Impeaching the president

"The president shall have the right to appear and be represented during the investigation, if any, and before the joint sitting. If, after consideration of the result of the investigation, if any, a resolution is passed at the joint sitting by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total membership of Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament) declaring that the president is unfit to hold the office due to incapacity or is guilty of violating the constitution or of gross misconduct, the president shall cease to hold office immediately on the passing of the resolution."

Now finally a word is necessary about the contents, in my view, of these allegations against Musharraf.

Musharraf "prima facie" would have the following high points of an impeachment charge sheet to respond to:

"    Subversion of the constitution as envisaged by Article 6 thereof

"    Murder of many political leaders such as Nawab Akbar Bugti

"    Abuse of administrative powers of various kinds during tenure leading to the infliction of injury to a number of persons

"    Sabotaging the rights of liberty of citizens by forced disappearances of hundreds of people

"    Unlawful; detention of many lawyers without an accusation of any kind

"    Usurping the rights of people though deprivation of their constitutional and international human rights

"    Squandering of national funds by his lavish expenses on his own lifestyle in which the most recent was his stay in London after the Davos meeting

"    Musharraf is also prima facie guilty of many international wrongs and delicts

"    Abusing the judiciary since the challenge of his coup in 1999 when he dismissed on January 25, 2000 CJ Siddiqui along with six senior most Sindhi judges of the Supreme Court.

An indictment for violation of Article 6 could easily be grounded, inter alia, on the following specifics:

"    That on March 9, 2007, as the then COAS, Musharraf, attacked the independence of the judiciary by illegally using the state machinery to criminally intimidate, threaten and assault the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, so as to illegally force him to resign from his office

"    That on refusal to succumb to the illegal pressure and subjugate the independence of the judiciary, the CJ was taken into custody and kept in illegal confinement and house arrest with the other members of the family. General Musharraf  publicly confessed to this wrongful action and confinement

"    That on July 20, 2007 a thirteen member bench of the Supreme Court restored CJ and held  allegations in the "reference" were mala fide, illegal and unconstitutional. Lawyers representing Musharraf and the Federation tendered apologies to the court while Supreme Court imposed a fine of Rs.100, 000 against the federal government

The bottom line is that General Musharraf committed an unconstitutional act on November 3, 2007 by taking  advantage of his position as the COAS. He issued an illegal Proclamation of Emergency and a PCO. That thus clearly he conspired to bring the army into disrepute merely for his personal goals.

The writer is attorney at law (US), barrister at law (UK), senior advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan, professor Harvard University