The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) on Monday came out with a 17-point charge-sheet against the former President, Pervez Musharraf, to mount pressure on the federal government to get him back to Pakistan for trial for high treason, murder of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and corruption.
The charge sheet was issued on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the ouster of PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif by Mr. Musharraf on October 12, 1999. While the ouster of Mr. Sharif, his detention and imposition of martial rule tops the list of crimes committed by Mr. Musharraf, the “Kargil misadventure'' comes second.
About Kargil, the charge sheet states that Mr. Musharraf planned and undertook the “misadventure''. He concealed it from the elected government and sacrificed the lives of 800 Army officers and men. In doing so, Mr. Musharraf caused irreparable damage to the cause of the Kashmiri people and also a “very honourable peace process which was started by Mr. Sharif in the shape of the Lahore Declaration''.
On the Bugti murder, the charge-sheet depends upon media reports in holding Mr. Musharraf responsible. Stating that Bugti was killed in cold blood to settle a score, the PML(N) points out that Mr. Musharraf congratulated those involved in the murder; an assassination that in turn weakened the federation as Balochistan has been on the boil since.
Further, Mr. Musharraf has been held responsible for the large number of disappearances not just in Balochistan but elsewhere in the country and the killings in Lal Masjid which turned the tide of terrorism inwards. On missing persons, the charge-sheet uses Mr. Musharraf's memoir ‘In the Line of Fire' to state that he abducted and sold Pakistani citizens to the U.S. in return for dollars. As for Lal Masjid, the PML(N) accuses Mr. Musharraf of using the mosque in Islamabad to first counter the lawyer's movement and then initiating action against it to curry favour with the West in their war on terror.
Other charges brought against him include the removal and arrest of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, declaration of emergency, promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance and rigging the 2008 elections to deny the PML(N) a victory. For all these crimes, the PML(N) wants the federal government to approach the Interpol to get custody of Mr. Musharraf in London and bring him back to Pakistan to stand trial as his life has been a “story of continuous betrayal''.
