Asia Times: No tears for Sharif but trial raises protests


	April 11, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

No tears for Sharif but trial raises protests
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - There were no tears shed at the conviction of Pakistan's strongest ever prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, on charges of hijacking and terrorism but rights groups and lawyers view the trial and verdict with suspicion.

As expected, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), which swept the 1997 general election with a massive two-thirds majority under Sharif's leadership, remained docile at the sentencing of the leader, only expressing disappointment at the verdict. ''We are all disappointed and we would certainly make efforts so that Nawaz Sharif gets justice in the appellate court,'' commented Raja Zafarul, the party's de facto chief following Gen Pervez Musharraf's coup on the October 12 last year.

A special court in Karachi on Thursday sentenced Sharif to life imprisonment and confiscation of his property after finding him guilty of refusing to allow the aircraft carrying Gen Musharraf to Pakistan from Sri Lanka to land at Karachi airport on October 12. But the court cleared Sharif of charges of kidnapping and attempt to murder, and acquitted six co-accused in the case, including Sharif's brother Shabaz Sharif, who was chief minister of Pakistan's most populous Punjab province.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said that the independence of the country's judiciary that took oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order promulgated by the military regime is doubtful. The military government in January required all Supreme and High Court judges to take an oath prohibiting them from making any order against the Chief Executive or ''any person exercising powers or jurisdiction under his authority''.

Rights organizations had protested the step, saying the oaths undermined the independence of the judiciary and immunized officials of the military regime from prosecution. ''The question of fair trial by the anti-terrorism court is not beyond doubt,'' said HRCP president Afrasiab Khattak. ''I am not going to comment on the judgment, but I share the concern of the country's democrats over the unfair proceedings in the case,'' Khattak said.

Last December, during the trial, the military government also added some controversial changes to the Anti-Terrorism Act under which Sharif was being tried. The changes were made to add hijacking and conspiracy to the list of offenses under the anti-terrorism act - a step to facilitate Sharif's trial on these charges under the act.

The HRCP president said that amendment to the act by the Musharraf government to shift the plane conspiracy case to the anti-terrorism court also created doubts about the independence of the judiciary.

Sharif and his family, who throughout the trial expressed their confidence in the court, have also termed the judgment ''engineered''. ''It is a personal vendetta against my innocent husband, who has not committed any wrong,'' said Kulsoom Nawaz, Sharif's wife, adding that the judge was under tremendous pressure to convict her husband.

In his first statement to the court, last month, Sharif said evidence against him had been fabricated, and prosecution witnesses had been tortured and intimidated into giving false evidence. He had linked his ouster with the personal differences with Gen Musharraf over the Kargil conflict that brought Pakistan and India to the verge of a war last summer.

However, the military government was quick to dispel that impression and said the judiciary is working independently in the country. ''The government did not exert any pressure on the court to extract this verdict. We respect all decisions of the courts,'' said Maj Gen Rashid Khalid, Director General of the military's Inter Services Public Relations.

In the dramatic hearing of the case that spanned over three months, the prosecution had asked for the death penalty for Sharif and his six accomplices.

All of them had pleaded not guilty. The fact that the court convicted the conspirator, Sharif, and acquitted the implementers, the six co-accused, of the hijacking conspiracy, however, fuelled suspicions about the authenticity of the court judgment. ''Here is a case where conspirator has been convicted but the judge is not ready to accept the prosecution's version about its implementers,'' commented Abdul Hafiz Lakho, a leading lawyer, in an interview. ''The verdict has also created doubt in the minds of the people about the actual role of Sharif in the conspiracy.''

Former law minister Fakhruddin Ibrahim also expressed similar views, saying the verdict has exposed cracks in the government's case against Sharif. ''The weakness of the government's case is evident from the judgement, where the judge has acquitted six out of the seven accused - the verdict should give hope to Sharif lawyers in their appeal,'' he said.

Sharif has one week to file an appeal against the verdict before the Sindh High Court. Under the Anti-Terrorism Act the high court is required to decide the appeal within seven days. An appeal against the high court ruling could also be launched in the Supreme Court that can take any length of time for a decision. ''We will go to the high court by Monday,'' said a spokesperson of the Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League in Islamabad.

On the other hand, the government legal team is also preparing to challenge the acquittal of six-co-accused in the case. ''We shall go into appeal,'' said Raja Qureshi, the advocate general of the southern Sindh province who was heading the team of prosecutors. However, Najum Mushtaq, an Islamabad-based columnist warned politicians hailing the verdict to realize what it means to the country and the people.

''While almost all elected prime ministers go, or should go, to jail, or are hanged, there is no retribution and check against unelected rulers. The verdict means that military-made political leaders like Mr Sharif work only as long as their creators will so,'' he wrote in his column published by the widely circulated The News on Friday.

(Inter Press Service)

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