Treason Trial of Pervez Musharraf and Pandora's Box.

The Court should dispel the notion that it did not contemplate a return in the 2009 judgment and has now been caught slightly off guard. The Supreme Court now has to assert itself with the same force on the Commando as they customarily display with the elected government and its officials. That is not easy. According to one interpretation, the July 31, 2009 judgment seems to suggest that all those who aided and abetted the subversion might also be complicit. And that list has some powerful people. To quote MD Taseer, davaar-i-hashr mera naam-i-amal na dekh, is mein kuchh parda nasheenon kay bhi naam atay hain. The murders of Shaheeds Akbar Bugti and BB cannot be allowed to slide. It will, perhaps, be helpful to revisit his statements, his arrogance, apathy and smugness on the murders whenever in the future, one begins to feel even slightly sorry for the Commando. He does not deserve it. This is all the more important as we awkwardly mule through to elections. Generals Aslam Beg, Asad Durrani and Hameed Gul still mock us. Mock us, even after admitting to rigging and stealing an election, and the Supreme Court holding the first two guilty. General Musharraf’s referendum and the rigged 2002 elections should be fresh in our collective memory. The murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti represented a distinct breaking point for many Baloch nationalists. As welcome efforts are underway to encourage some Baloch nationalists to contest elections, it should be remembered reconciliation without truth, without accountability is unreasonable and unnatural.

The Saudis sent their intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz and the British sent their former ambassador in Islamabad, Mark Lyall Grant, to negotiate the terms for Mr Musharraf`s departure. “He is a free man, he can go where he wants,” said the official when asked if the US administration would allow Mr Musharraf to live in the United States, particularly because it might no longer be safe for him to live in Pakistan. “Will you let him come to the US?” the official was asked again. “He is free to go where he wants,” he said. “Will the US give him a visa?” “I don`t see any reason why he would not qualify for a visa. I don`t know where he wants to go,” the official said. 

Asked if the US regretted that one of its closest allies in the war in terror was hounded out of power, the official said “I don`t even know I would put it that way. Pakistan has faced a lot of trouble over the last year, whether it is the end of them, I don`t know. We have to see what the government is able to do now.” “But you did try to prevent him from going to this slippery slope that ultimately led to his departure?” “We have always encouraged people to respect democracy. We advised him not to impose a state of emergency on Nov 3. He made a lot of decisions … and he is living with the consequences of making those decisions.” The official explained that instead of getting directly involved in the impeachment dispute, the US administration “let events play out”. The United States, however, “encouraged” everyone to respect the democratic process, “and let it take its course,” the official said. He claimed that while the US did not give any advice to the conflicting parties, it kept in touch with the players. According to the official, the US Embassy in Islamabad played a key role in these negotiations because Washington avoided direct contacts with the players. “There were no conversations between Washington and Islamabad since Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani`s visit” to the US capital last month. The official also rejected media reports that President Musharraf telephoned President Bush twice during the impeachment crisis but Mr Bush refused to take his calls. “I don`t think it is true that he called twice,” he said. The US official noted that the Feb 18 elections in Pakistan brought a moderate government which now had to deal with the problems of terrorism, a weak economy and had to build democratic institutions. “They have to make sure that they will not allow themselves to be distracted by their politics,” the official said. We are concerned about what Pakistan is able to accomplish in the war on terror,” he said. “It is important to Pakistan. It is important to Pakistan`s neighbours. It is important to us.” He said that no senior US official was planning to visit Pakistan in the near future but the US ambassador in Islamabad would stay in touch with all political players.

How The United States Created The Taliban

 “He told Zia about his experience the previous year when the Israelis had shown him the vast stores of Soviet weapons they had captured from the PLO in Lebanon. The weapons were perfect for the mujahideen, he told Zia. If Wilson could persuade the CIA to buy them, would Zia have any problems passing them on to the Afghans? “Zia, ever the pragmatist, smiled on the proposal, adding, ‘Just don’t put any Stars of David on the boxes.” With that encouragement, Wilson pushed on. “Pakistan did not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and Wilson certainly had no authority to serve as a quasi secretary of state. In fact, with this kind of talk, the congressman was walking dangerously close to violating the Logan Act, which prohibits anyone other than the (US) president or his representatives from conducting foreign policy. But as the two rejoined Joanne’s party, Zia left the congressman with an understanding that he was authorized to begin secret negotiations to open back channels between Islamabad and Jerusalem. Wilson would leave for Israel in March and travel on to Pakistan to brief Zia immediately afterward. Crile says that the CIA man in Islamabad, Howard Hart, when asked years later, if he knew about Wilson’s efforts to bring the Israelis into the Afghan war, dismissed the story out of hand, insisting that the Pakistanis would never have permitted it. “I would have burst into hysterical laughter and locked myself in the bathroom before proposing such a thing,” he said. “It was bad enough for Zia to be dealing with the Americans, even secretly. But the Israelis were so beyond the pale that it would have been impossible. You have to understand that the Pakistanis were counting on maintaining the image of holding the high moral ground — of a religious brother helping a religious brother. It is beyond comprehension to have tried to bring the Israelis into it.” “Yet right under Hart’s nose,” Crile writes, “Wilson had proposed just such an arrangement, and Zia and his high command had signed on to implement it. Seven years later, Hart still knew nothing about it.” Charlie Wilson’s strategy called for introducing a new weapon into the battle every three months or so, in order to bluff the Red Army into thinking their enemy was better armed and supported than it was, “The Spanish mortar, for example, with its satellite-guided charge, was rarely deployed and may only have succeeded because the Pakistani ISI advisers were along to direct the fire. But the Soviets didn’t know that. When the weapon was first used it wiped out an entire Spetsnaz outpost with a volley of perfect strikes.” But ultimately it was the Reagan administration’s decision to covertly supply the mujahideen with Stinger missiles which changed the course of war. President Zia, Wilson is quoted as saying in the book, was unwilling to deploy Stingers in the war fearing that the Soviets would react harshly. As it is at Leonid Brezhnev’s funeral Soviet leader, Yuri Andropov, had threatened “to destroy Zia if he didn’t cut off the Afghan bandits.” In his bid to persuade Zia to allow mujahideen to deploy Stingers, Wilson says that he told the general “that he should consider an important benefit beyond weapon’s battlefield value to mujahideen. The Stinger, he told Zia would become symbol of the special relationship that had been forged between United States and Pakistan.” Crile says Wilson’s importance to Zia and Pakistan went beyond money. “Every year the appropriations sub-committee members fought a battle royal over charges that Pakistan was actively pursuing an Islamic Bomb. And every year Wilson, sometimes single-handedly, beat back those accusations. The fact is, Pakistan was working on the bomb, as Wilson, the CIA and almost everyone knew. Furthermore it was not about to stop. The one thing all serious Pakistani politicians agreed on was the need for a nuclear deterrent. It was the only way, they believed, they could survive against militarily superior India, which had already overrun the country in three previous wars.” Thus, Crile says, “Zia knew that as long as Pakistan was backing the mujahideen, Charlie Wilson would be with them, whether they had the bomb or not.” Hence the crucial decision to deploy the Stingers was made by Zia

Munir Akram, Marijana Mihic & Shame in Manhattan.

WAY BACK IN 2003: The United States has given Pakistan until Friday to decide whether it will waive the diplomatic immunity of its U.N. ambassador, Munir Akram, so that he can be prosecuted on domestic violence charges. Reached by phone at his residence, where he was spending the day, Akram declined to comment, saying, "My government is handling this. I prefer to leave it at that." The charges stem from an early morning incident on December 10 in which Marijana Mihic, 35, told police that she and Akram had argued in an apartment, and he had tried to prevent her from leaving. She described herself as Akram's girlfriend. Police said Mihic had a bruise on her head and minor abrasions on her knees. Because of the ambassador's diplomatic status, police were unable to arrest Akram. A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney said if diplomatic immunity were lifted, "We would be prepared to arrest" the ambassador. Meanwhile, the Pakistani mission is trying to downplay the incident, calling it a "momentary misunderstanding." "No charges were filed, and no charges have been filed," said Mansoor Suhail, a spokesman for Akram. "The ambassador as well as his friend both strongly believe there is no basis for any legal action. The whole thing is being blown out of proportion. It was a telephone call and as soon as the police arrived, she said, 'Sorry, I don't want to file charges.'" The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said it is conducting an inquiry into the incident.