KARACHI: The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) has censured the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for defending former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, who was recently convicted by a special court for committing high treason.
The statement came after the government announced that it would challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court. “The KBA is shocked that the government is solely concerned about defending and protecting a convicted criminal rather than doing its lawful duty to prosecute and punish him,” said the KBA in a statement issued on Saturday.
“More particularly, the attorney general and law minister and other ministers who are supposed to prosecute a criminal on behalf of the State are defending that criminal rather than supporting the judgement.”
“It is also strange that provisions of the Constitution are now being quoted in defence of Gen (R) Musharraf who said ‘the Constitution is a piece of paper to be thrown in the dustbin’,” noted the KBA in its statement. “In fact, Constitution is supreme and no one is above the law be it general, dictator or anyone else.”
KBA also regretted the statement issued by the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) after the verdict was announced, in which he had said that the special court’s decision was “received with lot of pain and anguish within rank and file of Pakistan Armed Forces”.
“As far as the pain and anguish expressed by the DG ISPR is concerned, the KBA wishes such emotions had been expressed when Gen (R) Musharraf disgraced the good name of Pakistan’s beloved Armed Forces by suspending the Constitution and imposing martial law or when he masterminded the tragic events of May 12, 2007 when dozens of citizens including lawyers lost their lives,” the KBA said in its statement.
“On that fateful day, when innocents were being killed by terrorists, the dictator arrogantly showed his fists to show his contempt for law and the value of human lives but no statement about that has been made by the DG ISPR.
“The judiciary of Pakistan better understands its responsibilities under the law and the Constitution than any DG ISPR,” the body declared. The lawyers’ body termed as “unfortunate” the insinuations by the government and the security establishment that the judgement was “weakening the security of Pakistan or being used by foreign hands”.
It further advised that any “defects and errors” in the judgement can be challenged through an appeal “rather than through press conferences or through filing of references against the author judges”.
The statement ended with the hope that Musharraf “like other leaders before him” will return to Pakistan and “file his appeal from the jail cell”.
“If not, the government is bound to secure his extradition,” the statement concluded.
KBA’s statement comes days after the Pakistan Bar Council issued a press release, objecting to the insulting criticism of the judgement.
