Case of political disappearance

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, for the first time, may not be welcome by the Sindh government when he visits the province for another public meeting on Friday, for the third time in two months. Tension between Centre and Sindh is heading for confrontation with the disappearance of the manager of Asif Ali Zardari, and two others, now seen as an attempt to implicate the PPP leader in some alleged corruption and criminal cases.

Well informed sources disclosed that a clear message has already been given by the PPP leadership as the prime minister’s back-to-back visits clearly showed that the federal government is now active to forge unity among the anti-PPP groups and Sharif is taking personal interest in the process.

While the issue of disappearances in Sindh is old, this incident has shaken the PPP and the Sindh government. This time, the reaction was even bigger than the one two years back, when Mr Zardari’s close friend, Dr Asim Hussain was arrested. For the first time, the PPP and the Sindh government have threatened to give a call for demonstrations against the Centre. This issue is likely to dominate the proceedings in the parliament as well.

Abdul Qadir Marri and Leghari disappeared from Sindh, while Nawaz Leghari from Islamabad. PPP blamed the federal government and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s hand in these incidents.

Their cases apparently have some links with the rising tension between Centre and Sindh. It is possible that they might be freed or reached home in days to come. Whether it is Murad Ali Shah or Qaim Ali Shah, the message is clear that there are different dimensions of Karachi operation.

While the interior ministry is yet to come out with a clear-cut statement on this issue, one of which occurred in Islamabad’s jurisdiction. Although, Nawab Leghari, was an ex-adviser to CM, sources said, he could be picked up in relation with some past criminal cases.

PPP is likely to give protest call as there is no sign of producing either of the three in any court, while petition has been moved in the respective courts by the family. PPP leaders have hinted that the party could follow the policy of ‘tit for tat,’ and Chief Minister, Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah had recently warned the federal agencies that if they did not stop interference, he could asked them to ‘leave’.

Can he do it or not, is another question. “Don’t take us to the politics of 90s, as we want to bury the past,’ angry Shah had said.While Shah or the PPP reaction is understandable but did they exactly know, how many people are missing and how many petitions pending in the court, where the Sindh government took the position of having no knowledge of such cases.

The sharp reaction of the PPP on disappearance reminds me of the famous German poem, ‘when they came for me’, whose last line was, “when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”

The issue of disappearance or missing persons is often considered as quite sensitive in Pakistan, but, only those knows its pain whose beloved ones disappeared as their main concern has always been about their safety. Under the law, any suspect picked up by police or any agency is supposed to be produced in the court within 24-hour, charge-sheet has to be submitted in the court within two weeks. Practically, all these laws are only on paper.

The dilemma is that for the first time, the PPP leadership and Sindh government came across the issue of forced disappearance in the last three years, whereas in Sindh, it’s an old story and in many cases the provincial governments sided with the police.

What is the major problem in the cases of disappearance is its mechanism as how to verify the story of the complainant. Once the police or agencies deny they have picked up the suspect, the burden of proof is often shifted back to the aggrieved party.

Whenever police produce any suspect, they always come out with the theory that he had been arrested 24 hours back. The issue could not be resolved even when the agencies were authorised to detain any suspect for 90 days, without producing him in any court.

Sindh police in hundreds of cases in the past had denied any knowledge of the missing persons, so is the case with federal agencies. What made this case different is the fact that both Marri and Leghar disappeared or picked up from Sindh, where PPP is in power. So, who could have picked them and why the police station concerned was unaware of the details.

Therefore, when the leader of the opposition, Syed Khursheed Shah, said, “The parliament recently passed a law, under which the authorities are supposed to produce the suspect within 24 hours. He might have forgotten that it’s an old law and the one passed by the Parliament only linked to the cases of military courts.

In the cases of disappearance, families’ major concerns have always been the question of safety, whether he is alive or dead. In a society where even government or ruling party’s men get disappeared, where the families of common men looked to.

In societies like ours, even the story of disappearance often disappeared after sometime particularly if its not a high profile case, as society hardly react on such news, either out of fear or shows indifferent attitude on these matters.

For instance, a police officer last week, in the case of disappearance, filed by a woman for recovery of two sons, made a sensational disclosure in the Sindh High Court, that in one graveyard in Karachi, out of 86,000 people buried since 1986, some 80,000 yet.

The question is why a police officer filed this report in the case of missing persons. This itself must have aggravated the feeling of the family. What does 80,000 unidentified bodies means and why such a report was filed in this case. Does it mean that in the last 31 years, so many reports pending before the police and their families still in search.

Irrespective of the outcome of this case, it clearly indicate that the families, whose beloved one found missing could go to Edhi centre, at least to see if their DNA, matched or not.It is quite possible that these bodies includes those killed in bomb blasts, accidents, sniper killings or in the case of abduction or in the cases of disappearance.

Karachi remains the hub of all kind of violence, ethnic, sectarian, political, extra judicial killings and the period mentioned in the report had been more violent, which followed by back to back operations, army, police and rangers.

Sindh police disclosure was significant as there have been scores of petitions pending in the court in cases of disappearance. One of my former University fellow last month came with the details of one of his family friend, who son had been missing since 2015. “Family’s only concern is whether he is alive or not, as neither police nor any agency have confirmed,” he said.

In some cases agencies handover of the suspects to police after investigation and interrogation, in other cases they freed suspects if nothing substantial found against them, but, with a warning not to challenge it in the court.

While we may soon see the drop scene of Marri and the two Leghari, the case of disappearance may remain major concern for many.

In the 1970s, I saw a Hollywood movie, The Missing, based on true story of a disappearance of son of a businessman. He went to find out about his whereabouts and one day was told, he had been killed. He filed a suit in the American court. Case was closed after information about him was declared as classified.’

April 10, was the 45th anniversary of the Constitution, 1973. In all these years, neither the Constitution was able to protect itself nor its citizen.

The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of GEO, The News and Jang

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO