Musharraf supporters in London protest treason charge

LONDON: Supporters of Pervez Musharraf have demanded that the “treason” trial against the former military ruler must be ended as it is motivated by PML-N’s political vendetta.
All Pakistan Muslim League-UK made this demand during a demonstration of over 50 activists outside Pakistan High Commission here–a protest bigger than anywhere held in Pakistan so far. The protest was led by Ifzaal Siddiqui, Secretary General APML- UK & Europe, and senior party leader Altaf Shahid.
The protestors said that British Pakistanis, along with the international community, are troubled by the “unfair and unjust treatment being meted out to the former president of Pakistan by the Nawaz Sharif regime”.
They said it was shocking that the former army chief and president of the country – who took part in wars defending Pakistan - was being accused of having committed “treason”. Ifzaal Siddiqui said it looked like that the PML-N leadership has not learnt any lessons from past blunders and the government doesn’t realise how the false allegation of “treason” against Musharraf is hurting the morale of the army and causing anger within its ranks.
Siddiqui said in his speech: “Pakistan became a respectable and proud country internationally under the leadership of Musharraf; quality of life and education of Pakistanis in general tremendously improved under Musharraf; under Musharraf we witnessed unprecedented media freedom. It is, therefore, simply outrageous to even suggest that such an undeniably patriotic leader allegedly committed ‘treason’.”
Other speakers said that imposing the Emergency Rule in 2007 was by no stretch of the imagination akin to “treason”. They said that the current government was once linked with the vilest dictator in Pakistan’s history, the late Zia-ul-Haq, but today it was accusing its opponents of dictatorship.
They said that the Article 6 is not applicable upon a single individual. They said that everyone involved in the conspiracy – be it directly or indirectly – is to be tried and there can be no picking and choosing. They said that if Musharraf is to be tried then all his associates should also be tried so set the record straight.
The demonstrators presented a petition to Pakistan High Commission officials demanding an end to all cases and for the removal of Musharraf’s name from Exit Control List (ECL). The petition said: “We will continue to bring this matter to the attention of the United Nations, Amnesty International, International Commission of Jurists, International Criminal Court, European Union Election Observation Mission, The International Human Rights Commission and many other organisations.”