Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) MNA Javed Hashmi has demanded that that the bodies of dead dictators, including General Ayub Khan, General Yahya Khan and General Zia-ul-Haq, be exhumed and hanged. He added the old generals to the demand for the trial of General Musharraf (retd) for treason to fulfil the needs of justice and differentiate between “justice” and “revenge”.

Mr Hashmi made reference to what the British did in 1661 when they dug up the grave of Oliver Cromwell, the man who imposed England’s only martial law in history, and hanged him. He did not mention that his severed head remained impaled in front of the parliament for decades after the “act of justice”. Nor did he seem to show any real knowledge of why Cromwell was exhumed and hanged.

The UK today is a democracy and looks at what was done in 1661 with suppressed distaste. If martial law has not revisited the country it is certainly not because of what it did to Cromwell who was a people’s man. There are other very cogent reasons why it has not happened. However the UK has pre-emptively abolished the death sentence. Should Pakistan equate falsely itself with the state of democracy (sic!) in England in 1661?

One fears that the “populist” demand for the hanging of General Musharraf (retd) is not a cry for justice but a collective growl of revenge. Unfortunately, too, the judges — waiting to come to grips with the man who hauled them over the coals for many months — are amenable to the lure of “populism” in general and the punishing of Musharraf in particular. But the ground reality is that we don’t live in a revolutionary era in which such steps can be taken without creating anarchy and leading to disintegration. (Daily Times)