Who’s afraid of the truth?

Most of us know why there is so much fear of the truth in Pakistan. This is one of the reasons why many believe we will never quite know what happened to Arshad Sharif who was killed in Kenya in October or what happened in so many other similar events.

Even today, we cannot say why the first prime minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was killed in the 1950s or at whose hands. The same is true of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in 2007 and of a series of other events including the killing of Osama bin Laden from Abbottabad by US Navy SEALs and allied forces in 2011.

In the past, several commissions, inquiries and investigations that were set up to probe important matters never led to any conclusive results. Even the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report was not made public, and only some pieces of it were leaked years after the event. No one knows what happened to journalist Saleem Shahzad, whose body was found in a canal in Islamabad. For this reason, it is difficult to believe that the vague proposal put forward for the truth and reconciliation commission in Balochistan will ever work. For truth and reconciliation to take effect, there needs to be a much higher level of trust and willingness to follow rule of law and for all parties to play their part in it.

The question we ask in this situation is how to discover the facts which determine the history of our country and play a key role in determining what happens within its borders. There are no easy answers. In many cases, the inquiries are merely cosmetic and are never addressed seriously. The reality is that we are a country surrounded by mysteries, and certain rumours continue to surface decades after a particular event. The death of Fatima Jinnah is also not safe from conspiracies. Some people say that there were signs of strangulation around her neck. Although there is no full-fledged or documented collaboration of this account from those who claim to be eyewitnesses, there are speculations about this.

The same is true for so many other cases and events. The fact that people do not know means that citizens are effectively cast away from the state and left in a condition of ignorance. This leads to a situation where rumours are more likely to surface, on the internet, on social media forums, and in other places. This is not a healthy state of affairs. If we are to move forward, we must be willing to look at the truth and determine what lies behind it. There are no signs that we are ready to do so or thoroughly investigate serious events that have occurred in our country.

These events include cases of corruption and wrongdoings of all kinds, including the sale of fake medications – this happened at the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology in 2012 although the culprit was identified in this extremely grievous case – and other incidents which involve the death of individuals in mysterious circumstances or enforced disappearances, especially in Balochistan.

The mysteries are a problem. No government has the power to uncover the truth or how they can be solved. There is clearly a problem with police investigation and investigation by other authorities as well. We are not equipped to deal with proper forensic investigations in many cases, and the parties involved are often eager to cover up the truth quickly for obvious reasons. The immediate washing of the site where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated is just one example. But this could even be incompetence, not conspiracy. It is difficult to know where the truth ends and the lies begin.

But for the people, it means that we are living inside the core of a maze of lies, half-truths, and conspiracies which arise from this. The situation only leads to more doubts over the ability of the state to keep us all safe and keep us all unified as a nation, and to move forward. This has to change. Parliament has passed several plans to make this possible, but there are no signs that these t laws are effective any more. What should be done is unclear. Even judicial commissions headed by senior judges have failed to uncover the truth in far too many cases. This is an extremely grave situation, and the failure to uncover our history and what really happened in so many cases is disturbing.

We need to change this by drafting policies which can help us find the truth more consistently and equitably and with a greater degree of acceptance by ordinary citizens that there will be no cover up and no twisting of facts. This is a difficult task. Efforts must be made and we need to move forward one step at a time. In the first place, the government needs to be committed to discovering the truth and coming forward with the real facts as well as being willing to place them before the people. This has not happened often enough or consistently enough. That is our real problem.

The inquiries and commissions set up to probe them are often merely eyewash. In some cases, they may be designed to disguise the truth, instead of bringing it forward. This is not a satisfactory situation for any country or any modern nation. Pakistan needs to emerge from the shadows and be willing to face the facts, no matter how murky they may be. This is true for the Arshad Sharif murder case and other similar cases such as the assassination attempt on Hamid Mir in 2014.

When professionals are targeted, we must know what is happening and why. This is important for the profession as well as for the people in general. And commissions which look at even graver national events are still more important and need to be taken far more seriously than is currently the case.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyat@hotmail.com