At a press conference conference on Thursday, Gen Musharraf’s lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri delivered a shameful outburst that is the latest example of the growing problem that I wrote about earlier this week, delivering abuse instead of simple answers.
Ahmed Raza Kasuri is supposed to be an educated professional and a respected lawyer, but his behaviour appears more like that of a schoolboy internet troll. When a journalist asked him a question at a press conference about Gen Musharraf’s medical report, instead of providing a simple answer to a reasonable question, Kasuri let loose a stream of abuse, accusing the journalist of taking money to attack his client and, of course, being an Indian agent.
“You are defaming Pakistan’s Commando General, you are being sold, you are a Lifafa journalist, you should be ashamed of such questions, you seem to be an Indian agent, it seems we will have to take the sold journalists to task.”
There is no reason to believe that the journalist was either defaming General Musharraf, taking lifafas, or ‘an Indian agent’. Gen Musharraf has told the court that he has some medical conditions, and it is perfectly normal for journalists to ask questions about these.
There is a famous saying that ‘the cover up is worse than the crime’, and by delivering such abuses instead of simple answers, Ahmed Raza Kasuri may have dealt a severe blow not only to his own credibility, but his client’s as well. As I have always said, Gen Musharraf deserves a fair trial with the best defence. Accusing anyone who asks a simple question as ‘an Indian agent’ isn’t even a good defence, it’s just shameful.
