Dear Ms. Sarah,

Thanks for the compliment and here are more eye openers:

Both the prosecution and Sharif’s lawyers bungled — the former when the army arrested Chaudry; the latter when the case came up before the anti-terrorism court (ATC) headed by Judge Jafferi. A day after the coup, the CAA director was arrested and harassed to the point of torture and denied the medical care he deserved as a heart patient. But one day a ‘polite’ ISI officer came to him and told him that he was being interrogated because he would have to serve as star witness for the prosecution.
According to the author, the brains behind Sharif’s defence strategy were bad lawyers who not only contradicted each other, but also reversed their position when the defence went in appeal to the Sindh High Court after conviction by Judge Rehmat Jafferi, who sentenced the former prime minister to two life terms. High drama in the sky Reviewed By Muhammad Ali Siddiqi Sunday, 07 Mar, 2010 | 02:12 AM PST |
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/high-drama-in-the-sky-730

Complete Background of 12 Oct 1999 Military Coup by Musharraf with historical statements of those [Hamid Gul supported Musharraf 12 Oct 1999 Coup] who are now talking about Civil Society, Law, Article 6, Independent Judiciary and PCO Judges and what not. Do watch the BBC Documentary of 12 Oct 1999 Military Coup in the link: Alleged Demand For The Trial of NRO Creators. http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/01/alleged-demand-for-trial-of-nro.html

Oops Thanks Ms. Rabia

After the electricity stealing charges….The row of videos regarding Police tortures and violance on almost all the channels have proved Aamir’s first input very right.
Though the same media dont highligt the encounters made in Swat, though HRCP has highlighted the issue as well.

Swat : Extrajudicial killings Of Taliban
August 27, 2009 at 09:39
http://aliarqam.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/swat-extrajudicial-killings-of-taliban/
On Sunday (2 August 2009 ) morning, a body, hands bound with rope and shot in the back of the head, lay on the sidewalk of a main road. A note pinned to the shirt and written in Urdu gave the victim’s, Gul Khitab, and said he was from Matta, one of the remaining Taliban strongholds. “Enemy of Swat,” it read.

Now it has become routine for many Swat residents to see unclaimed bodies dumped in agricultural fields, by the roadside or on the banks of Swat River. Like the Taliban before them, the executioners had left handwritten messages with the bodies warning that this would be the fate of militants. In their heyday, the Swat Taliban did exactly the same things, executing, and sometimes beheading their rivals, soldiers and policemen in their custody.

According to details, 22 dead bodies were found on Monday evening and Tuesday. How these people, yet to be recognized, were killed and who were the assassins, continued to be a mystery. During the last couple of months up to 120 dead bodies were found in Swat but no one has accepted the responsibility of killings as yet.

While the security forces have been insisting that a majority of the dead bodies belonged to fleeing terrorists who were killed by the enraged locals, sources said the bodies recovered on Monday and Tuesday were mostly found from the areas where the security forces are conducting operation for the last thee days. This is also giving rise to the speculations of the Swatis about the extra judicial killings in the region.

The commissioner Malakand while reiterating his previous stance that the security forces had nothing to do with the mysterious killings, said he had no knowledge of the fresh killings saying he was away from the headquarters. However, the government is yet to come up with a clear stance in this regard. The commissioner said he had recommended to provincial government to conduct inquiry about these killings.

Witnesses said most of the victims had been shot, some several times. They were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs, and dumped in fields or alleys.

“Previously we were afraid of the Taliban. Now, we’re afraid of the army,” one man told the Associated Press news agency.

Military officials have confirmed that the army has been conducting operations in areas where the bodies have been found.

Question of Musharraf’s trial Shahzad Lodhi Monday, April 6, 2009, Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1430 http://pakobserver.net/200904/06/news/topstories06.asp

Islamabad—While the capital is abuzz with mixed reaction to President Asif Zardari’s address to the joint session of Parliament on Saturday, the simmering debate on Gen. Retired Pervez Musharraf’s fate seems to have gone on the back burner.

This is not to say that the PML (N)’s emphatic pleas for invocation of Article 6 of the Constitution against the ex-President will evaporate in thin air. But if the constitutional debate after the Judges restoration is any guide, there are more pressing issues to be addressed by the apex court and Parliament.

Keen political observers of the internal and external scene in the capital are of the view that factors leading to the restoration of Judges and the magnanimous initiative of a political rapprochement by President Asif Zardari have not only been facilitated but also guaranteed by Pakistan’s friends like the USA, UK and Saudi Arabia as well as the ultimate “arbiters” at home, headed by COAS Gen. Kayani. This is not to belittle the significance of the majesty of the people’s power demonstrated in the long march.

Prominent legal experts when approached to comment on the shape of things to come, expressed the view that not only the Bench and Bar, but also the media and civil society will have to act with a calculated restraint in their reaction to the performance of the Supreme Court.

Commenting on the fate of Musharraf in case a petition is accepted against him under Article 6 of the Constitution, legal experts believe that the alleged hijacking of the plane on which Musharraf was on board will open up a host of issues, most important being the question of involvement of all those military generals on the ground who aided and abetted the coup, or counter coup as the former President was fond of describing the event staged on the 12th of October against an elected Prime Minister.

While Musharraf was in the air, Lt Generals Aziz, Mehmood and Usamani had staged the coup for their chief.

On 12 October 1999 Mian Nawaz Sharif dismissed the then army chief Pervez Musharraf and appointed Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt in his place. Pervez Musharraf was on an official visit to Sri Lanka who immediately returned through a commercial flight.

Army generals including Lieutenant General Aziz Khan (then Chief of General Staff), Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed, (then Corps Commander Rawalpindi), and Lieutenant General Muzaffar Usmani, (then Corps Commander Karachi) stood by General Musharraf and refused to follow the orders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Government changed the route of Musharraf’s plane to a airport in the interior Sindh. With the Pakistan Army taking over the control of the Karachi airport, the plane eventually landed in Karachi. 15,000 troops under Major General Farooq under direct orders from Lt.General Muzaffar Usmani took control of the airport.

Gen Pervez Musharraf’s generals ousted the elected government, and arrested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other members of his cabinet. Musharraf later assumed the control of the government and in a subsequent trial of the prime minister alleged that the plane landed with only 7 minutes of fuel left. Mian Nawaz Sharif was convicted of plane hijacking and was sentenced to life. Later he was pardoned by President Musharraf only to be exiled to Saudi Arabia where he resided until he returned again on November 25, 2007.

General (retired) Pervez Musharraf if tried under Article 6 of the constitution, he might in his defence say he was in the air when military staged what he had been terming as a counter coup. Musharraf’s senior generals then holding rank of Lt General namely Muzaffar Usmani, Corps Commander Karachi, Mahmood Ahmed, Corps Commander Rawalpindi and Aziz Chief of General Staff GHQ were involved in action against the Nawaz Sharif government on 12 October, 1999.

Any court trial of former General Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the constitution, would naturally bring in other former senior military officials who had played some part in the coup or “counter-coup” as Musharraf claimed. Musharraf declared emergency on 3 November, 2007 in serious violation of the constitution. His subsequent measures were tantamount to sabotaging the constitution. All those who collaborated with Musharraf in this regard might attract the wrath of Article 6 along with General retired Pervez Musharraf. His action on 3 November, 2007 and subsequent steps have not been indemnised by the Parliament and remain un-constitutional. Article 6 is part of the 1973 constitution. It has not been ever invoked. It requires consequential legislation that provide for a procedure to execute legal actions on charges of sedition.

The article was breached by Zia-ul-Haq and then by Pervez Musharraf. Once the procedures for invoking the article in question are laid down the violators of the constitution will have to face prosecution. The government functionaries including civil and military will have to face the law for collaborating with the two violators of the constitution. This has been provided in clause (2) of Article 6 of the constitution, which says: “(2) any person aiding or abetting the acts mentioned in clause (1) shall likewise be guilty of high treason.”

Article 6 reads:

(1) Any person who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, subverts or attempts or conspires to subverts the constitution by use of force or show of force or by other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.(2) Any person aiding or abetting the acts mentioned in clause (1) shall likewise be guilty of high treason.

(3) (Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) shall by law provide for the punishment of persons fould guilty of high treason. Parliamentarians who supported the 17th amendment and those judges of Supreme Court who validated the 17th amendment may also be found guilty under Sub Article (2) of Article 6.

The legal experts further said that questions that worry political observers mainly relate to NRO, the validation of Gen. Retired Musharaf’s action of 3 Nov. 2007, the composition of the Supreme Court after Judges Restoration and last but not the least the resort to Article 6 of the Constitution for trial of Pervez Musharraf. All these questions have to be addressed by the Supreme Court and Parliament as well as rationally analysed by the media and civil society.

It is believed that the three pillars of state will have to ensure an ingenious balancing act and tread a cautious, consensuous path to find a middle way in order to reach a solution that is just and acceptable to all stake holders. Like it or not, there is no denying the fact that there are skeletons in everyone’s cupboards, instit-utions and individuals alike.

It is here that individuals like Musharaf who is being put in the dock by a section of the media and political commentators is likely to go unscathed by default or choice. No holds barred for the former President, but such are ironies of time and accidents of circum-stances. In Pakistan’s case, the near consensus opinion among political observers and decision makers may be to look ahead rather get entangled in the nitty gritty of “re-writing” of our history.