Re: TIME TO SAVE PAKISTAN FROM ITS RULER
Here is another reason why Mush is no Zia…and even worst then BB and Nawaz…For all their faults at least BB and Nawaz did not arbitarily kidnap and disappear thousands of its citizen a al Agusto Pinochet…Mush is Pakistan’s Pinochet…
From www.dawn.com
Where are the ‘disappeared’?
CONTRARY to fears that the campaign for the recovery of missing persons, presumably in the custody of the intelligence agencies, would be overshadowed by the judicial crisis, the issue has not died down. Both the Supreme Court and the relatives of the ‘disappeared’ have been consistently applying pressure on the government for information about the whereabouts of the missing ones. Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court once again asked the government to furnish details of 56 people who had been traced recently, while, on Sunday, relatives of the ‘disappeared’ said in Peshawar that 2,500 people had been whisked away by the agencies. Unfortunately, to say that the government has not extended full cooperation to the courts in locating the missing ones is an understatement. Judicial intervention has, indeed, resulted in the recovery of some of the ‘disappeared’, but it has been an uphill task so far. Moreover, the physical and emotional trauma of some of those who have been released indicates the kind of duress they faced during their incarceration. Perhaps no case has been as telling as that of trader Saud Memon, who recently died, weighing a mere 18kgs, days after being released by the intelligence agencies.
In the face of the government’s inability to rein in its security agencies, it appears that only judicial intervention and a strong civil campaign can curtail the intelligence apparatus’s penchant for arbitrarily arresting people. In detaining those who have not been formally charged, the agencies are flouting all legal and constitutional norms and subverting the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. And by refraining from taking strict action against its intelligence agencies, the government is only conniving at such offences. Whether or not a suspect has links with religious extremists or political insurgents is for the court to decide. Allowing the agencies to arrest the suspect and hold him incommunicado amounts to a grave violation of human rights. It also gives the intelligence apparatus an opportunity to operate outside the bounds of the law — which is unmistakable in so many ‘disappearance’ cases.