Asia Times: Sharif lucky to get life in hijack case


	April 8, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Sharif lucky to get life in hijack case
By Nadeem Iqbal

ISLAMABAD - The bookies got it right. Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was awarded the life sentence that most punters betted on, they said.

Judge Rehemetullah Hussein Jafri, the single judge who presided over the anti-terroism court in Karachi, sentenced Sharif to two life terms for hijacking and terrorism but acquitted him of attempted murder and kidnapping.

Ironically, the anti-terrorism court was set up by Sharif himself while in power. ''Obviously we are going to file an appeal within seven days,'' said Haleem Siddiqi a member of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) told reporters. But the PML did not plan any agitation in spite of urgings by Sharif's wife Khulsoom Sharif. ''The party has no plans to confront the army and we are sure Mrs Sharif will abide by the party decision,'' a party spokesman said.

Bookies in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi reported millions of rupees invested by speculators certain the Sharif would be convicted but would escape the noose especially after US President Bill Clinton made plea that he be spared. During a brief stopover in Islamabad to round off a week-long tour of South Asia Clinton said executing Sharif would hurt Pakistan's image. ''There is a perception abroad that the courts are not free and fair here . . . . A death sentence will enforce this perception,'' Clinton said.

Sharif was lucky considering that 21 years ago, Zulifqar Ali Bhutto, another prime minister ousted in a military coup was hanged despite appeals from top leaders from around the world for clemency. Of course there was the difference that Bhutto was hanged on charges of conspiring to eliminate a political opponent in a case registered three years before the coup by military dictator Ziaul Haq actually took place. Many legal experts believe that Ziaul Haq, Pakistan's longest serving ruler manipulated the case to eliminate Bhutto, a fact that cannot have given Sharif any confidence and was perhaps reflected in betting ratios favoring conviction.

Besides, taking a cue from Zia, Musharraf passed an order on January 24 requiring the judges of the superior courts to take fresh oaths swearing allegiance to him. Those who declined, including the Chief Justice himself, were promptly retired.

The trial, which began in January, was itself remarkable for walkouts by the defense team in protest against what they described as Jafri's open bias and also the mysterious murder of one of its leading members Iqbal Raad in his office, last month.

Musharraf, who has declared that he was not ''vindictive'' must nevertheless have suffered some bad moments when the passenger plane on which he was travelling to Karachi on October 12 was prevented from landing in Pakistan on Sharif's orders. His fellow officers then effected a bloodless coup. Musharraf's Pakistan International Airlines flight finally landed with seven minutes of fuel to spare.

Sharif has defended his actions in court by saying that he was only trying prevent an army coup which, according to him, was imminent. He said he sacked Musharraf because he had begun dabbling in politics.

Sharif also said that differences had arisen between him and the man he appointed as army chief over the Kargil operations in which Pakistani army-backed militants crossed over into Indian-controlled Kashmir resulting in fierce ten-week undeclared war.

The war ended after Clinton prevailed on Sharif during a meeting in Washington to get the militants to withdraw from Kargil over the Line of Control (LoC) which separates the Indian and Pakistani-held portions of disputed Kashmir.

''Musharraf started giving the impression that I made a mistake on Kargil. I visited the American President for the sake of Pakistan's security and integrity and to prevent internal dissension within the army,'' Sharif said in court. Analysts said Clinton's intervention and Sharif's acquiescence were timely given that the war had begun to escalate dangerously with India making naval feints and opening up other fronts across the long border between the two countries.

Musharraf has said that he seized power to prevent Pakistan's collapse but he is under intense pressure from the US and the international community to restore democracy in Pakistan.

After the verdict an official spokesperson was at pains to tell reporters that the case was ''possibly the most transparent trial in the history of the country,'' and a ''manifestation of the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan''.

The prosecution, which demanded a death sentence, argued that Sharif had endangered the lives of Musharraf's co-passengers and Jafri has ordered that compensation be paid them from Sharif's confiscated property. The 198 passengers on board the Pakistan Airlines aircraft were awarded $30,000 each. Sharif and his family own a vast business empire, including steel interests which would almost certainly be ruined by the compensation payments.

Sharif also faces charges of high corruption, tax evasion, money laundering and other economic crimes which Musharraf has pledged to fight as being responsible for the dire straits Pakistan's economy is in.

(Inter Press Service)

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