Pakistan is in the glare of international attention again, unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons. In May 2011, the US operation to kill the world’s most wanted terrorist in Abbottabad, Pakistan, not merely angered the military leadership, it also brought into scathing focus the inefficiency (or alleged complicity) of Pakistan’s intelligence services for the whole world to see. Since then, things between Pakistan and the US have gone steadily downhill. Now there is the uproar in the US Congress, which has curtailed and may even stop altogether, aid to Pakistan. The US has exhibited undisguised displeasure at Pakistan’s refusal to open the NATO supply routes and its covert assistance to the US’s enemy in Afghanistan. The announcement of a 33-year sentence for Dr Shakil Afridi added to the fragility of Pakistan’s already scarred image. The Amnesty International and US State Department annual reports on human rights are another blow to our international standing. Both reports point out the failure of Pakistan to stop the ongoing disappearances, torture, and killings of ‘suspects’, especially in the province of Balochistan and the northwestern areas. The two governmental commissions formed since March 2010 — one of them headed by a retired Supreme Court judge — achieved nothing, the Amnesty report states. In the presence of an inadequate justice system, unequipped to provide a witness protection programme, and a flawed investigative process, the commissions faced insurmountable hurdles when the main accused, in most cases, involved operatives of the security and intelligence forces. The list of victims includes activists, intellectuals and journalists. The main targets have been those suspected of harbouring sympathies for the armed militias in conflict with the state. The heavily armed ‘lawmen’ of the Frontier Corps (FC) and Rangers, in their own version of misplaced patriotism and overzealousness to protect the nation have resorted to their own system of arbitrary ‘justice’, carrying out extrajudicial kidnappings, merciless torture, and in a number of cases, killings. The absolute disregard for the sanctity of life and due process and the absence of fear of any accountability has created a lawless culture of ‘shotgun justice’, protected by the immunity enjoyed by the security services to date. The Amnesty International and US State Department reports highlight an uncomfortable truth. Until the military, paramilitary forces, ISI and MI leash their trigger-happy personnel, the carnage will not stop. Despite the outcry of the missing persons’ families, media reports and discussions, the situations stands unchanged. The law enforcers uncomfortably often descend to the level of lawbreakers. Until there is a proper system in place to regulate their role, and a stringent legal system implemented to see no lawbreaker — civil or military — goes unpunished, the unaccounted bloodshed will not stop any time soon. *