Benazir, Bugti and Jamia Hafsa: government asked to hold Musharraf accountable for killings

The High Court Bar Association (HCBA) Multan, while supporting impeachment of General Pervez Musharraf, has called upon the government to also hold him accountable for the killings in Jamia Hafsa and Akbar Bugti, and the thrice subversion of Constitution under Article 6.
The Bar also objected to government decision to push restoration of judges after success of impeachment, and called upon the ongoing session of the National Assembly to restore judges through an executive order prior to impeachment as a check against any resort to the Court which General Pervez Musharraf may make out of frustration.
More than any other dictators, particularly General Pervez Musharraf, damaged the country and the present despicable situation faced by the country was the result of what he did to the judiciary since March 9, 2007, in Lal Masjid, in Balochistan and on the economic side of the country, said General Secretary of the High Bar Rana Naveed Ahmed while talking to newsmen here on Tuesday.
Flanked by the executive members of his body, he said the unconstitutional steps taken by Musharraf had pushed the country into a critical situation. The November 3 PCO to sack the judges, he said, just aimed at his ensuing candidature in the presidential elections. For this and other reasons, he said, impeachment of Pervez Musharraf should have been carried out long before, and the Bar fully supports the coalition government decision to impeach him now.
The Bar General Secretary said legal fraternity would never like to derail the democratic process and warned, if Pervez Musharraf tried to pull down the democratic set-up using 58(2)b, lawyers would not accept it and take him and his cronies to task for the same.
He said February 18 elections were a clear public verdict against Musharraf and his supporters, therefore, he must go now. He said things must not come to an end with ouster of Musharraf but by making him an example by trying him under Article 6 of the Constitution for subversion of the constitution and putting him on gallows.
He said killing of innocent persons in Lal Masjid, as well as in Balochistan were such offences which could not be eschewed. Blaming him for May 12 carnage in Karachi, he said in his view Musharraf's hand in the killing of Benazir also cannot be ruled out. He said the country would face a very serious situation if present coalition government is overthrown by Musharraf and if it happened, they would resist it with full might.
Dissenting with the decision of Pakistan Bar Council, Mehmood Ashraf, President of HCBA, said that lawyers stood to their demand for restoration of judges by August 14 as it was announced by the July 19 convention of the lawyers' representatives from all over the country. He said if their demand was not met, National Co-ordination Council of the lawyers would meet on August 15 in Rawalpindi to chalk out further line of action.