THIS is apropos of Nauman Saeed's letter, 'Giving Musharraf credit where due' (Aug 17). Well, Musharraf was never a legal, constitutional president but the governments run on their own steam and many things get done in every government whether dictatorial or semi-democratic as our civilian dispensations tend to be!

Credit for this or that to anyone at a given point of time is meaningless in the overall functioning of routine matters.

Comparing Obama/Bush and America/Pakistan can be farthest from realities. It is like comparing oranges with apples. Two systems are totally different and incomparable. Comparisons nearer home would have been right but that also to a point.

The writer may be asked where does the question of giving credit to a usurper arise? A man who commits the greatest crime of abrogating/flouting the Constitution (the laws of the land) should be given prescribed punishment as per the law, not given credit for breaking the law.

A man who tramples the law under his feet and usurps power impermissible under the law cannot be given credit for any actions in performance of daily governmental routine.

We started giving credit to Ayub Khan who abrogated the Constitution and derailed the running democracy. In whatever ugly shape it was, yet it would have corrected itself in due course. What we got as a result was a few factories but a fractured country, losing one half of it.

What is more, the dictatorial actions of Musharraf have shaken the fabric of Pakistan's political system by obtaining court rulings favourable to himself.

The 17th Amendment, obtained through the support of military-mullah alliance, is a thorn in the polity of Pakistan which allowed him to remain president in uniform. No civilised country can boast of such an event in its life and yet people think of giving credit.

And this credit-giving gave him the courage to stage another coup on Nov 3, 2007 putting to shame the entire country in the eyes of the civilised world, yet we think of giving him credit.

When will we realise that the law of the land takes precedence over all else and is sacrosanct -- to be obeyed by each and every citizen, including a Chief of the Army Staff more than any other citizen.

Otherwise, why a special law -- Article 6 of the Constitution -- was inserted therein. Mechanism for punishing law-breakers must come into play to prevent future occurrences of illegal usurpation of power.

Credit must be given where it is due but Gen ( r) Musharraf's brazenness in suspending the Constitution twice and doing what he did to preserve his rule overshadows any good intentions or actions he might have had!

All his actions are reflective of a dictatorial attitude and self-preservation that one shudders at the thought of imagining him in power and, therefore, his entry into the arena of power being illegal, unconstitutional and breaking of his oath of office must be condemned not given credit for any subsequent actions on his part.

I hope Pakistanis should stop giving credit to usurpers, be that he Musharraf, Ayub or any other who have much to their discredit without any exception.

SAEED ALIZAI

Karachi