Pakistan in Media

ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf believes Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif would get a “strong” message from King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, during his forthcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, to change his stiff stand against the ousted leader, the retired general’s close aides feel.

They claim that Nawaz Sharif would be asked to “honour the international guarantees and commitments” clinched with the inclusion of the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia at the time of Musharraf’s resignation as the president of Pakistan and about which he was fully aware. They say a key element of these dos and don’ts was that Musharraf would be a free man, facing no embargo on his movements while going out of and coming in Pakistan and would not be prosecuted anywhere on any account.
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LAHORE: The Saudi authorities have formally sent a message to the Pakistani leadership that they want stability in Pakistan, with King Abdullah urging all stakeholders to abide by an agreement that rules out any action against former president Pervez Musharraf, reported a private TV channel on Tuesday.

Saudi royal family sources said that during a meeting between Interior Minister Rehman Malik and the Saudi king, a “clear message” was given to the government that a confrontation between the PPP and the PML-N and any step against Musharraf could affect the country’s political stability.

The channel reported that the Saudi king played the role of a guarantor at the time of Musharraf’s resignation and assured the former president that no action would be taken against him. The king said if a party or an individual backed out of the agreement reached, Pak-Saudi relations would be affected.

Nawaz travels to Saudi Arabia next week to hold meetings with officials, who would “force him to abide by the agreement”, said the sources, adding that the Saudi king wanted to defuse the tensions because he had been told Musharraf was considering making important disclosures about Nawaz and President Asif Ali Zardari in London that included talk of Saudi Arabia as well.

Musharraf – who is currently in Saudi Arabia – met the Saudi intelligence chief, who was an important player in Nawaz’s return to Pakistan, and discussed issues related to his trial.
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Daily Times, Pakistan, Tuesday, August 04, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf can be tried on charges of high treason if parliament passes a resolution by simple majority, said Attorney General Sardar Latif Khosa on Monday.

The attorney general made the comments while addressing journalists after the oath-taking ceremony of Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali at the Supreme Court (SC). Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry swore in Justice Jamali as an SC judge.
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Dawn, Pakistan, Friday, 31 Jul, 2009
ISLAMABAD, July 30: The Supreme Court ignored on Thursday a plea to order initiation of high treason charges against former president Pervez Musharraf for proclaiming emergency on Nov 3, 2007, as army chief.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who is heading a 14-judge bench hearing challenges to the imposition of emergency, observed that this was not the responsibility of the court. The court would rather take a simple route to decide cases before it, instead of derailing the system.
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Dawn, Pakistan, Thursday, 30 Jul, 2009
REMEMBER them, anyone? What happened to the puppies he sported in the first weeks in power? Given our sudden desire for punishing Musharraf, he could now also be accused of first using them to offend the faithful and then abandoning them to their fate as he made off to London. Animal rights activists of civil society, please step forward.

The cacophony surrounding the demands to bring the former president-general to justice makes a spectacle of the way we do politics. Retribution, when it is a one-sided affair, is vendetta; and justice cannot be served by certain individuals in power bent on settling scores, albeit with a wrongdoer.
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Qayyum advises former dictator to appear before court; ready to represent him if asked; CJ makes The News part of record.
The News International, Pakistan, Thursday, July 23, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Not even Malik Qayyum, once a great loyalist of Pervez Musharraf, picked up the courage to defend his former boss, who was verbally whipped in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. However, Qayyum showed the guts and nerve to be present all through Wednesday’s proceedings by the 14-member bench in the Nov 3, 2007 case.
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The News International, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 22, 2009
ISLAMABAD: US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke Wednesday said President Pervez Musharraf is now history and that the US will not come to defend him.

Talking to media here, Holbrooke termed Pervez Musharraf’s case as Pakistan’s internal issue and added that the US respects Pakistan’s judiciary and free press.
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The News International, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 21, 2009
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court seemed set to correct monumental wrongs that followed the November 3, 2007, unconstitutional act of Pervez Musharraf, while adjudicating on different petitions that it took up on Monday.

The sense one had while sitting through the extraordinarily important proceedings, spanning three hours, was that Musharraf’s unconstitutional act will be under intense scrutiny, with strong prospects of its quashment, as the decision was not expected to simply resolving the issue of recommendations of the two additional judges of the Sindh High Court (SHC).
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