Musharraf’s trial may backfire: Shujaat

By Asim Yasin

ISLAMABAD: President Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain Friday ruled out the possibility of trial of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution saying that those who would initiate it could also be tried under the same article.

“If General (retd) Pervez Musharraf is tried, all those who will initiate it will also come under the same article,” he said while talking to newsmen at the Iftar dinner hosted by him here at his residence.

When sought his comments on the recent statement of Musharraf in which he confessed his mistake of removing Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, he said if Musharraf admitted this mistake, he should also admit his other mistakes.

Shujaat Hussain came hard on the PPP and the PML-N, saying that one party was ruling the country while the other was chasing the red light with the assumption that its term to rule would come. “Both the parties stand exposed before the people and failed to deliver,” he remarked.

When asked whether he foresaw mid-term polls in near future, Chaudhry Shujaat rejected the notion saying his party would oppose any such option and would let the federal government complete its due period of five years.

He said it was in the interest of the democratic process that the coalition government should complete its term so that it might have no excuse of failure. “We would not let the government take advantage of any mid-term elections on the pretext that they were deprived of their five-year term,” he told the journalists.

Shujaat said he would embark upon a countrywide visit and would make the people aware of the state of affairs. He said that the Americans had taken residential houses in Islamabad and even got a residential house adjacent to his house. He said the foreigners were allowed to come in Islamabad without holding any valid documents. Link...