It was only four years ago when the Interior Ministry of Pakistan estimated that at least 1,100 people “disappeared” under the government label of “terrorism suspects” since the 9/11 attacks. A majority of them belonged to the province of Balochistan. The number is argued to be “almost certainly an underestimate.” In a recent Human Rights Watch report, it is added that the previous Zardari administration promised to resolve those cases but made, as is obvious, negligible progress. After all, ours is a country where there has yet to be a ban on enforced disappearances. Thus, the predicament of missing people and their relatives remains a festering wound in the country.
And the number grows. The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances unveiled in a press release in January, 2011, of 138 cases of missing persons pending in the courts. This number had jumped to 1,172 by June, 2013. Fingers have, time and again, pointed in the direction of the ISI and the military. Although the senators called upon the country’s top intelligence agency to clear its name in the cases of vicious attacks on journalists and the issue of enforced disappearances, there were – naturally – opposition members who called this demand a case of “ISI-bashing.” Still, the question must be asked: Is this an appropriate line for the senators to take in their call for justice?
Viewing the most recent attack on Hamid Mir as an “opportunity” for the ISI to prove itself innocent is a skewed path to take when it comes to shedding light on misconduct. By propagating a principle that dictates that people and institutions are guilty until proven innocent, our senators turn the judicial process on its head. Once the judicial commission is functioning, it must summon suspected parties, based on evidence. That is the due process of law. The imperative need here is a procedure that allows accountability of the agency’s actions in a transparent manner, no matter how well founded suspicions are. Shrouding it in convoluted legal mechanism and speaking of “golden chances” only makes for a clumsy argument. Senators should realize that if the judicial commission operates on such a warped line, the outcome of legal tussles could have far-reaching effects for Pakistani communities. Just ends are justified only by just means.