General’s Trial

I think the most burning issue today in the media is that of the trial of the generals.  All sorts of legal, political, constitutional, intellectuals and media experts seem to have been interned in the ‘idiot box’ where they are showering the gems of wisdom day and night on their poor captive viewers. Though the SC has given the verdict against the two to be proceeded against by the FIA yet, (One) they have the right for the Review Petition and (Two) even in the event of its rejection, the FIA will only prepare the case for their prosecution and trial in a proper court of law. The case is likely to drag on for long in the courts and at the end of the day  the court may or may not convict them. In the event of their conviction they would again have the right to appeal to the higher courts in the chain, which again will be quite time consuming. Cases against AAZ took years without proving anything. And as long as they are not convicted by a  court th eir status would remain that of an accused and not that of a criminal, which  is being projected by most at present .

Now in all criminal cases the most fundamental thing to establish is the motive for the crime. Could someone more knowledgeable tell us please as to what could the motive for the Generals Beg and Durrani to dole out the money to the politicians?  How did they stand to gain by doing it and in what way?  Why did the then president GIK, allegedly, want to keep the BB out of the power?

I think all these questions would come up and thoroughly discussed  in the FIA investigations and the subsequent trial of the generals. Can someone rule out the possibility that some startling facts would not be unearthed, that compelled the president GIK to act the way he allegedly did? What could those be unless something  in the extreme interest of the country? Could it not be proved that both the then COAS and the DGMI (later DG ISI) felt duty bound to obey the orders of the president and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces to save the country against some serious security threat?  We saw the tip of the iceberg in the first 8 paras of Brig. Hamid Saeed’s written statement for which he had requested the apex court not to make them  public in the national interest.  The PM Raja Sahib in his speech at his native home town Gujar Khan had not only used strong invectives against what he called the perpetrators of the crime of maneuvering th e elections against the BB, but had also ridiculed them for labeling the BB as a security risk.  Now, what kind of security risk it was, and was there any substance in such an allegation?  The COAS and the DG ISI could have some revealing information about it including the alleged activities of Al-Zulfiqar and Murtaza Ali Bhutto attending regularly the passing out parades of the Indian Military Academy.  Incidentally, attending such passing out parades offers an excellent opportunity of mingling freely with the military attaches and other diplomats of the countries of the world who are normally invited to the parade and then lavishly entertained for the lunch and the drinks in the academy’s officers’ mess.  A letter was also alleged to have been written by the BB to some US Senator seeking US support in her becoming the PM once again and in return for which some promise was made. Only the investigations by the FIA and the trial by the court wo uld establish or demolish such allegations, for which surprisingly some general has also asked for an open court trial!  Can the present rulers risk opening of the Pandora’s box in such a tilt-in-any-way dangerous possibility, especially, when the general elections are just around the corner?

Col. Riaz Jafri Retd)