A grave accusation indeed

Former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi kicked off a new controversy the other day, telling a private TV channel that he had foiled military ruler Pervez Musharraf's plan to eliminate the then-ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
According to him, the CJ's caravan was to be ambushed near Kharian, where armed snipers were to attack him, but that he (Pervez Elahi) had refused to go along. He said he gave firm instructions to the police and the rest of the provincial administration to protect the CJP, as they would a family elder.
It was due to him, he claimed, that things remained completely peaceful during the CJ's activities in Punjab. Indeed, it is true that no untoward incident took place in the province during the lawyers' movement. The accusation Pervez Elahi has levelled against the former military ruler is too grave to be ignored.
In fact, speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Khan demanded of the Chief of the Army Staff to explain whether or not the Army was on board in the alleged conspiracy to attack the CJ's caravan. He also asked the Speaker to convene an in-camera briefing session with Pervez Elahi so that the conspiracy, and all its participants, are duly exposed.
The questions that also beg answers are that why did Pervez Elahi wait for so long to divulge the assassination plan? Equally important, why did he not blow the whistle and distance himself from the general when he learned of the plan? The answers do not seem to be as intriguing as the alleged assassination plan.
After all, he and his cousin Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein were both ardent supporters of General Musharraf, for which they had been amply rewarded by him - the former with the chief ministership and the latter prime ministership, even if only for a couple of months. And in their eagerness to prove their loyalty to the military ruler, the duo had vowed to get him re-elected as a president in uniform not once, but again and again.
Their eagerness, though, turned into bitterness when he thought it was time to ease Chaudhry Shujaat out of the presidentship of the ruling party, the PML-Q. They resisted and kept the party under their control. The PML-Q has since split over the leadership feud, and the rebels are reported to be in touch with the retired general in his London refuge.
Pervez Elahi's allegation, therefore, could be his way of getting even with the general for encouraging the party rebels, or it could also be an attempt to not be associated with the military ruler, to seek better rehabilitation in the new democratic set-up. Yet, he may be telling the truth. It is incumbent upon the accuser to provide evidence in support of his accusation so that all those involved are brought to justice.