Police
chase Shahbaz supporters in Lahore
Armed Dictatorship,
Unarmed Democracy, a Fascist Face
By
Tarique Niazi
WISCONSIN:
General Musharraf is so desperate to see Pakistan cleared of all
his political rivals. Just this past month he had his minions
work on Mr Asif Zardari to get him to leave the country.
Riding
on a Swiss investigator’s dubious summons, he plotted for
Asif’s kidnapping to force him from Pakistan. If the Swiss
government had partnered in his crime, Gen. Musharraf would rid
himself of one of his most lethal political opponents, and yet
claimed righteousness of serving the cause of justice.
Asif
is a Kurd Baluch, whose ancestors had the knack for smelling conspiracies
long before they appeared on the horizon. It were his Kurd ancestors
who forewarned Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet of Islam, against
trusting the residents of Kofa, an ancient town in contemporary
Iraq.
Although Hussain went ahead with his mission, he confirmed his
Kurd well-wishers’ premonition with his severed head. That
was all that was left of his remains after Kofis deserted him
in the midst of a raging battle. Kurds have stupendous endurance
for suffering at the hands of despots. Asif’s continued
incarceration is a daily testimony to the unyielding character
of his forebear. So is the defiance of Balochs, bravest of all
Pakistanis, who stand tall in bringing down their internal and
external colonizers. They are the reason Pakistan is so fired
up for democracy.
General
Musharraf has the largest per capita concentration of troop deployment
in Dera Bugti, Baluchistan. He wants the First Citizen of this
town -- Nawab Akbar Bugti -- to submit to his will and let him
plunder Baluchistan of its natural capital.
Far
from submission, Nawab Bugti, who is “exiled in his home”
to fight his own battle, roars back to the general: “Bring
it on.” Yet the Nawab is not unfriendly towards the rank
and file of Pakistan’s armed forces.
I have seen his gifts in silver trophies showcased in the halls
of the Command and Staff College, Quetta. His beef is, however,
with the generals who ride into power on the back of the armed
forces. After Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Nawab Bugti is the only Pakistani
statesman whose hands are clean of the taint from shaking those
of the despots’.
Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif was so fascinated with his legendary past
that he found himself “smitten” with deference for
him – a deference that verged on obeisance. As Prime Minister,
he would not begin his visit to Baluchistan before visiting with
the Nawab in his hometown. He would park his jet at Samungli Airport
in Quetta, and take a chopper to Dera Bugti to pay his respects
to the Nawab.
The
Nawab never traded the prime minister’ special relationship
with him for anything in the world. He rather responded in kind
and yet retained his independence. Contrary to his longstanding
self-banishment from Islamabad, the Nawab still traveled to the
national capital to vote for Prime Minister Sharif’s nominee
for President. As for his independence, only Nawab Bugti can model
after himself. Once asked if the Sharifs would test negative in
a “trial by fire,” the ultimate determination of guilt
in the Balochi traditional system of justice. “Their enemies
may,” he chuckled.
Asif
was then one of those enemies of the Sharifs, whose innocence
the Nawab proclaimed in a very general manner of speaking. He
is now Gen. Musharraf’s prisoner of conscience, who is so
passionate to sacrifice him at the altar of Swiss justice. Although
Gen. Musharraf wants the ends of justice served far from the shores
of Pakistan, his hypocritical self fails him to serve justice
within the shores of Pakistan.
On
May 11, Mr Shahbaz Sharif, whom Gen. Musharraf has had declared
an “absconder” in a case of multiple homicides, flew
into Lahore to turn himself in. At the airport, he was served
with arrest warrants and immediately taken into custody. Hours
later, he found himself deported to Saudi Arabia, Gen. Musharraf’s
haven for outsourcing his political challengers.
If
this is not the picture of a lawless country, what is? In deporting
Mr Sharif, Gen. Musharraf has once again stomped on the Constitution
that has no place for exiling its citizens to far off desert kingdoms.
Instead, the Constitution’s Article 6 holds Gen. Musharraf
guilty of sedition that is punishable with death (although the
Constitution never had a chance to deliver its guilty verdict
against its violators, they kept meeting their punishing end on
their own, however).
Second, he has trodden underfoot
the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution – the Supreme Court
of Pakistan. On May 7, the Court ruled in Mr Sharif’s return
to Pakistan. Earlier, Gen. Musharraf’s Attorney General
lied to the Supreme Court that there was no bar on Mr Sharif’s
homecoming. And in having him deported within minutes of his arrival
in Lahore, Gen. Musharraf confirmed the lie to the Court of his
Attorney General. The Court in its detailed ruling of May 7 wrote
of the Attorney General’s lie:
“It
is not denied by learned Attorney General for Pakistan and Advocate
General Punjab nor so could be denied that Article 15 of the Constitution
bestows a right on every citizen of Pakistan to enter or move
freely throughout the country and to reside and settle in any
part thereof. It is settled proposition of law that the right
to enter in the country cannot be denied but a citizen can be
restrained from going out of the country. The petitioner is a
citizen of Pakistan and has a constitutional right to enter and
remain in the country.”
Stripped of any legitimacy whatsoever, Gen. Musharraf put his
jackboot where the Court’s mouth was. He is unabashedly
standing on a biped of bribing and bullying. When corruption fails
to let him have his way, he will resort to coercion to reach his
goal. For him, Pakistan is either for sale or for skinning.
Third,
he viciously abused law enforcement agencies to have them serve
arrest warrants on a “fugitive of law,” and then escort
him back to safety from “the long arm of the law.”
A man who is still on the Exit Control List (ECL), a punishing
tool to keep opposition in line, was let out of the country in
a chartered plane! This abuse shows one thing: All state-sanctioned
institutions of violence are working for survival in power of
on person: Gen. Musharraf.
He
is bending the state to his pervert will. In the process, he has
reduced himself to a warlord, the military to an armed militia,
and law-enforcement agencies to a private army of thugs, which
can do anything for money.
Fourth,
a state-owned airline’s jet was used to trick Mr Sharif
into his kidnapping and then boarding a plane to Saudi Arabia.
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight that carried
Mr Sharif out of Pakistan was diverted from its scheduled route
to fly to Saudi Arabia. On October 12, 1999, Gen. Musharraf called
such “diversion” “hijacking.” He had a
democratically elected prime minister toppled and later tried
for an alleged “hijacking” of his plane, a crime that
is punishable with death under Pakistani law (which soon Gen.
Musharraf will learn in his own trial).
Fifth, all that was done on a fig
leaf of a phantom agreement between Gen. Musharraf and the House
of Saud, under which the latter would take in his political opponents.
This agreement, if exists, is another violent violation of the
Constitution. Yet Gen. Musharraf publicly claims that such an
agreement exists and it is binding on the Sharif family for 10
years. Before long, he is reminded of his claims that he will
find hard to swallow.
His
despotic rule has shown in more than one ways how desperate and
weak he is. His state terror against a leader of democracy has
further united the democratic movement in Pakistan.
For
the first time, Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) are together leading a charge on the dictatorial regime
of Gen. Musharraf. This regime is being run by a syndicate of
criminals.
Gen.
Musharraf, himself a felon, has publicly said that his government
is populated with the corrupt. For these very reasons, the democratic
movement in Pakistan is stronger than ever to take on Gen. Musharraf
and his despotic regime. Although the democratic movement is unarmed
and the dictatorship is armed, Gen. Musharraf and his fascism
are on the run to their ultimate ruin.
