly, because he has legal coverage for his takeover, as the President and with a PML-Q government that was in charge at the time, the state of emergency that was declared is/was within the prerogative of the then government. Thirdly, charges of treason cannot be brought up against a former head of state by an individual, rather they have to be brought up by the government. These cases have a fundamental hole in them because of this condition not being met.

These judges themselves are no angels. I am just wondering what happend to the case of Chaudhury Iftikhar's son taking money from shaddy characters and not reporting that as an income to FBR, so he was let go scotch free? If Musharraf is going to get tried and when the tied rolls back they are going to find out that they were also swimming without cloths in the muddy waters of Pakistani politics.

What has SC done to bring back the money looted by the politician and kept in foreign contries back to Pakistan?

Hmmm. Dawn publishes whatever is in support of Mush, even though when it is cursed.

If Musharaf is tried, PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat and Pervaiz Elahi should also be on the list. "Deputy Prime Minister"

You need to start somewhere, why not start with Musharaf. If we don't start it today then next dictator will also be able to say "Why me".

To save Pakistan please handed over Pakistan to Musharraf, he is the only one who has the courage to fight with terrorist and face internationally.

Musharraf is confident because he knows he will be fully protected from all his wrong doings by Kayani who saved Aslam Beg. Was horrible to see Army Chief issuing statement in support of Aslam Beg who was convicted by court, perhaps saving Aslam Beg has been the only benefit of Kayani's term extension

Well-said Dr Hasnain.

What happened to Malik Riaz versus Chowdry Ifthikhar's son case

I am sure Mushraf is visualizes this scenario before coming yo Pakistan and have a plan to counter this or get some type of assurance from power full circles . And if not then God bless u Mushraf .

The tiger may be caught in the net.

In 66 years of Pakistan history, this man gave a lot to this country during his tenure in comparison to others . We should respect him otherwise if god forbid he get any punishment that mean to strengthen the fanatic people and to allow PM to damage the Pak Army by promoting senior officers on political affiliation rather then merit .

We should hold Nawaz for his action what he was doing when MuSharraf plane was in air. no civilized society will appreciate the way he choose to appoint a junior officer as a COAS

He came to save Pakistan ; now he is busy saving a Pakistani. What goes around comes around.

Why only Musharraf? Why not all the abbeters to the crime particularly the ones who endorsed his first Coup and gave him 3 years plus authority to amend the constitution?

He still has trust on Pakistani and Judiciary that he will be honored

We should separate religion from politics.

God bless you Mustafa, keep it up this nation will hear you one day

Hamid Mir and majority of the Geo scholars are very very immature and naive.

The irony is that 80% of the nation is illiterate. They can not decide who is good or bad for them. They are not familiar with election process. The rest of the 20% that is counted as educated acts like illitrates also. What do you expect from a nation with that kind of stats. Think of 180 per say 'Law Makers' had fake degrees. Do you expect them to make "Law" ? I bet they can not even write their own names. Rest of the world laughs at us.

Mr,Nasim any system whether democracy,,martial law or dictatorship as long as it delivered is good. Don't kill this country in the name of Democracy trust me democracy wont work here.See Egypt as long as Hasni was there everything was OK now disturbance every where.. We have to understand the Islam first in true sense , we have to keep the illiterate mullah under control . did you ever heard any bureaucrat /politician/government official got harsh punishment .Because Musharraf is a thorough gentleman every one is behind him.What about Zardai, Gilani(now living lavishly in Multan) Rental power and many others. What happened to Malik Riaz case? this Musharraf trial is a conspiracy to hide the heinous crime of others

Pakistanis should feel proud as one of their former dictator come home to face trails and people of pakistan has a chance to express their opinion about his past leadership Hope things improve in pakistan and its leaders focus on creating jobs welfare for itz citizen than training jihadis to fight all over the world.

What about a (r) justice, who during PPP regime, admitted his mistake to give verdict in favour of the death sentence of Bhutto? The justice at present would not be different from that one. What about Remandevis, Hussain Haqqani and the beloved son of present Chief Justice. Judiciary is not independent.