End of Musharraf saga?

 

Is the Musharraf saga over? Is he off the hook and will he never come back to Pakistan? Or has he gone abroad like Asif Zardari to prepare for a comeback at an appropriate time? These and other questions, especially why the government allowed him to leave the country, are the subject of endless discussion and speculation in the public and political circles in the country.

Last week, General Musharraf filed in the apex court a medical certificate issued by Dr. Sohail Rafi, an Associate Professor of Dr. Ziauddin Hospital stating that after examination he had recommended that the former president undergo a “special surgery to treat the  numbness and weakness he was feeling on his left foot”. The doctor also certified the latest medical technology to treat his condition was not available in Pakistan. In consideration of this request the Supreme Court removed the ban on Musharraf’s travel abroad, but left it up to the government to decide whether his movement should be restricted or not.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, the government hurried to allow General Pervez Musharraf to proceed abroad for medical treatment. Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that the decision had been taken in the light of the Supreme Court judgment: “The government has decided to allow Musharraf to travel abroad for treatment. He has also committed he will face all the cases against him in the court. Musharraf has promised to return within four to six weeks.”
The government’s volte face in the Musharraf case took everyone by surprise. General Musharraf has been facing a treason trial for clamping an Emergency in the country on November 3, 2007.  Interestingly, he was ordered by a three-member special court hearing the high treason case to record his statement before it on March 31, under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code — a statement which is usually recorded after prosecution closes recording of its evidence. But, instead, General Musharraf submitted a medical certificate.
What the worth is of such medical certificates is known to all. Asif Zardari is a living example of how one feigns illness to avoid court appearances. Haroon Rashid, a son of Lal Masjid cleric Ghazi Abdul Rashid who was killed during the 2007 military operation, in a petition filed before the apex court, furnished a record of many public functions and 40 TV channel interviews in which General Musharraf appeared without any physical discomfort. He said that whenever the date of hearing in the court drew nearer, his health condition deteriorated.  The applicant also pointed out that General Musharraf was rushed to the hospital for treatment the day a local trial court, hearing the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric, had issued his non-bailable warrant.
On March 15, the Supreme Court also took up a pending federal government’s appeal against the June 12 Sindh High Court order of removing General Musharraf’s name from the ECL. The appeal was rushed by the government on June 14, 2014, challenging the high court’s order on the apprehensions that once Musharraf left the country he may not return to stand a treason trial under Article 6 of the Constitution.
Over the last two years, the Nawaz government has done everything within its power to ensure that General Musharraf is convicted in the 2007 Emergency case. But at the end, it seems it got cold feet and decided to call it a day. Thus, what once began as a historic treason trial has ended in a whimper. As observers of the political scene in Pakistan have noted, it was a test case for altering the civil-military imbalance in the country forever. But ultimately nothing came of it.
In hindsight, it appears that the PML-N government was never serious in bringing General Musharraf to book. From the very beginning, it was clueless about how to go about the case. The former dictator should have been called to account for the original sin, the 1999 coup. But, instead, the government chose to go after him for the November 2007 Emergency proclamation.
This was perhaps done to show that it was not a case of personal vendetta. But, as later events proved, the case was instituted to humiliate General Musharraf, not to punish him for violating the constitution. The latter was dragged from one court to another, but all the time PM Nawaz Sharif kept looking over his shoulder to ensure that he did not overstretch the military’s sensitivities. According to some political analysts, here was a chance to correct the distortions in civil-military relations but it was frittered away. 
The question uppermost in everyone’s mind in the country today is: Will General Musharraf return and when? From his flurry of meetings in Dubai with his party men, it appears that General Musharraf is hale and hearty and has abandoned none of his political ambitions. Surely, he will return. He is cooling his heels in Dubai, waiting for the time when Nawaz Sharif gets weak or commits a political blunder that may prove his undoing.