ON Aug 15 a TV channel screened a very hot discussion on Article 6 being invoked to try Gen Musharraf. Waseem Akhtar (MQM) was of the opinion that Gen Musharraf can be tried on condition that all the usurpers and violators of the 1973 Constitution before him, starting with Gen Zia, his supporters and corroborators, the judges who hanged a popular prime minister and then smugly proclaimed that it was a judicial murder, are tried first.

Roedad Khan, who has himself worked amicably with previous dictators, seemed a little worked up. He asserted that the general should be tried under Article 6 as soon as possible. “A man who commits a murder, must be tried immediately”, he said. We cannot wait for all the murderers before him to be tried first.

He is, of course right, except that in our case the 'murderer', Gen ( r) Musharraf, committed two 'murders' one on Oct 12, 1999 when he overthrew an elected prime minister and the other when he declared an emergency on Nov 3, 2007. He must be tried for both - first things first.

Siddiqul Farooq (PML- Q) averred that the Oct 12, 1999 violation of the Constitution was legitimised by the parliament. Although he conceded that it was a 'langree looly' parliament, he still thought that the Oct 12, 1999 violation should be overlooked and the general must be tried only for declaring an emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

The events that compelled Musharraf ( r) to take the actions that he did on Oct 12, 2007 are still fuzzy. But if he did commit an act of treason, he would be charged with sabotaging the Constitution of Pakistan, throwing out an elected prime minister, putting him behind bars and finally banishing him from the country.

These are crimes of high treason against the state. No individual or institution can absolve him from them, let alone a 'langree looly' parliament which was concocted and manipulated by the dictator himself to cover his tracks.

Gen (r) Musharraf could not, by himself, take over all 300,000 square miles of Pakistan territory and all the 160 million of its people. Those generals who helped in the overthrow, the judges who legitimised this act of subversion of the Constitution, the politicians and judges who brazenly gave the usurper powers to amend the Constitution by supporting the 17th Amendment and willingly took assignments and promotions from him, to sustain him for eight long years, are collaborators and equal partners in this crime against the state. They all come under the ambit of Article 6. Had they not collaborated in 1999, there would have been no declaration of emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

Siddiqul Farooq called Gen ( r) Musharraf a 'naukar' who could be sacked at the pleasure of the prime minister. A grade 19 officer in the eyes of many politicians and even some TV comperes have achieved the status of a kitchen knave, to be ridiculed at will. All chiefs of staff starting from Gen Ayub Khan to the present one were and are grade 19 employees. A grade 19 employee is nobody's personal servant. Badmouthing an army chief of staff and general on TV, even a retired or hated one, does not promote democracy; it only shows bad taste and intellectual bankruptcy.

The country is in dire straits and needs all our attention and energies. Any vengeful distraction at this juncture could be crucial for the state. But if the fire-breathing stalwarts of the PML(N) insist on their pound of flesh, then all those who are culpable under Article 6 must be tried without exception and we must stop pretending that life began on the Nov 3, 2007.

CAPT. S. AFAQ RIZVI

Karachi