Executive’s fumbling
While hearing a suo motu case regarding the targeted killings of Hazara people and a petition seeking recovery of missing persons at the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) Quetta registry on October 1, 2020, a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed rejected as unsatisfactory a police report on the former issue and castigated the law enforcers on their failure regarding the latter. Crime Branch SSP (Investigation) Mohammad Akbar Raisani submitted the report to the bench. The CJP remarked that the officer belonged to the PSP cadre but did not seem to know how to investigate. It seems, the CJP continued, that you expect the applicant to come to you instead of going for investigation and collecting evidence. The court also assailed the police and authorities for their failure to recover the missing persons. It asked the Quetta SSP (Operations) Ghulam Asghar about the status of missing persons. Rejecting the shoddy police inquiry report, the court said all the officers responsible should have been removed. CJP Gulzar Ahmed ordered the Balochistan police to recover and produce the missing persons before the court. The CJP regretted that people were going missing continuously and their relatives were running around and requesting the police to register their complaints. Despite such cases being reported in 2017 and 2018, the performance of the police in this regard was zero, the CJP pointed out. The Quetta SSP (Operations) came in for a bit of stick when the CJP observed that it was the prime responsibility of the police to register the cases of missing persons but they failed to perform their duties satisfactorily. He went on to remark that the police did not seem to know their responsibilities and duties, adding despite that officers of the force succeeded in having themselves elevated to higher ranks and top positions. The SC bench then adjourned the hearing to be taken up in Islamabad in four weeks, with the Balochistan Inspector General of police directed to attend through a video link.
In another missing persons case, Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah directed the federal government to pay the remaining amount of compensation to petitioner Mahira Sajid, whose husband Sajid Mehmood is ‘missing’ and yet to be recovered. CJ Athar Minallah observed that since the state had accepted its failure to recover the citizen, it was liable to pay compensation to his heirs. Further, that as the state had accepted that it is a case of enforced disappearance, it means that some people of the state are behind this. The CJ directed the government to take action against those responsible for the enforced disappearance of the citizen. The court would not allow the violation of basic human rights, the CJ added, saying the court could go to any extent for implementation of its decisions.
These two court proceedings have once again shone the light on a deeply disturbing phenomenon that afflicts the country. In the case of the Hazaras of Balochistan, sectarian elements have been targeting them for being Shia for years. As far as enforced disappearances are concerned, it too is an issue that first surfaced in Balochistan some years ago in the context of the nationalist insurgency in that province. As for the irritation of the courts vis-à-vis implementation of their directives, one factor, as highlighted by the CJP, is the incompetence rife in the investigative and prosecution fields. But there may also be another factor. That is the reluctance of law enforcers to tread on the toes of what is widely considered the source of these problems: the deep state. Despite the correct and principled castigation of those whose duty it is to uphold the law and human rights, the courts too have more often than not run up against the impunity enjoyed by those considered responsible for these aberrations. Naturally the courts can only ask the executive to fulfil its duty, but there is considerable scepticism whether the executive or even the courts have the means to tear away the veil of secrecy and impunity surrounding the issue of sectarian targeting of the Hazara or the travails of the near and dear ones of those ‘missing’.
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