#Pakistan - Musharraf's death sentence carries enormous symbolic power

By Rafia Zakaria

The treason case against Pakistan's former President and army Gen. Pervez Musharraf had languished for so long that it seemed that there would never be a verdict. On Tuesday, six years after the case had been filed, a Special Court in Islamabad finally delivered their verdict and sentenced Pervez Musharraf in absentia to death for high treason.

The decision threatens to throw an already restive Pakistan into political tumult as the judiciary sets up for a battle of wills against the military.

The charges of which Musharraf was convicted stem from the 1999 military coup that toppled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. A three-member special court found Musharraf guilty of violating Article 6 of the Constitution: "Any person who abrogates or subverts or suspends or hold in abeyance, or attempts or conspires to abrogate or subvert or suspend or hold in abeyance the Constitution by use of force or show force or by any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason" In Pakistani law, the court noted, the only punishment for high treason is death. This decision is the first time that a civilian court has sentenced a general from Pakistan's domineering military (which has undertaken three major coups in 1956 and 1977 and 1999 and ruled the country for 33 of its 72 years of existence) has been sentenced to death. Gen. Musharraf, long retired, is himself is in the United Arab Emirates seeking treatment for medical problems but the attorney general of Pakistan, called the trial "unfair" and announced that the government will be appealing the verdict in Pakistan's Supreme Court.

The death sentence against the general will almost certainly not be carried out because he is unlikely to ever return to Pakistan. The symbolic significance of the verdict, however, cannot be overstated.Given this, the Supreme Court of Pakistan is likely to be the site of yet another standoff between Pakistan's judiciary and its military. Another one of the charges on which the general was convicted was his 2007 move to impose "emergency rule" and fire Iftikhar Chaudhry, then the chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, for refusing to kowtow to the General. That move sparked a lawyers' movement and such unrest in the country that the former general himself was forced to resign.

In essence then, the Supreme Court will now hear a case that considers in part whether an unelected military general has the power to depose the chief justice of the Supreme Court. If they, via some arcane loophole, say yes, they are limiting their own power as a separate branch of government; a move likely to spark further protests.If they uphold the verdict, the all-powerful military could very well take some future coercive actions against them.

It is a no-win situation.

The former President has his supporters in Pakistan but many resent what they see as the general's all too eager dalliance with the United States in the war on terror. Musharraf was in charge when then-President George W. Bush uttered his famous ultimatum, "You're either with us or against us." Gen. Musharraf told Pakistanis that he had no choice but to cooperate with the Americans, saying that then-Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage had told him: "Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the stone age."It's unclear whether these statements were ever made, but it is clear that Musharraf continued to enjoy the backing of the Bush administration even though he had long since lost support among Pakistanis. Musharraf's positioning of Pakistan as an ally in the war on terror, many Pakistanis held, made the country a target for terrorist attacks as it became yet another theater of war between insurgent Taliban, al Qaeda and a variety of other groups. More recently, according to research from New America, US drone attacks targeting the militants in Pakistan's tribal areas killed as many as 3,700 people, many of them innocent civilians.

The US is pursuing a peace deal with the Taliban and, according to recent Washington Post reporting, US officials knew that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable.

The Post's Afghanistan papers have revealed the lies told by American officials regarding the war on terror in Afghanistan, lies which seem to have no consequences for the parties involved. In Pakistan, the judiciary has rejected this no-consequences approach and sentenced a general who was an American favorite to death for his violations of the truth and the law. With the United States withdrawing from Afghanistan, the world is realigning. Preempting the withdrawal, Pakistan has turned to China as its new best friend. Pakistan's new generals, now far more concerned with ensuring that the Chinese are happy, may not feel much allegiance to an old retired leader who has no use within this new order. If this is so, then it may well be that Pakistan's military establishment looks the other way as Gen. Pervez Musharraf's death sentence is upheld.

However, it doesn't appear that the military will be so sanguine about a death sentence for one of its own. In a statement released on Twitter, military spokesperson Major Gen. Asif Ghafoor said that the verdict had been received with a "lot of pain and anguish" within the Pakistani military accusing the courts of having "ignored due process." A man who "had served the country for over 40 years, fought wars for the country can surely never be a traitor."For the moment, former President of Pakistan Gen. Pervez Musharraf is just that. At least for now, a man who toyed with Pakistan's civilian institutions has been held to account. Whether justice ultimately prevails is unknown, but in this history-making moment for Pakistan, it surely has.