Musharraf following Fujimori

The people of the sub-continent seldom seem familiar with the contours of South American political scene. It may be useful to analyse therefore in my today's column the sheer identical nature of the rise and fall of Fujimori with the political fortunes of Musharraf. They had some common elements into their induction and evolution into the politics of their respective countries. Both were not born in the territories of countries where they rose to the political might of power but were immigrants; both were then eventually to become the head of governments in Peru and Pakistan with the direct help of the military; throughout their tenures the facade of elections and democracy was kept up as a charade; finally both of them fell foul of the their national judiciary to ensure their drastic actions against the judges. Like Pervez Musharraf, Alberto Ken'ya Fujimore disbanded the countries' judiciary more than once.
Musharraf has literally played havoc with the country's legal system and that of its political institutions, its constitution, rights of women and of minorities with the liberty of hundreds if not thousands of its citizens. However his demeaning humiliation of the nation's judiciary, the chief justice on the realm and with the legal community has earned him the abysmal degradation in the eyes of the rest of the world.
In the face of a sweeping rebuff in the elections from the two parties and their leadership that he tried to illegally keep out of the country the president has still not given up his determination to allow the nation to carry on its evolution to a road towards constitutionalism He seems poised all the time to not show simple prudence, which may not come easily to the erstwhile general, as he keeps on insisting on remaining in office without willingly permitting the deposed judges to get back into their offices in a dignified manner.
In 1990, an unknown candidate named Alberto Fujimori rode a wave of support led by the local army to become the president of Peru. He fought an all-out war on terror against the guerrilla organisation Shining Path, and won. Because of his "war on terror", he got all the support that was needed in terms of funds and influence from Washington and other major Western countries. Then he became the supreme commander of the army while not being even a soldier. For almost eight years, like Musharraf, he ruled the country in absolute dictatorship until the judges started to get restive. He thereupon dismissed the judges, at least twice en block! Then democratic forces took control. His handpicked judges began to assert their newly found independence.
Ten years later from his ascendancy into power, he stood accused of kidnapping, murder and corruption; he fled from Peru to Japan, where he lived in exile for four years. A Peruvian Supreme Court judge convicted Fujimori of abuse of authority and sentenced him to six years in prison just two years ago in the first criminal conviction for Fujimori, who also faces human rights and corruption charges. Supreme Court Justice Pedro Guillermo Urbina declared Fujimori guilty of abusing his power for ordering an illegal search as his government imploded in scandal seven years ago. He also fined Fujimori the equivalent of $134,900 The former president was convicted of having a military aide serve as a prosecutor and search without a warrant the luxury apartment of the wife of his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos in November 2000.
It was the first prison sentence handed down for Fujimori, 69, who ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000, before fleeing to Japan, his ancestral homeland, as his government collapsed. He faced three other trials on charges that include murder, kidnapping and corruption. He faced up to thirty years in prison if convicted for his alleged role in the killings, which came amid a government crackdown on a bloody Maoist insurgency. However he got bailed out by another judge after which he fled the country for Japan.
The extraordinary tale of now fugitive former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori took a strange twist in November 2005 when he arrived unexpectedly in Chile. Wanted on 21 Peruvian and Interpol warrants for corruption, murder and human rights abuses, Fujimori had remained free courtesy of the Japanese government, which had welcomed him as a prodigal son in 2000 and subsequently blocked his extradition. Then, almost five years to the day after he fled Peru for Japan and faxed his resignation from the presidency - a getaway seen by many Peruvians as both shameless and traitorous - Fujimori appeared in Chile on a tourist visa, vowing to return to Peru to run for president in April 2006. Instead he was promptly arrested, and is now fighting extradition. Peru's National Election Board formally rejected his bid on January 10, 2006.
The list of wrongdoings against Musharraf "prima facie" would be very long and clearly more diversified than the delicts framed against Alberto Fujimore; just to give the high points of an impeachment would be the following substantive wrong doings:
"    Subversion of the constitution as envisaged by Article 6 thereof
"    Murder of many political leaders such as Nawab Akbar Bugti