WHICH Michael Jackson song was it that had the singer flaunting a set of skeletons on screen? To mark his passing, all the usual suspects in Pakistan have been putting up a not so thrilling show in which bodies are thrown up at will. Many an old grave has been dug up. Little do these performers realise that they may be digging one for themselves.

A year after we were released from his grip, Gen Pervez Musharraf remains at the centre of a raging controversy. The PML-N says it wants to take him to court. But by all appearances PML-N's Musharraf-trial refrain is aimed at further embarrassing a federal government that suffers from a crisis of conscience as well as of action.

Parliament and the presidency in this country, with their pomp and glory, have never been empowered to try an army general. The present set-up is no exception to the rule and the presidency can hardly as much as aspire to oblige the PML-N.

The futility of it all doesn't however prevent politicians from setting up 'pro-and anti-Musharraf camps' to take a pot shot or two at each other. The latest in the series is a bare-all exposé by Chaudhry Shujaat Husain. The man has the credentials, for despite having been close to the scene of the crime around the time of the crime he claims innocence. Chaudhry Sahib was there just before Akbar Bugti was killed and there just before the Lal Masjid rebels were taken care of and he says he did all he could as a senior member of the government to avoid the two violent endings.

The two instances were evidence enough of Mr Husain's ability to not be afflicted by the civilian rulers' tendency to commit crimes of passion and then be caught. The same old innocence was on display again last week as he forced open the door to a closet that he had once shared with Mian Nawaz Sharif.

Chaudhry Shujaat took us many years back in history to the moment when a group of men — with political affiliations that were suspect — were brought over from Karachi to Islamabad, were murdered and quietly laid to rest in the Margalla hills. Needless to say this occurred during Nawaz Sharif's reign and Chaudhry Sahib knows since he was interior minister then.

Everyone thought his scoop was designed to jeopardise the 'principled stand' that his erstwhile friends at the head of the PML-N had taken against Gen Musharraf. In the event, all he has so far been able to earn with his disclosure are some negative points for the 'ever-feuding' politicians.

The latest bout began as a clash between the PML-N and the MQM. Soon we had a din of angry voices from Lahore to London. The point to remember is that the MQM got its opportunity to hit out at Mr Sharif courtesy a statement by ex spymaster Brigadier Imtiaz on the bloody 1992 Operation Clean-up that targeted the MQM. It opened a Pandora's box and various sources have since come up with their versions of the truth, all of which unfailingly cast serious aspersions on the unworthy politicians.

The rejection of the politicians is comparatively easier to accomplish, say, during an election. But tougher tasks need our attention. In 1988, the intelligence agencies created the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad to subvert the people's will.

The old reliable reports have now been given the stamp of confirmation by Brig Imtiaz and a few others. It will be useful to teach the merits of reconciliation to politicians who had sold their souls to the saboteurs long before they were championed as the true guardians of people's rights and wishes. More significantly, the revelations should start a debate on the ways and means of the 'real masters' who have been able to make politicians bend to their dictates.

No matter if one set of politicians has to be replaced after having served its utility. So long as the handlers are around, they will not find it difficult to have puppets from among the millions at their disposal. We must try and find out if the current sense of openness is genuine or not and ask the basic question one more time who actually rules us?