This is with reference to Engr S.T. Hussain's letter (Feb 20). The only agreeable point in it is that people want General Musharraf in Pakistan. However, the reasons for which people want him back in Pakistan are different than what the writer had in mind.

People want Gen Musharraf to come to Pakistan and face courts for high treason breaking the constitution many times, breaking his oath as an army person, selling Pakistani citizens to the USA for dollars (take the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui for instance), destroying institutions deliberately and generally acting against the interests of the people of Pakistan, economically destroying the country, etc.

The writer may have had some experience of Gen Musharraf's honesty at a personal level, but the general was certainly not an honest person as his credibility can be judged easily by some of the crimes mentioned above.

The writer also mentions some misgivings of present politicians. His views may be right, however, successive military governments and lack of accountability through elections may have corrupted them. If the electoral system is allowed to run uninterrupted, politics could be cleaned up. Besides, politicians are people's choice but generals like Gen Musharraf are not people's choice. They just occupy power through the back door and unfair means.

AHMED ADIL
Karachi

(II)

MR Hussain (Feb 20) thinks that Musharraf, considered to be an honest man that he is, should return to the country to serve it as nobody else can do the job.

This is the same 'honest' man who allegedly murdered Nawab Akbar Bugti because the two disagreed, to put it lightly, on the autonomy of Balochistan. This is the same 'honest' man who dismissed the entire superior judiciary because he knew he was on the wrong side of the law and would be invalidated from running for president.

The stock-market crash and the selling of Pakistan Steel Mills for less than the value of the land on which it stands took place in his rule. This is the same man under whose 'leadership' Pakistan went from 87 to 134 in Transparency International corruption ratings.

This is also the man who used around $15 billion (a conservative estimate) of American money to subsidise everything in sight keeping the prices of edible commodities and oil well below the international price level.

The removal of such subsidies is being trumpeted as a 'failure' of the present government.

This is the same man who bought oil from Saudi Arabia on deferred payments, which means that the government is repaying that debt; he didn't return a cent of it. Pakistan's external debt was $8billion in 1999. It was $40billion when he so magnanimously resigned.

This is also the man who led the Taliban right to our doorstep by allowing them to spread unopposed, and by carrying out two failed operations which only added fuel to their movement; a movement that the government is fighting with a fraction of the $15billion the presumably honest Pervez Musharraf received to fight it.

As far as the Kashmir issue is concerned, let's not forget that Atal Bihari Vajpayee rode a bus from Delhi to Lahore in February 1999 under Nawaz Sharif's reign. However, I do agree with Mr Hussain that Musharraf should return to the country, and let the constitution and law take its course. Personally, I will prefer Asif Zardari over Pervez Musharraf any day.

AHMAD SULTAN
Faisalabad

(III)

THIS piece aims to slam Mr Hussain's letter, “Plea to Musharraf” (Feb 20). The whole country seems to have sunk in an irrecoverable passage of wilderness. Such is the disaster of our political accomplishments a large majority now seems to tittle-tattle over Musharraf's return to a country rendered handicapped in complete absoluteness by his so-called spirited blessings.

I stand disappointed today at the level to which we Pakistanis have sunk. Mr Hussain pleaded to Musharraf to run a retinue of horses that he supposedly sponsored through an issue we revere as the National Reconciliation Order.

The whole bunch of plunderers, looters and extortionists that roam around freely is a gift from the Musharraf era. His return will only change things for the worse. As his irresponsible free will with the judicial system did not work, he left us with a government ruled by icons of corruption.

The heightened extremism in the country is also a hangover from his period. In addition to this, he created an environment of pseudo-democracy through the institution of a Kings's Party by wearing the garb of the Chaudhrys.

His involvement in various other cases, specific to the destruction of our economy, should not be ignored. I say we should leave him enjoying his freedom and apartment in London.

I plead with the nation to think out of the box, and stop compromising. Mr Hussain's referral to Ataturk as a saviour of his nation is also apocryphal, as Kemal Ataturk was allegedly confirmed for being a western agent positioned in the East to destroy whatever remained of a waning Muslim empire.

BURHAN JAVAID
United Kingdom