How strong the Supreme Court is to deal with intelligence agencies?

The Supreme Court, the apex court of Pakistan has been criticized by many over its dual standard proceedings.

Some believe that the SC does not extend similar deference to the civilian government that it does with the military.

It is quite fraught with danger in Pakistan to target the security establishment, which is used to be giving orders rather than at the receiving end. Although the apex court is hearing the missing persons’ case, its tone is quite different what it was used against the civilian leadership.

One of the many reasons former president Pervez Musharraf had dismissed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was latter’s firmness on tracing those who had been abducted by the intelligence agencies in violation of law.

To some extent, the apex court has not given up on that crusade, directing the Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to produce seven prisoners who had been abducted from Adiala Jail after they were found not guilty in the GHQ bombing case.

The Chief Justice during the hearing remarked that if the prime minister had to submit to the authority of the apex court then everyone else also must obey its rulings.

However, the battle is far from over despite the court’s admirable persistence on the issue.

The top spying agencies, the MI and ISI, have missed one deadline for producing the prisoners, showing a plethora of reasons for doing so, from an illness to shortage of time.

However, the apex court did not issue contempt of court charges on non-compliance of the court’s ruling.

The apex court should hold the security establishment to the similar standard it has now set for the civilian government, compelling them to produce all the illegally abducted persons from across the country.

The heads of the secret services should be held in contempt of court charges if they failed to do so. Furthermore the apex court should pursue the cases of those Baloch nationals who have been allegedly abducted by the intelligence agencies.

The court should also probe the multiple torture incidents allegedly done the secret agencies. By picking up those who have already been acquitted in terror cases, the intelligence agencies are making a mockery over the judicial system.

In such cases no evidence is required to ensure a conviction, the military can simply decide someone culpable and then hold him ad infinitum.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=12528

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 13 2012. Filed under National, Opinion, Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.