DEAL or no deal — it ought not to matter anymore. As the controversy rumbles on over whether then president Pervez Musharraf was allowed to leave office and Pakistan too as part of a deal that promised no prosecution or jail time for the ousted dictator, the emphasis really should be on the realities of today. Whether there was a deal or not and what were the specifics of a deal if there was one — who brokered it, who guaranteed it, etc — this much seems relatively clear: none of that applied once Mr Musharraf decided to return to Pakistan of his own free will and contest politics. Surely, at a time the dictator was still in power and a transition to a democratic system had yet to become a reality some concessions or the other likely had to be made for the greater good of the system. But it is inconceivable that those tense and awkward days of the summer of 2008, when Mr Musharraf negotiated an exit from power and Pakistan, also gave him the option of returning to the country and politics in a few short years.

Even if the deal — if there was a deal to begin with — was silent on returning to Pakistan and politics, it is difficult to imagine quite why a deal would continue to hold in the circumstances of Mr Musharraf’s return. It is worth remembering that none of the presumed external or internal brokers and guarantors of a deal were in favour of Mr Musharraf’s return to Pakistan. What is important now is that the trial must continue. Legally speaking, it is the government’s prerogative to put Mr Musharraf on the Exit Control List because of the trial he faces, while it is the superior judiciary that must ultimately decide the legal and constitutional validity of a challenge by the Musharraf defence team. Even if Mr Musharraf is allowed to proceed abroad on specific grounds and with specific guarantees of a return to Pakistan, that should not mean an end to the trial itself. The Constitution of Pakistan is a sacred and supreme document. Within it is embodied the contract between state and citizen and the relationship between the various institutions of the state. For a military dictator to use the threat of force to subvert the document and impose his own rule is an abomination. Pervez Musharraf deserves to face trial for his crimes against the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, July 16th , 2014