VCheng
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Holding the judiciary in detention is NOT treason. It seems everyone has got on to the treason bandwagon now without realizing how flimsy and opportunistic this charge is. If Musharraf is guilty of treason for this act of holding the members of the higher judiciary in detention, then why is NS not being held accountable for having members of his party storm the premises of the SCP when Justice Sajjad was the CJP and harassing him and his staff? Was that not an act of aggression against the superior judiciary? As far as the treason charge is concerned, you must know that "Abeyance" was not a treasonous offense in 2007. The law was changed in 2010 long after Musharraf was gone.
So am I blind or do people not realize the hypocrisy and double standards all over this mess?
Secondly, if you think that finding only a former CoAS guilty, leaving alone all the aiders and abettors of his and past military takeovers, and that too in such a shoddy manner is going to act as a deterrence then its nothing but wishful thinking. What it actually will do is that it will ensure that any future military takeover is ruthless to make sure no loose ends are left. This will lead to an unprecedented "bloody" military takeover in Pakistan. All those suggesting that Pakistan has moved on and there will not be another military takeover should realize that this is exactly what was being said in the late 80s and throughout 90s.
In Turkey a precedence was set with the entire military leadership and their abettors in the civil side getting punished or censored. This would be the fair way to go about this by prosecuting the takeover of 1999. Our dishonest government and the motivated judiciary don't have it in them to do the right thing.
I can understand your points perfectly well, including the amendment in Article 6, and the selective nature of the present prosecution.
However, even without that amendment and your fine parsing about the difference in "abeyance" and "suspension", the fact remains that any COAS simply does not have the legal authority to dismiss an elected civilian government, unless he acts extra-Constitutionally, and therefore is guilty of an illegal act that amounts to treason by definition, no matter how justification is attempted under a suitably cooked up Doctrine of Necessity.
The sooner we can come to grips with this and take concrete steps to prevent it, the better off we will be as a nation.