Killing jirgas
ANOTHER day and another chilling story unfolds in Kohistan. The jirga institution, declared illegal by the top court, continues to bristle at what it perceives to be moral transgressions. A father, on Monday, pleaded for police protection for his son after an assassination decree was issued by a jirga in Kolai-Palas. He claimed that a ‘death squad’ killed the girl under the chor custom, ‘for bringing dishonour to the community’ and was now in search of his son. The circle of terror spins on, turning every incident of fatal moral policing into a rerun of past horrors. Last November, a young girl was murdered on the orders of a local jirga for the ‘crime’ of dancing with boys in a viral video. The incident was a reminder of some five female lives lost in 2011. While an illegal justice system has run wild for too long, successive governments have proved incapable of mustering the courage to neutralise it.
Instead of letting people down on multiple fronts, the state must ensure processes in accordance with the rule of law for all citizens, thereby saving people from arbitrary ‘rulings’. First, it needs to close in on grave violations of the law so that communities are not at the mercy of a tribal structure. Second, it must construct a counter-narrative that defeats degenerate notions such as ‘honour’ killings. And lastly, it should criminalise primitive practices such as the chor tradition. Increasingly, jirgas are making premeditated efforts to imbue every order to kill with the compulsions of ‘tradition’. Officialdom must heed the call and ensure that legal fora replace tribal justice to establish gender equality and human rights for citizens, especially vulnerable sections. Parallel systems must be subdued before they become untouchable. Hence, the policy of stonewalling reforms for an accessible and empowered legal system should be abandoned without delay. In a modern world, no individual can be held hostage to regressive hierarchies.
Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2024
Misplaced priorities
THE federal government’s filing of a petition with the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to overturn an Islamabad High Court order that security agencies trace missing Baloch students, highlights the state’s misplaced priorities. Instead of proactively working to address the core problem — claims that the state ‘disappears’ its own citizens — the government is more concerned about pushing back against any legal efforts that may end this deplorable practice. The attorney general also asked why an IHC judge was constantly summoning high officials — including the prime minister — for their views on the matter. He added that by constituting the joint committee of security bodies and tasking them with finding missing persons, the IHC had “exceeded its jurisdiction” when an SC-mandated committee on enforced disappearances was already functioning.
Suffice it to say, if the aforementioned committee had been doing its job, enforced disappearances would have ended long ago. Meanwhile, the AG’s objection to the court summoning top state functionaries was underscored by the interim PM’s failure to show up for the Feb 19 hearing. This is the second time he skipped a hearing of the case. Perhaps if the PM had made an appearance, it would have sent a strong message that the state intends to resolve the issue. But as the petition filed with the SC against the IHC order indicates, the government has no real interest in addressing the matter. Whether it is missing persons from Balochistan or other parts of the country, the government is clearly in a state of denial. State functionaries, as well as those propagating the official line, suggest that many of the missing persons have, in fact, joined separatist outfits, or gone abroad in search of greener pastures. Others have made far-fetched comparisons, saying that thousands of people also go missing in the US and UK. Raising the issue of missing persons should not be conflated with defending separatism. All that is being asked of the state is to produce those accused of taking part in militancy before the courts, so that their guilt or innocence can be ascertained within constitutional parameters. Is that too much to ask? It is hoped that the incoming administration will end the blight of enforced disappearances, and that LEAs will only work within the confines of the law when dealing with those accused of wrongdoing.
Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2024
Democracy damaged
THE legal controversies surrounding the elections refuse to abate. Another row has broken out over who has the lawful authority to summon the first sitting of the newly elected National Assembly.
President Arif Alvi has refused to exercise the prerogative till all reserved seats have been assigned, but NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has called a session on Thursday anyway to satisfy the constitutional deadline. It is unclear, however, whether the latter has any authority to do so, which may throw the legality and legitimacy of Thursday’s proceedings into question and trigger another court battle.
It appears that this fresh controversy could have been avoided had the ECP by now decided whether the Sunni Ittehad Council, which the majority of PTI-backed independents have joined, deserves its quota of reserved seats or not. The ECP was supposed to decide the matter in an open hearing yesterday but adjourned the proceedings again, leaving the matter hanging.
The issue at hand is not a unique case, and several past precedents have been cited that seem to support the SIC’s claim to its share of reserved seats for women and minorities. In any case, the power to decide the matter rests with the ECP. Why, then, is it allowing the controversy to linger?
From its complicity in the failure to hold timely elections for the KP and Punjab assemblies to its role in delaying the general elections over a controversy-ridden census, from its failure to ensure a free, fair and inclusive environment for electioneering to its flouting of myriad rules and laws governing the electoral process on election day and thereafter — the charge-sheet against the ECP has not stopped growing.
Have the country’s laws not been trampled upon enough? Does the foundation of the 16th National Assembly also need to be laid on a violation of constitutional process?
There were immense expectations attached to the democratic process over the past year, with millions hoping it would provide them a pathway to deliverance from the many crises afflicting the country. Instead, the nation witnessed once again how casually constitutional schematics can be subverted when the powerful decide to rob the public of its voice.
Meanwhile, the institution created and empowered to safeguard the country’s democratic framework either stood by and watched it be mutilated or became complicit in its weakening through its own disdain for the law. It must be asked: is there somewhere that the ECP and its backers intend to draw a line?
The majority of Pakistan’s population is young and impressionable. What they have seen over the past year cannot engender any hopes for a just and progressive society. Lasting damage has already been caused by the actions of a few. How long will they continue to be tolerated?
Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2024