Curbing the excesses

There is no dispute that police forces in Pakistan frequently exceed their mandate, and deaths of those that die in ‘encounters’ with the police — often dubbed ‘fake’ by a media that rightly doubts visibly fabricated statements by the police themselves — are common, almost a daily occurrence. A case that is currently exercising the courts is that of former Malir SSP Rao Anwar who is accused of murder and is currently being held in a designated sub-jail, apparently for his own protection as detention in the regular penal system is likely to lead to his early demise.

Rao Anwar is a man with friends in high places, one of the reasons why he led something of a charmed existence while he was Malir SSP and was widely but not provably involved in instances of summary ‘justice’ being dispensed where he and his junior officers were judge, jury and executioner. Matters came to a head in January with the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud who was alleged to have been a Taliban militant (he aspired to be a model, an unusual career choice for a Taliban sympathiser), and who died in an ‘encounter’ said to have been masterminded by Rao Anwar. Three of Mehsud’s friends also died.

Given that Rao is accused of murder, it is perhaps surprising that he was granted bail by an Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) in Karachi on Tuesday 10^th July. People accused of far lesser crimes have difficulty getting bail and those with suspicious minds might think that the friends in high places are still pulling strings on his behalf from behind the arras. Simply, there cannot be one set of rules for the well-connected and another for those less well-endowed with gilded largesse. The ATC has limited Rao in that he cannot leave Karachi, and that if he falls ill he cannot leave the country either nor can he visit relatives abroad. But will these conditions adhered to? He is free to move and associate with whomever he chooses, and the smell of fish hangs heavy in the air. And justice for a young murdered model? Distant at best.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2018.

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