H

ow does one respond to a military court verdict that holds a political and human rights activist (with a PhD in anthropology) guilty of espionage, sentencing him to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment? One tries to figure out details of the case as it has developed to see how seemingly archaic laws like the Official Secrets Act (from 1923) can be used against citizens with such brutal consequences.

The Idris Khattak case would border on farce, if it weren’t so tragic. Note that the lesson learnt is not just about the subject of Official Secrets Act.

Ever since he was abducted in November 2019, he has been in the news -there’s a verdict or two by the high court regarding his trial, ending in the recent one through a field general court martial (FGCM) - except for the first eight months when there was total blackout of news about him. Khattak and his driver were on their way to his hometown near Akora Khattak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Islamabad when they were stopped by four or five men in plain clothes at the Swabi interchange. The driver was returned a couple of days later and unknown men came to Idris Khattak’s house to collect his laptop and hard disk.

It was a cut and dried case of enforced disappearance, not all too unfamiliar to a Pakistani audience.

But this was a man who had worked as a consultant with organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The human rights family the world over was quick to protest. The state agencies, in response to the habeas corpus petition filed in Peshawar High Court by Idris’s brother, refused to acknowledge that they had the man. Some officials actually filed affidavits to that end.

However, the noise around his disappearance refused to go away. Eight months later, in June 2020, the Ministry of Defence wrote to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance that Idris Khattak was with one of the agencies working under it, because there was a case against him for violation of the Official Secrets Act. The case made against him was from 2009. He is alleged to have handed over details of army’s movement during a military operation to an Irish man, allegedly an MI6 agent, married to a Pakistani woman and living in Pakistan for over twenty years. This man, Michael Semple, was nearly as well known among the civil society and human rights community as Idris Khattak himself.

Human rights bodies internationally advocate against civilians being tried under military courts. Yet Pakistan allowed that in 2015 and 2017 through constitutional amendments on the pretext of exceptional circumstances viz terrorism.

As it became clear that the case against Idris Khattak was to proceed under the Army Act, a petition was filed to restrain the military court from undertaking the trial. A restraining order was passed in October 2020 but the final verdict that came in February this year upheld his trial under the Army Act. Michael Semple’s wife Yameema Mitha, an educationist, wrote a scathing if sad letter to the editor in a local English daily in February this year, taking away any semblance of credibility from the case.

The case went on, regardless, till the court martial a few weeks back sentenced Idris Khattakto 14 years of rigorous imprisonment.

There are several points to ponder. To start with, the colonial era relic that is the Official Secrets Act, clashes with the citizens’ basic right to information. It is absurd to a point that even the parliament can be denied access to anything deemed secret. Citizens can be charged on mere suspicions and meeting a foreigner or diplomat can land one in jail. The list of absurdities goes on.

There are problems with military courts trying civilians. In most cases, they fail to fulfill internationally recognised fair trial standards. The trials are held secretly (in Idris Khattak’s case, the family could not witness the trial). There is no requirement for the officers holding the trial to have legal training and they do not have security of tenure. Legal judgments should have “essential findings, evidence and legal reasoning.” The Army Act also bars civilian courts from exercising appellate jurisdiction over court martial decisions. Superior courts have, however, held that they may use their writ jurisdiction power in such cases.

All human rights bodies internationally advocate against civilians being tried under military courts. Yet Pakistan allowed that in 2015 and 2017 through constitutional amendments (21 and 23) on the pretext of exceptional circumstances viz terrorism. The amendments gave military courts retrospective powers.

What cannot and must not be ignored is the connection this case has with enforced disappearances. Military court convictions since 2015 have been preceded by people being kept in illegal detention or at internment centres. Even if it is accepted for argument’s sake that there is a case against Idris Khattak, how can one account for the eight months of disappearance.

Khattakhas been a single parent to two daughters. His younger daughter Talia Khattak’s words from her famous BBC interview “My father was taken and I don’t know why” will and should haunt the nation’s conscience till he is reunited with his daughters.

The writer is the director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and a former editor of TNS