LAHORE, March 14: Former chief justice of Pakistan Syed Sajjad Ali Shah has said that Gen Pervez Musharraf can be tried for high treason for suspending the Constitution as Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmad has warned the government of a country-wide protest if it attempts to obstruct the holding of March 23 public meeting in Rawalpindi.

Speaking at a lawyers’ convention here on Thursday, Mr Shah quoted clauses of the Constitution under which suspension of the constitution was amounted to its abrogation and the accused was to be tried on high treason charge.

He said Gen Musharraf wanted to abolish Islamic clauses from the Constitution and make Pakistan a Turkey like country. “If the parties do not unite, no one knows what will be done to the country?” he warned.

He said the army government had failed to achieve any of the goals it had set for itself while overthrowing a democratic government in October, 1999. “There is no economic development in the country, people are committing suicides for poverty, sectarian killings are continuing unabetted.”

Criticizing the accountability process, the former chief justice said NAB authorities recovered millions from the accused who had devoured billions of rupees of the nation and released them without making public the deals signed with them. “No one is allowed to question the NAB authorities,” he regretted.

Terming the army takeover a kind of terrorism, he said the rulers violated the Constitution by allowing the use of its soil against a Muslim country while it demanded the government establish brotherly relations with Muslim states.

Mr Shah also criticized increasing interference of the US in the country’s internal affairs. “The US interference has reached the extent that its envoy is telling a specific party’s leaders that they will have to take the responsibility of running the country.”

Qazi Husain on the occasion retreated his call to the political parties that they should forget the past and start a new journey (of relationship), adding the constitution of the country offered enough base for their joint struggle.

He said the politicians should go to the masses instead of looking towards America or the army for coming into power.

Opposing the government’s contention that political activities at this time were not in the interest of country as enemy forces were deployed on borders, he said the country was protected from internal and external dangers when people took to streets in an organized manner telling the enemy that they were alive to the situation.

He warned the government that if it attempted to bar his party from holding a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, on March 23 the movement (against the government) would spread across the country.

Criticizing courts for not granting him relief against “illegal” detention order by the government, he said the judges were serving a dictator after taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).

Dr Farooq Hasan said the US was pressing Gen Musharraf to restore democracy in the country. He claimed that an adviser to the US president had told him that “Musharraf was trailing on our success. But soon the petrol of his vehicle will finish and he will have to opt for the engine of democracy.”

He said Gen Musharraf had violated even the Supreme Court verdict under which he had been authorized to rule the country for three years. Under the SC order, the army government could not change federal character of the Constitution, nor it could undermine the institutions of president, judiciary and parliament, he added.