The Pakistan Peoples Party government finally seems to have resolved to question former military dictator Pervez Musharraf. Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi outlined the action taken in Daily Times on August 2: The Supreme Court announced a history-making judgement on July 31 which rejected the tradition of providing legal cover to the militarys assumption of power under the Doctrine of Necessity. The 14-member bench declared Pervez Musharrafs decision to impose emergency and replace the Constitution with the provisional constitutional order (PCO) on November 3,2007 was illegal and unconstitutional. All actions taken by the Musharraf government during the emergency period have been knocked out. The major effect of this judgement is on the judiciary itself,especially on the judges who took oath under the PCO or were appointed by the then Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar,whose appointment under the PCO has been declared null and void.
The News added on August 4: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani declared in the National Assembly that the landmark verdict had shut the doors on dictatorship and blocked the way of any unconstitutional usurpation of the peoples right to governance. Their editorial stated: Through this process,perhaps some precedents can be set. This sends out a strong message,especially at a time when debate continues about the role of the president and the powers he still enjoys to dissolve assemblies. Former PM Nawaz Sharif hailed this move as reported by Dawn on August 5: Musharraf should be made to pay for violating the Constitution. I am not saying this out of a sense of revenge but it is the nation which had suffered enormously,and the nation which has the right to hold him accountable.
Knocked down or out?
News coming in of the death of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistans top honcho Baitullah Mehsud indicates a sense of defeat for the Taliban. Dawn flashed the news on August 7: Baitullah Mehsud may have been killed in a US missile strike in South Waziristan late on Tuesday,intelligence officials say. Sources say these reports are 95 per cent credible and true.
Meanwhile,on August 2,the NWFP government booked Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi chief Sufi Mohammad for sedition,rebellion,terrorism,rioting and other offences. The News cast Mohammedas a mix between a traitor and a hero,in its editorial on August 4: Some ,at least in Swat and elsewhere,saw them as saviours. It is pointless to argue how many fell in this category,or how many became disillusioned by the Taliban after they came to power. The issue of justice raised by Sufi made some impact. Now that he is back behind bars,these matters need to be sensibly considered. If this does not happen,the risk of another uprising will continue to hover. What people yearn for is some mechanism that grants them access to justice. This too is the reason why nostalgia for the reign of the Wali of Swat still exists four decades after the status of the region as a princely state was abolished.
Manto revisited
Dawn reported on August 2: Seven people were burnt alive and 18 injured in Gojra on Saturday over the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran… More than 50 houses were set on fire and a place of worship belonging to a minority community was damaged by an angry mob. Daily Times,in an editorial on August 3 issued a caveat: Incidents of persecution of the Christians have never stopped,but Gojra tells us that holocausts can repeat themselves as civic virtue declines in Pakistan under the influence of extremism. Gojra is in the district of Toba Tek Singh,made famous by Sadat Hassan Mantos immortal story of the same name.
