The Musharraf Debacle – By Zain Naqvi

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With the conviction of the former Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf for treason came many arguments as to if the conviction by the Supreme Court was right or not.

We must first review the facts of the case. Musharraf was convicted of treason for placing Pakistan in a state of emergency in the 90s. My contention against this is that Musharraf made many constitutional changes during his regime and this meant that he had the ability to implement these powers during his regime. Only in 2008, when the PPP leader, Asif Ali Zardari was sworn in as president were these powers reverted. And now to have a man being tried for charges on a new constitution, is like charging a man for racism in the apartheid era according to the new racism laws. It’s a mystery as to why the Supreme Court, the highest legal body is making a mockery of itself and actually conducting the trials.

Musharraf then goes on and delivers his speech in the court and speaks about how he served the Pakistan Army for 45 years and was President of Pakistan for 8 and in return he gets tried for treason. Although this may be him playing his “get out of jail” card, he is right after all. A man who spent majority of his life serving his country and fought two wars for it, being tried for treason is something none of us might be able to grasp.

Read Also: A Special Court Has Rejected Pervez Musharraf’s Plea 

Moving on to what he actually did for the country he so valiantly served. He was the first president to actually listen to the Supreme Court and conducted elections in 2002. He never had any officials killed and never took any political figure out of power forcefully and conducted free and fair elections, which is more than what we can say about the recent 2013 elections. Musharraf succeeded to pass the XVII amendment which grants powers to dissolve the parliament.

HOWEVER APPROVAL REQUIRES FROM THE SUPREME COURT.

This just shows that he never had any forceful action taking place. Musharraf disbanded the cultural policies of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and quickly adopted Benazir Bhutto’s cultural policies after disbanding the Indian channels in the country. His cultural policies liberalize Pakistan’s media, and issued many television licenses to private-sector to open television centers and media houses. The television entertainment industry, film industry, theatre, music and literature activities, were personally encouraged by Pervez Musharraf. Under his policies, rock music bands gained a lot appraisal in the country and many concerts in the country were held each week.

In 2001, Musharraf got on stage with the rock music band, Junoon, and sang the national song with the band. Furthermore, Musharraf believed in a secular idea, which I remind you was the idea of Quaid e Azam when he fought for Pakistan’s independence. In 2004, Musharraf began a series of talks with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
The list goes on and on, with economic, social and political conquests conducted by Mr Musharraf. Although he may have placed emergency powers he is also the reason for 8 of the best years that Pakistan has seen in its 66 year history in my opinion.

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Zain Naqvi
Student
Bay View College
Karachi, Pakistan.

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