An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad on Monday remanded human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Ali Wazir into police custody for three days, while rejecting the prosecution’s request for a 10-day remand and defense counsels’ appeal for the bail of the accused. Both so-called human rights activists and self claimed public leaders have been charged by the Federal administration for sedition against the state and delivering controversial speeches at a public rally held by the PTM in the national capital. During the hearing, both accused denied the charges and claimed innocence, commission of nothing unlawful and against the interests of the state.
Advocate Imaan Mazari, a self-proclaimed human rights activist is the daughter of the PTI leader and former Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr. Sharin Mazari. Whereas, Ali Wazir is a left wing Pashtun leader and long held critic of the Pakistani state and its institutions over self founded charges of so-called state atrocities against Pashtuns residing in Erstwhile FATA, the KPK and across Pakistan. Both individuals gained popularity in a particular faction of society at home and anti-Pakistan elements sitting abroad particularly in Kabul, New Delhi and several western capitals, due to their anti-state narrative, controversial statements and hate speeches against Pakistan. Historically, the country has no scarcity of such fake human rights defenders and so-called well-wishers of the people who always remain ready to play on behalf of the enemies of Pakistan. These elements always received unprecedented admiration for their negative politics and anti-state narrative from across the Wagah border and on the other side of the Durand line throughout in the past.
In fact, human rights and civil liberties are a sensitive issue and usually bisect security concerns and overlap other state laws complicating the work of the law enforcers and creating hurdles for judges and prosecutors not only in Pakistan but all civilised nations across the globe. All nations offer a degree of freedom of expression, right to peaceful assembly and lawful protest but no country permits any person or a group to abuse the writ of the law, defame national institutions or spread chaos in the garb of civil rights, political freedom or democracy. Interestingly, these so-called liberals, human rights activists, and sub-nationalist leaders always joined hands to mourn alleged state atrocities, and maltreatment of minorities in Pakistan but they never came up to denounce Indian state atrocities and human rights violation in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,never criticised Israeli war crimes in Palestine or nor condemned the awful desecration of Holy Quran in Sweden and Denmark. That raised serious questions regarding their conduct and highlighted dual standards regarding human rights at home and abroad. Thus selective implementation of the global laws and dual use of civic principles clearly expose their true motives and anti-state agenda.
Historically, the constitution of Pakistan categorically covers all citizenry and fundamental rights of its citizens without any discrimination of religion, cast, colour and creed, while the state of Pakistan had always endeavoured whole heartedly to protect civil liberties and basic rights of its citizens throughout history. However, the state of Pakistan can not and should not allow any individual or a group of people to use civic liberties for furtherance of their hidden agendas and accomplishment of their nefarious designs against the country. The issue of enforced disappearances had been addressed at the highest level in Pakistan and thousands of individuals had been recovered by the powerful judicial commission in the past. Amid the ongoing hybrid propaganda and accusations against state entities, terrorist groups and banned organisations had used voluntary disappearance of their members to discredit and defame state institutions, while the same tactics had been used by the foreign Intelligence to globally pressurise Pakistan.
In fact, foreign pawns and people of no character are well versed in the tactic of trading national prestige and misusing civil freedoms for the sake of cheap popularity and getting attention from the foreign media. No nation either gives in to baseless propaganda or surrenders to blackmail of the hate mongers and apostates, who always joined the enemy’s ranks and stabbed the nation in the back. Hence, the nation must recognise their faces, and unite against them to fail their nefarious plans against the country.
