High treason case: Musharraf shared no evidence to make others accomplices

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz will record his statement on February 7 in Dubai before the FIA’s joint investigation team (JIT), constituted to probe the Nov 3, 2007 emergency, after General (retd) Pervez Musharraf recently repeated his claim that he had abrogated the Constitution on the advice of others, including the-then civilian and military leadership.

Thesources said that Shaukat Aziz, who never returned to Pakistan after his quiet departure in early 2008, had expressed his willingness to join the FIA’s ongoing investigation into the Nov 3, 2007 action. When approached by the FIA team, Aziz said that he would be available for the statement in Dubai on the seventh of the next month.

Like before, Aziz is expected to distance himself from the Nov 3, 2007 action of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who in his recent statement before the FIA wanted to drag both the-then civilian and military leaderships in the high treason case that the former dictator is facing.

However, despite having been asked by the FIA team, Musharraf could not produce any document to substantiate his stance that he was advised by the-then prime minister, cabinet members, top generals, etc. The sources said that Musharraf was specifically asked if he had any evidence including copy of such advice from the prime minister or minutes of corps commanders meeting or any other meeting wherein he was advised to abrogate the Constitution.

“He had no evidence to share,” a source privy to the investigation told The News, adding that Musharraf in his statement again resorted to the strategy of involving others in the crime of Nov 3, 2007. He also could not deny the fact that he had abrogated the Constitution as the army chief.

Musharraf also named former chief of the army staff Gen (retd) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani but he had nothing in concrete to prove his claim. The former military dictator insisted that in addition to Gen Kayani, he had consulted the senior military and civilian leaderships, including the-then prime minister Shaukat Aziz, before imposing the emergency.

Gen Musharraf’s recent statement before the FIA, the sources said, reflects the strategy of his legal team, which right from the beginning of the high treason trial wanted to drag all and sundry in the Nov 3, 2007 extra-constitutional step, which was taken to remove the Supreme Court judges.

The FIA team could not yet record the statement of Justice (retd) Abdul Hameed Dogar, as no concrete evidence was yet found against anyone else but Musharraf. As far as the official files and documentary evidence are concerned, General Musharraf, despite the de novo FIA inquiry on the matter, may not find anyone else but himself alone to be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution for abrogating it on Nov 3, 2007.

Interestingly, the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz did move a summary before the Nov 3, 2007 action but he had never sought the abrogation of the Constitution. On Nov 3, 2007, General Musharraf had issued the PCO under his own signatures as the Chief of the Army Staff and not as the president of Pakistan.

The last two paragraphs of the PCO bearing Musharraf’s signatures read as: “And whereas the situation has been reviewed in meetings with the prime minister, governors of all four provinces, and with Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, chiefs of Armed Forces, Vice Chief of Army Staff, and Corps Commanders of Pakistan Army; Now, therefore, in pursuance of the deliberations and decisions of the said meeting, I, General Pervez Musharraf, Chief of Army Staff, proclaim Emergency throughout Pakistan. 2. I, hereby, order and proclaim that the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan shall remain in abeyance. The proclamation shall come into force at once.”

Now the situation is that there is neither any document nor any statement coming from anyone else (except Musharraf) that any of those named in the emergency order had given the said advice.—Originally published in The News