ISLAMABAD: The controversy over former army chief Pervez Musharraf’s homecoming echoed in the upper house of parliament on Wednesday, with senators from both sides of the aisle debating if he should be allowed to return to the country and spend his remaining life here.

The discussion took place a day after PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif urged the government, led by his younger brother Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to facilitate Mr Musharraf’s return in light of his poor health. The head of the military’s media wing also said on Tuesday Mr Musharraf’s family was in contact with the army regarding his planned return to Pakistan.

During the Senate session, the most open and frank comments came from former prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, who conceded that decisions like allowing or preventing Mr Musharraf from returning “will not be taken by us. They will be taken somewhere else”.

“When [Mr Musharraf] went abroad, could you stop him? And can you stop him now when he returns?” Mr Gilani asked.

PPP’s Gilani says no one can stop ex-general since ‘such decisions are taken elsewhere’, Rabbani sees no issue

“It’s a futile exercise. If Pervez Musharraf wants to come back, he can. Pakistan is his home,” he said, adding that he had no issues with the former dictator’s return but stressed that everyone should be treated equally.

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan recalled that the Constitution had been victim to several injustices. “We are handicapped. Our hands and feet have been tied. We are just slaves.”

He said Mr Musharraf enjoyed absolute power for 10 years, during which he broke the Constitution twice, attacked the judiciary and a former chief justice of Pakistan was even dragged by his hair.

“The decision of the Peshawar High Court is in front of you,” the JI senator said, referring to the death sentence awarded to Mr Musharraf on high treason charges.

He asserted that if Musharraf was brought back to the country, the doors of the prisons should also be opened and courts should be closed because the judiciary “won’t be needed”.

PPP Senator Raza Rabbani agreed that Mr Musharraf had committed several atrocities, but said there was no problem if he wanted to return to the country on health grounds.

He, however, pointed out that he could not talk on behalf of his party. “Things are very different when a person has been convicted by a court under Article 6 of the Constitution (high treason). It would be very inappropriate to give state burial to such a person,” Mr Rabbani said.

‘Let the law run its course’

PTI senator Ejaz Chaudhry believed that the law should take its course. Chiding Nawaz Sharif, he said anybody who had

proceeded abroad for medical treatment should come back and face the cases. He noted that the country could not progress unless everyone was equal before the law.

Defending Nawaz Sharif, PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui said the party supremo’s remarks must not be misconstrued as support for dictatorship.

“If not Pakistan, where else will Musharraf go?” he asked, adding a person “on his death bed” should not be stopped from returning to his homeland.

JUI-F leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri also highlighted that the retired general was fighting for his life at the moment and it wouldn’t be fair to stop him from returning to Pakistan. “Even Nawaz Sharif left the country for medical treatment,” he said.

‘No state burial’

Kamran Murtaza, another JUI-F senator, also agreed that a citizen could not be stopped from returning to the country but pointed out that the sentence awarded to him was intact.

He said that an atmosphere was being created to give Mr Musharraf a state burial, which was like “rubbing salt on our wounds”.

He said the former military dictator was responsible for the present situation in Balochistan. “If he is given protocol, we will not tolerate it. It’s a national issue and no one can be allowed to do this,” he said.

Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan said any Pakistani who was facing cases or was on the exit control list (ECL) had no bar on returning to the country. He said that the matter would be dealt with as per law and Constitution.

Mr Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, slipped out of the country in March 2016, a day after his name was removed from the ECL. He had been on the list since April 2013, soon after he returned from self-imposed exile and became embroiled in a series of legal cases, including a high treason trial initiated by the government.

His exit was largely interpreted as a sign the civilian government of the time had conceded defeat at the hands of an all-powerful military establishment.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2022