Qaisar Rashid* fears for democracy in Pakistan when judges are persecuted and journalists kidnapped and beaten up.
Many Pakistanis perceive an agonising drift from democracy in their country.
They are gradually awakening to the reality that the China model of rule — reduced opposition, controlled society and structured consent — is becoming the norm.
The Pakistani media is one victim of that trend.
The ‘crime’ that reporter, Matiullah Jan (pictured) is said the have committed against the State is known to all Pakistanis.
Covering proceedings at the Supreme Court, he reported and interpreted a judgment pointing out the biased behaviour of the judges against a fellow judge, Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
In February 2019, Justice Isa had issued a judgement against the role of Pakistan’s top intelligence Agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), for arranging protests by mobilising religious fanatics against the Government with the aim of making it fall.
In retaliation, the Agency constructed a case against Justice Isa in an effort to eject him from the Supreme Court.
Fellow judges heard the case and acknowledged the existence of dubious content in the allegations, but shied away from offering Justice Isa full relief.
The outcome of the case still hangs in the balance, but the acquiescence of the judges to the ISI dismayed all those who wanted to see a fair and prompt outcome.
As a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Isa is known for his integrity and bold decisions that spare no centre of power.
He is also known for his pro-democratic statements.
Those attributes make him a thorn in the flesh of people and organisations that seek to impose the China model of governance on Pakistanis.
In the eyes of Pakistan’s top spy Agency, supported by the Pakistani Army, both Justice Isa and Matiullah Jan defy the tenets of a controlled society and structured consent, and must be silenced.
Pakistan’s media and society are divided between those who support the principles of Justice Isa and those who are pitted against them.
Pro-democracy Pakistanis stand by Justice Isa and, by extension, support Matiullah Jan.
In July 2020 Matiullah Jan was kidnapped so he could not appear before Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed to answer a contempt of court charge after his tweet criticised the capitulation of the judges to the pressure of the ISI.
The journalist later issued details of his enforced disappearance — a phenomenon not uncommon in Pakistan.
He said he had been handcuffed, blindfolded, transported, locked up and beaten. His kidnappers warned him that if he did not cease his unfavourable reports, his children would be harmed.
They said they had conducted surveillance on the reporter’s family and knew exactly where they were.
Since then no authority, local or national, appears to be interested in apprehending the kidnappers, who had been seen on CCTV footage.
There are four major methods applied to suppress journalists in Pakistan. First, apprehend and torture them to death, as happened in the case of Syed Saleem Shahzad in May 2011.
Second, shoot them in the lower half of their bodies to make them suffer greatly without actually killing them, as happened in the case of Hamid Mir in April 2014.
Third, kidnap them and subject them to individual to torture in an attempt to discourage unfavourable reporting, as happened in the case of Matiullah Jan last year.
Fourth, physically attack them and leave them mauled and badly maimed, tacitly stating that the beating could recur in the future if the journalist continued to annoy the authorities.
While the Pakistani print and electronic media are virtually controlled by Pakistan’s intelligence community, social media is not and became a platform for discussing the fate of the missing reporter.
It was a factor that probably saved Matiullah Jan’s life.
There are moves, however, to ban social media in Pakistan, likely via a court order.
Retired Pakistani Army generals and brigadiers dominate the country’s print and electronic media, including on TV talk shows, pushing their opinions on readers and viewers.
Over the years, owing to issuing political decisions and yielding to the pressure of intelligence Agencies, Pakistan’s judiciary has lost its credibility.
This is why judges like Justice Isa are considered a ray of hope and this is why journalists like Matiullah Jan are held in high esteem in Pakistani society.
Under the China model of governance, which has become more discernible after 2014, there can be no tolerance of defiance.
Disagreement amounts to insolence, which incurs the rage of the authorities, who are armed with weapons bought with public money and who can and have imprisoned dissenters for years.
According to that model, all tongues should be stilled, lips sealed and eyes closed.
People may hear of various issues but they cannot cross the red lines that are set, not by the Constitution of Pakistan, but by the ISI.
In this interconnected globalised world, the international community, which promotes free speech and upholds human liberties, cannot sit idle.
Pro-democratic Pakistanis fear that a terrible future awaits them.
Many journalists, who today uphold free speech, democracy, constitutionalism and human freedom, may vanish.
Pakistan is running out of time.
*Qaisar Rashid is a Lahore-based freelance writer who has contributed a weekly column to various English language dailies in Pakistan for 15 years.
This article first appeared on the website of Future Directions International.
