Unclaimed killings

The detailed US State Dept report identifies impunity as a key human rights issue in Pakistan.

The US State Department report for 2010 has raised memories of events that had been forgotten by many of us at home. The detailed report identifies impunity as a key human rights issue in Pakistan, and, to illustrate this, points to an investigation which, we were told by the chief of army staff, had been initiated into an internet video apparently showing the shooting of six men by personnel in military uniform. Since then, we have heard nothing regarding the findings of these inquiries. Other than this incident, we do not know what the full story is behind the mass graves found in Swat or the accounts from human rights bodies of extrajudicial killings by security personnel. What is true is that none of the 2,600 militants reported to have been arrested in Swat have been produced before a court.

The US report, other than extrajudicial killings, also points to torture and disappearances as key issues. Like other studies in the past, it notes that the security set-up in the country operates beyond the control of the civilian administration. This is a problem that, over many decades, has acted to weaken democratic control over the country. The notion that key institutions and agencies cannot be questioned is a strongly established one and helps determine the manner in which we, as citizens, look at our state and events that occur within its boundaries. The instances of violations of other kinds have also been narrated, including deaths based around the issue of the blasphemy law. The passage of a law on harassment of women in the workplace ranks among the successes mentioned in the report.

The areas we need to work on are quite obvious. The rule of law needs to be applied equally and evenly. Matters such as disappearances and the shooting of people for unknown offences cannot just be brushed under the carpet. We need to bravely address these issues because that will built respect for the state and its institutions in the eyes of ordinary Pakistanis.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th,  2011.