Gen. Musharaff:


Please consider that you have made a grave mistake.

When you have been fighting in various battles for the country, you have been defending the country's physical boundaries, protecting it from invasion, or repulsing attacks. When you joined the army, and when you took the oaths of various offices that you have held, you pledged to honor and protect the essence of the country, the laws which give it form and meaning, and characterize and uphold its values, in other words, the Constitution of Pakistan.

This is something bigger than you, us, your colleagues in the army, or the often corrupt politicians. This is a powerful entity, the crystallization of the idea of a country in a set of laws, this is really what you had been fighting for all these years, the core of what you have been defending.

In your one action, you have violated and trashed the Constitution of Pakistan. No politicizing, causing dissension within the army, no amount of your critiques of the government going unheeded, no economic instability justifies what you have done. Please look hard at your action, and know it for what it is: the wrecking of the most sacred document of Pakistan. Your one act has caused more instability than what you have been referring to.

Please understand, that on the eve of the 21st century, your illegal assault on our country's legitimacy, which goes in the face of all international trends, will not stand. This is not the Pakistan on the 1950s or the 1970s. At that time, citizens may have been less aware of their rights, of international norms, and less conscious of which are the systems which provide the best chance for protecting individual rights, providing opportunity and a greater opportunity to shape one's own destiny. No guarantee, but the best chance. We Pakistanis have had enough knocks to know that there are no short-cuts, and that however attractive the image of the military savior may seem, it is a mirage. By short-circuiting the democratic system, you have given the deepest blow to institution-building, whose demise you so lament.

We can imagine that your intentions may be sincere. But unfortunately, that is irrelevant. The method that you have chosen to exercise them is unacceptable, illegal, abhorrent, and is opposed by many Pakistanis and friends of Pakistan in the country and all over the world.

You were peeved that your critiques regarding how the country and the economy should be run have not received a sympathetic ear. Has it occurred to you, that as a member of the military, it is not your function to offer such critiques? This would be like getting tips on how to fly an F-16 from the government, something to which I am sure you would not give much heed to. If you had such strong ideas about how the country should be run, you should have resigned from the army, and entered politics or the civil service.

This is in no way a defense of the performance of the Sharif administration. Frankly, in this discussion, that is of no consequence. Whatever assessment of Mr. Sharif's performance can be established, it will not change in the least the brutal illegality of your step.

The intractability of the situation must be dawning upon you, as you huddle for the past two days with your military command to try and chart a way out of this mess. The reason is that there is only one way out. You must reverse your steps, remove the elected prime minister and Cabinet from "protective custody", return to the barracks, and hope for leniency from the Supreme Court.

Please do not have the least doubt about the existence of a potent and sustainable opposition to you. The welcoming cries on the part of some citizens were of course to be expected, as these people struggle under a burdensome economic environment. However, to all with an understanding of the illegality of your action, and an insight of what must be preserved if there is to be any future for Pakistan, your action is disastrous. This silent majority is mobilizing, even as you mull over your unfortunate predicament.

Given how precarious Pakistan's economic situation is, and given that any foreign investors which may have even casually considered investing have dropped that idea for a long time, you must act fast. You have threatened the Constitutional supremacy and democratic integrity of Pakistan. You will not have the opportunity to preside over its total economic collapse as well. We will insure that, and you can help yourself the best by stepping back immediately.

If you are still unconvinced, please consider a moment the stark illegality of your position. You are a dismissed chief of army staff who has kidnapped the government officials of the country, and hijacked the army. You have not "dismissed" the government, for you have no legal grounds to do so. Do not try to grope around for any "legal cover', because none will be given. The doctrine of "necessity" has been defunct, and no court or judge in Pakistan will provide you any such protection.

Recognize that there is no way out of your quagmire. Recognize your blunder. And retrace your steps.