Daily Times

Pakistan’s democracy is facing another challenge. This time, too, the issue is one of moral turpitude. A powerful man has been accused. It is the woman who is standing trial. There have been allegations of political opportunism by a vengeful ruling party. There have been counter-allegations decrying the fact that no evidence has been made public.

Yet the issue has now gone beyond that.

Following his swearing-in ceremony and the formation of a new cabinet, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has called for a National Assembly committee to investigate Ayesha Gulalai’s claims of sexual harassment by Imran Khan, the PTI chief and her former boss. It is to report its findings in one month. This is a welcome move, provided it doesn’t stop at political expediency alone. And now that the Railways Minister has taunted Imran Khan with the challenge of proving that Gulalai is a woman crying wolf – it is Lower House’s job to stand by this.

In theory, the law stipulates innocence until proven guilty. But according to Nighat Daad, the founder of Digital Rights Foundation and herself a lawyer, this isn’t just about Gulalai. Her accusations have simply served as a reminder that the law isn’t always on women’s side. “Yes the law says this. But this is a feminist issue,” says Daad. Meaning that in such cases, “it is always the woman who has to prove she isn’t lying. And most of the time there is no evidence, no witnesses. Already the woman has been harassed and then she has to prove it.”

Others have begged to differ. Talath Naqvi, a former PTI Information secretary and member of the party’s Central Executive Committee says it is personal, arguing that those whom she terms as being behind these machinations have been advised by one of their own not to go for revenge. Yet, she says, this is the only language that they understand. “Pakistan is first. It’s not about you. It’s about building institutions and strengthening them”, she says.

This is about the institutions of the state. And yet the state has absented itself up until the new man at the top decided to take charge. But why? This is what Daad wants to know: where were the women’s parliamentary caucuses? Where was the National Commission on the Status of Women? “They could have gone ahead and on their own and started an inquiry. It’s their prerogative. Especially as this woman [Gulalai] isn’t going to court but is just raising awareness.”

Yet this is a burden that cannot rest exclusively on one pair of shoulders alone. It is one that must be shared. And if the accusations of a smear campaign by the ruling party are true – the latter has scored an own goal. For it has proved that its writ is merely selective in nature.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and the Federal Investigation Agency have also been nowhere to be found. That these specific allegations pertain not to messages passed and received over the Internet – but from mobile network to mobile network – mean that this falls firmly within the PTA purview. Thus far, on this point, the FIA’s cyber crime wing is off the hook. For the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act only concerns itself with Internet-based messages. Not because, as some lawyers have claimed, because Pakistan’s new cyber crime law cannot be invoked retrospectively.

Though this should not technically be an issue, according to human rights lawyer Asad Jamal, given that Pakistan has other laws covering harassment. If the courts wished to take notice of this there is the Telegraph Act 1882. Section 25-D covers causing annoyance by telephone, intimidation and making obnoxious calls. Then there is Article 509 of Pakistan Penal Code criminalising – however vaguely – any “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman”.

The vitriolic response directed towards Gulalai, especially on social media – which has included incitement to acid attacks as well as outright death threats – has been both shocking and frightening. The Home and Tribal Affairs Department has now granted her additional security protocol at her request. But as far as the online threats go it should be the FIA that stands in the dock charged with the crime of inaction.

Much is made of the fact that, as an investigating agency, FIA cannot initiate proceedings. Yet this was never a problem when the former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar was at the helm. For it was under his stewardship that the FIA was ’empowered’ to pick up those who threatened the image of the Army.

Indeed, it was on his watch that a public hotline was set up to curb the spread of blasphemous content. As Nighat Daad puts it, “When it comes to what it thinks are ‘anti-state’ elements, the FIA can go and pick up social media activists. It doesn’t have to wait for a complaint to be filed. But when it comes to women. It is nowhere.” If the FIA cannot and will not act, Daad says, those who have threatened Gulalai can be tried under 11W of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which covers the printing or publishing or disseminating any material to incite hatred. But the state has to be willing to act. And thus far it has revealed its impotence.

It is this impotence to act that may well see it face more charges of moral corruptness unless PM Abassi proves his mettle in one month’s time.

The writer is the deputy managing editor of Daily Times

Published in Daily Times, August 5^th 2017.