BinZiad
22-11-2002, 21:59
The curse of suspicion
Abid Ullah Jan
Are we living in Pakistan? If we do, why should we approve tyranny with our
silence? Why are we ignoring laws under which mere suspicion is enough to
punish any one of us without conviction by a court of law?
Official media reported on Sunday, October 17, that the newly promulgated
“anti-terrorism” law would now allow police to detain terror suspects for up
to one year, without filing any charges. Ignoring the fact that one-year
imprisonment in itself is a punishment, the ordinance was approved by the
General Musharraf’s hand picked federal cabinet last month but was only
issued overnight and came into effect immediately.
Three days have gone past, but we have yet to see an editorial or article in
mainstream media showing concern over bestowing government agencies with
undue powers by a handful of government servants, who have taken law making
for 145 million citizens in their hand. No one has stand up to protest that
making a law of far-reaching importance for the citizens within a day of the
swearing in of the new parliament amounts to mocking at the sovereignty of
the parliament and ridiculing the elected members.
When it comes to mere suspicion, anybody could be a suspect. Police and
other security agencies have now full authority to pick up any person as a
suspect, probe his assets and bank accounts of his spouse, children and
parents. Even after release on bail, the suspect would be prohibited from
visiting public places, such as movie theaters, airports, parks, train
stations or hotels. Such a suffocating life would be imposed on anyone just
for being a suspect. What kind of suspicion would it be that 12 months would
not be sufficient for convicting the suspect? Still the suspect, a human
being, would be chocked to madness with the proposed kind of punishment
without conviction.
Irrespective of the debate whether this is promotion or restraining
terrorism, history of the last 30 years in particular clearly shows that
merely making more and more draconian laws and chipping away liberties of
everyone in the society cannot curb violence and terrorism. What we need is
a strong commitment and political will to implement the existing laws
without fear and favour.
It is not a hypothesis to state that the recently promulgated draconian law
would be used to muzzle the press, silence the critics and harass those who
oppose government policies from any forum. Musharraf regime’s recent record
of exploiting the so-called accountability law for manipulating elections,
breaking political parties and achieving 'desired' political results is a
hint for the future. Musharraf has taken far more advantage of the “war on
terrorism” than anybody else through advancing his personal political agenda
with the help of such repressive laws and their subsequent translation into
action.
The misuse of accountability law helped the military government make and
break allies and thus failed to achieve the desired political results. The
new law to curb terrorism can now be used more lethally than accountability
law. The US-led war on terror has inspired an era of unprecedented
repression and human rights violations in countries where dictatorial
regimes do not want to openly take such actions against their opponents.
The new laws have handed these regimes broad new authority to arrest,
detain, punish and even kill ordinary citizens in the name of war on
terrorism. No one is counting instances in which government authorities,
fully backed by American agents, have abused their authority. In some cases
they went to extent of killing targeted suspects.
When you do not need any evidence to keep someone behind the bars for one
year; when you do not need any evidence to invade and occupy a country; when
you do not need any evidence to kill someone with unmanned aircraft, you don
’t need any evidence to kill any citizen at will without any evidence. We
are worthless subjects of newly occupied colonies at the mercy of an
imperial power. Our viceroys need no evidence to prove that someone is
involved in terrorism; mere suspicion is enough to exact the inhuman
punishment. What a great age we are living in which the champions of human
rights have turned into champions of dominating the entire globe.
The Supreme Court should step in to restore the public confidence in the
laws of the land. National Assembly and the Parliament should redraft
statutes to clear up any confusion about what the law requires and for what
purpose. One of the biggest challenges the nation faces is that its
government has been forced to fighting enemies of America without
sacrificing civil liberties at home. The newly promulgated law failed to
rise to that challenge.
The results will be far abusive from the human rights perspective than the
shrill statements of some politicians would suggest. The new law grants the
government one more sphere in which it gets to unilaterally choose the rules
under which it will pursue its enemies in the name of war on terrorism. The
system of government control is fast expanding. Which parts of this system
need to be reined in is a profoundly difficult question, one that the newly
elected political leaders and political analysts seem depressingly
uninterested in asking.
We need to vigorously discuss and debate the new definitions of oversight
and authority the government wants to have over our private lives. Political
parties, human rights bodies, members of the legal fraternity and
enlightened public opinion need to condemn and denounce the new law and
persuade the regime to leave the matter to be decided in the parliament. The
Supreme Court also needs to take notice of the new draconian law as was done
in the case of the law proposing to set up military courts in the past.
This is a war, the US administration has said, without foreseeable end. We
therefore need to struggle to avoid the abusive system from becoming a
permanent feature of our government and justice system. We need not wait
until personally becoming victims of this modern form of tyranny.
November 20, 2002
Abid Ullah Jan
Are we living in Pakistan? If we do, why should we approve tyranny with our
silence? Why are we ignoring laws under which mere suspicion is enough to
punish any one of us without conviction by a court of law?
Official media reported on Sunday, October 17, that the newly promulgated
“anti-terrorism” law would now allow police to detain terror suspects for up
to one year, without filing any charges. Ignoring the fact that one-year
imprisonment in itself is a punishment, the ordinance was approved by the
General Musharraf’s hand picked federal cabinet last month but was only
issued overnight and came into effect immediately.
Three days have gone past, but we have yet to see an editorial or article in
mainstream media showing concern over bestowing government agencies with
undue powers by a handful of government servants, who have taken law making
for 145 million citizens in their hand. No one has stand up to protest that
making a law of far-reaching importance for the citizens within a day of the
swearing in of the new parliament amounts to mocking at the sovereignty of
the parliament and ridiculing the elected members.
When it comes to mere suspicion, anybody could be a suspect. Police and
other security agencies have now full authority to pick up any person as a
suspect, probe his assets and bank accounts of his spouse, children and
parents. Even after release on bail, the suspect would be prohibited from
visiting public places, such as movie theaters, airports, parks, train
stations or hotels. Such a suffocating life would be imposed on anyone just
for being a suspect. What kind of suspicion would it be that 12 months would
not be sufficient for convicting the suspect? Still the suspect, a human
being, would be chocked to madness with the proposed kind of punishment
without conviction.
Irrespective of the debate whether this is promotion or restraining
terrorism, history of the last 30 years in particular clearly shows that
merely making more and more draconian laws and chipping away liberties of
everyone in the society cannot curb violence and terrorism. What we need is
a strong commitment and political will to implement the existing laws
without fear and favour.
It is not a hypothesis to state that the recently promulgated draconian law
would be used to muzzle the press, silence the critics and harass those who
oppose government policies from any forum. Musharraf regime’s recent record
of exploiting the so-called accountability law for manipulating elections,
breaking political parties and achieving 'desired' political results is a
hint for the future. Musharraf has taken far more advantage of the “war on
terrorism” than anybody else through advancing his personal political agenda
with the help of such repressive laws and their subsequent translation into
action.
The misuse of accountability law helped the military government make and
break allies and thus failed to achieve the desired political results. The
new law to curb terrorism can now be used more lethally than accountability
law. The US-led war on terror has inspired an era of unprecedented
repression and human rights violations in countries where dictatorial
regimes do not want to openly take such actions against their opponents.
The new laws have handed these regimes broad new authority to arrest,
detain, punish and even kill ordinary citizens in the name of war on
terrorism. No one is counting instances in which government authorities,
fully backed by American agents, have abused their authority. In some cases
they went to extent of killing targeted suspects.
When you do not need any evidence to keep someone behind the bars for one
year; when you do not need any evidence to invade and occupy a country; when
you do not need any evidence to kill someone with unmanned aircraft, you don
’t need any evidence to kill any citizen at will without any evidence. We
are worthless subjects of newly occupied colonies at the mercy of an
imperial power. Our viceroys need no evidence to prove that someone is
involved in terrorism; mere suspicion is enough to exact the inhuman
punishment. What a great age we are living in which the champions of human
rights have turned into champions of dominating the entire globe.
The Supreme Court should step in to restore the public confidence in the
laws of the land. National Assembly and the Parliament should redraft
statutes to clear up any confusion about what the law requires and for what
purpose. One of the biggest challenges the nation faces is that its
government has been forced to fighting enemies of America without
sacrificing civil liberties at home. The newly promulgated law failed to
rise to that challenge.
The results will be far abusive from the human rights perspective than the
shrill statements of some politicians would suggest. The new law grants the
government one more sphere in which it gets to unilaterally choose the rules
under which it will pursue its enemies in the name of war on terrorism. The
system of government control is fast expanding. Which parts of this system
need to be reined in is a profoundly difficult question, one that the newly
elected political leaders and political analysts seem depressingly
uninterested in asking.
We need to vigorously discuss and debate the new definitions of oversight
and authority the government wants to have over our private lives. Political
parties, human rights bodies, members of the legal fraternity and
enlightened public opinion need to condemn and denounce the new law and
persuade the regime to leave the matter to be decided in the parliament. The
Supreme Court also needs to take notice of the new draconian law as was done
in the case of the law proposing to set up military courts in the past.
This is a war, the US administration has said, without foreseeable end. We
therefore need to struggle to avoid the abusive system from becoming a
permanent feature of our government and justice system. We need not wait
until personally becoming victims of this modern form of tyranny.
November 20, 2002