Pakistan Politics, The general in the dock.

AS HIS tearful attorney likes to inform the press, the mother of Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military dictator, is ill, and is in Dubai. This offers Pakistan’s government associated judiciary an excuse to create a “humanitarian” gesture. they may unharness him from the snug confinement in Islamabad wherever he's awaiting trial on variety of charges, and let him scuttle out of the country. Instead, Nawaz Sharif, put in as prime minister once associate election in could, told parliament in the week that man Musharraf would be charged with treason—an offence punishable by a time or death.

In 1999 the then General Musharraf crystal rectifier a coup that terminated man Sharif’s last stint as prime minister. He ran the country as president for 9 years. he's suspect of guilt within the killing of a separatist leader in Balochistan and of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, and of illicitly jailing judges; however the accusation of treason appears most clear-cut, since he abrogated the constitution and declared a state of emergency.
There ar many reasons why making an attempt him appears like a foul plan. It reeks of the malignity that has poisoned Pakistani politics. It risks distracting man Sharif from the roles he was electoral to do—stop the ability cuts, fix the failing economy and convey peace to a rustic still ravaged by terrorist violence. however the strongest argument against a shot is that it threatens to cause a bruising confrontation with the military and therefore encourage yet one more military coup. The regular intervention of troopers in Pakistani politics has undermined civilian establishments, inspired the expansion of terrorist organisations, distorted defrayment priorities and poisoned relations with India.

That is conjointly why making an attempt man Musharraf is that the right factor to try to to. Pakistan’s troopers got to be discouraged from intervening ever once more. the simplest means of doing that's for democratically electoral leaders to say their authority over military ones. man Sharif features a likelihood to carry a military dictator to account in a very country within which military dictators have enjoyed freedom.

The chances of a repeat of 1999 ar tiny. Fourteen years past man Sharif crystal rectifier a corrupt and inept regime whose collapse several Pakistanis and foreigners cheered. currently he's freshly re-elected, with a robust mandate once a healthy turnout. Pakistanis ar inclined to believe that he has learned from his mistakes, and he has not nonetheless had time to prove them wrong. Few reception would support a coup. man Musharraf, UN agency came back to Pakistan to require half within the election, believed he was common there. He presently noted he wasn't. The army’s current chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, is on his solution. A coup would conjointly embarrass America, that provides Pakistan’s military with Brobdingnagian amounts of money. man Sharif is managing the politics of the trial fastidiously. responsive to the danger that it's sort of a personal blood feud, he has wanted support from different parties. He has conjointly aforementioned that he holds man Musharraf only chargeable for the coup, which can are a proof that he's not intending a broader purge.

Exile and also the kingdom
And if man Musharraf is convicted? This newspaper has continuously opposed the capital punishment, however a jail sentence would inform generals that mounting coups has consequences. man Sharif may perhaps do a take care of the military to permit the guilty general to slide away to some Gulf state. A poor challenger to a spell in jail. however if that were a part of the worth of rental Pakistanis see a military chief suffer the courts, so be it.