UK government pushes impunity deal for disgraced dictator Pervez Musharraf
Richard Wilson | 21.08.2008 07:46 | Terror War
UK Ambassador to Pakistan Sir Mark Lyall Grant has been lobbying hard for western client Pervez Musharraf to be gifted immunity from prosecution over his crimes against the Pakistani people
During his disastrous nine-year reign as 'Chief Executive' (1999) and then President (2001) of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf ran roughshod over his people's democratic rights, while forces under his command committed numerous acts of torture and mass-killing. He was also a willing western client, giving US forces a free hand to operate on Pakistani territory, co-operating with the infamous 'rendition' programme, torturing terror suspects on request, and occasionally helping to whitewash US involvement in air strikes on civilian targets in Northern Pakistan (eg: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/nov/01/pakistan.declanwalsh).
Now that Musharraf has - despite the best efforts of the US and Britain - finally been forced from office, the UK Ambassador, "Sir" Mark Lyall Grant has been deployed to try to ensure that he is granted immunity from prosecution over his crimes. As is the norm whenever the international diplomatic community pulls out all the stops to save a politician from facing justice (and deny justice to victims of serious human rights abuse), this is being cynically spun as an effort to avoid 'confrontation' and preserve 'peace': http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7571883.stm
Pakistan's pro-democracy movement is having none of it, however, pointing out that in reality, cutting impunity deals with organised criminals is a surefire way of ensuring more of the same a few years down the line.
Please help defend the rights of Musharraf's many victims by calling the UK Foreign Office to account over Mark Lyall Grant's disgusting manoeuvres. Please write to your MP via http://writetothem.com, urging them to lobby the Foreign Office to call off the dogs and let justice take its course.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/nov/01/pakistan.declanwalsh). Now that Musharraf has - despite the best efforts of the US and Britain - finally been forced from office, the UK Ambassador, "Sir" Mark Lyall Grant has been deployed to try to ensure that he is granted immunity from prosecution over his crimes. As is the norm whenever the international diplomatic community pulls out all the stops to save a politician from facing justice (and deny justice to victims of serious human rights abuse), this is being cynically spun as an effort to avoid 'confrontation' and preserve 'peace':
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7571883.stm Pakistan's pro-democracy movement is having none of it, however, pointing out that in reality, cutting impunity deals with organised criminals is a surefire way of ensuring more of the same a few years down the line.
Please help defend the rights of Musharraf's many victims by calling the UK Foreign Office to account over Mark Lyall Grant's disgusting manoeuvres. Please write to your MP via
http://writetothem.com, urging them to lobby the Foreign Office to call off the dogs and let justice take its course.
Richard Wilson
Homepage:
http://richardwilsonauthor.wordpress.com
Comments
Hide the following comment
when lawyers take to the barricades..,
21.08.2008 15:04
but you've got to think like a lawyer if you wonder why neither Musharref the soldier nor Musharref the suit goes to court to answer for his sins & crimes, omissions and abuses of which all be told there were many.
I'm not a lawyer but I'd point to Chief Executive's Order No. 24 of 2002 which saw Musharref restore the constitution he had placed in abeyance on October 12th 1999. & also December 31, 2003, & the Seventeenth Amendment Bill which appeared to legitimise the 2002 order 24 & thus in retrospect imply in the best polished constitutional & legal sense that it was ok for Musharref to seize power in the first place.
We all know he went from uniform to suit, especially as our cartoonists were so adept at explaining it to us - but many of us completely underestimated how squeeky clean the transformation was each time. In recognising the role of the USA, in resenting the role of the UK, in misrepresenting the role of "Waziristan" - we miss the Pakistani lawyer doing his job.
Musharref was immune a long time ago, don't you see? He's being taking regular immunity shots all these years and now his body produces their own immunity antibodies. I daresay Bhutto was on the same stuff. Ah! this immunity of which I speak is not invincibility.
Here's a link to the Constitution of Pakistan with links in English language to all Executive orders, instances of abeyance, suspensions, restorations, dictatorial mechanisms, "enabling acts", & amendments:
it makes dreary reading like any constitution. The British were quite wise never to write one of their own.
iosaf