IT would be hard to disagree with the Ex-Servicemen Society that, since President Musharraf has shed his uniform, he should immediately vacate the Army House that is meant for the COAS to occupy. Indeed, it is quite surprising that he should be retaining its possession so many months after leaving the job. Speaking after the Society's meeting at Rawalpindi on Saturday, former ISI chief Lt-Gen (Retd) Assad Durrani alleged that the Army House was being used to hatch conspiracies that were creating a wrong impression about the military. He was obviously alluding to the political tussle that the country is currently witnessing between the President and mainstream political parties. He also called for the setting up of an independent judicial commission to review the various steps General Musharraf had taken, like the Kargil expedition, and taking action against him, if he was found guilty. One would readily endorse General Durani's call for the recovery of 'missing persons', who mysteriously disappeared, causing extreme mental anguish to families, friends as well as the general public. They are presumably being held in detention on vague suspicion of terrorist proclivities. Similarly, the authorities should review the restrictions, which continue to be placed on Dr A. Q. Khan. His contribution to making Pakistan a nuclear-weapons nation is well-known and it is unfair to keep his movement severely restrained. No doubt, as members of civil society, ex-servicemen have every right to express their views about the country's political situation or to participate in the movement spearheaded by the legal community for the restoration of the deposed judiciary, as General Durrani said they would. An interesting question arises, however: how the former top brass that assembled to discuss the present political crisis in the country gathered the moral courage to make such demands, considering the extra-constitutional role of interference in the country's political affairs that some of them had played, while they were occupying sensitive positions in the army? An army chief had used funds to fashion a political grouping and also advised the Senate Chairman to prevail upon the judiciary to give a verdict of his choice, though he did not succeed. These shenanigans are no longer secret, but it would be more appropriate if those involved were to come clean about them, tender their apologies to the public for disrupting the democratic process and, if they feel so strongly now about the mess the country is in, join or form a political party to cleanse it.