Daily Times

The Pakistani edition of the International New York Times has yet again censored an op-ed by a leading Pakistani writer about our recent embrace of militant commander Ehsanullah Ehsan. It is next to impossible to censor anything on the Internet and I am sure more people read it precisely because it was censored. There was nothing in the article I did not know as a reader but someone, somewhere, deemed it dangerous for the Pakistani people to read.

I wonder though who makes the decision to censor international newspapers in the country. Is it the local printer out of the desire to stay on the good side of the powers that be in the country? Or perhaps it is some shadowy department that takes these decisions late at night? Either way I wonder if they have thought about how they have made this country the laughing stock of the world.

In theory Pakistan is a constitutional democracy with fundamental rights including freedom of expression and the right to information. Pakistan is also a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Therefore Pakistan is doubly bound by constitution and international law to respect these fundamental freedoms that ought to be guaranteed to persons living in the borders of Pakistan. I wonder if the geniuses making arbitrary decisions to censor have ever bothered to read these documents with which Pakistan is legally encumbered.

Unfortunately the jurisprudence in Pakistan is always about circumventing and limiting rights rather than expanding them. Article 19 of the constitution for example promises freedom of expression and speech but every case law you find under this fine constitutional article is about how limits on these rights are justified. Same is true of Article 20 which promises unfettered religious freedom subject to law and morality. Yet the “landmark judgment” on the issue, Zaheeruddin vs State 1993 SCMR 1718 is all about how religious freedom can be curtailed and that curtailment justified, using amongst other things a spurious and strange application of copyright law. Time and again the judiciary clips the freedom of conscience and the right of individuals to live freely as citizens of this country. Judges may pronounce so and so as not being sadiq and ameen but they shy away from ever allowing fundamental rights to be implemented in any way shape or form close to how those words were originally intended or ought to have been interpreted to ensure a progressive and wholesome society in Pakistan. Gone are the days of Justice M R Kayani. In very real terms the constitution has become the unlit dawn that Habib Jalib warned us about.

Instead, sections of our judiciary are more interested in clamping down on Valentine’s Day (in utter and total disregard of the constitution) and encouraging mob lynching. Speaking of lynching, no week has passed since the brutal killing of Mashal Khan (remember him still or have we forgotten him in the din of Panama and Dawn leaks?) that some mob has not attempted to lynch someone in Pakistan. Whither Article 9, the right to life? Whose responsibility is it to ensure that the right, life and liberty of citizens is protected? The Ministry of Interior has this mouthful on its website: “To make Islamic Republic of Pakistan a country where rule of law reigns supreme; where every Pakistani feels secure to lead a life in conformity with his religious beliefs, culture, heritage and customs; where a Pakistani from any group, sect or province respects the culture, tradition and faith of the other, where every foreign visitor feels welcome and secure.” Note that there is no mention of fundamental rights. As for religious beliefs, read majority’s religious beliefs and that too interpreted by certain rabid clerics. How can any foreign visitor feel welcome in such a place? Forget poor Non-Muslims in this country who are repeatedly made to feel second, nay, third class citizens in the country. Indeed I would go further and say that despite our parroting of equal rights mantra it is actually a legal, political and academic question now as to whether Non-Muslims can even be considered citizens of this benighted land.

The buck stops at the judiciary in my humble opinion, with all due respect and reverence to that great pillar of our state. It is the judiciary whose job it is to stand guard in defence of our fundamental rights. It is the judiciary which ought to defend Non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan from the tyranny of the majority. It is the judiciary who is tasked with ensuring the common man is protected from an overbearing and wretched state that in turn fuels a society which devours its own. It is the judiciary that has failed to hold the executive and the legislature accountable. Instead the judiciary has more often than not acted as a mere rubber stamp for a state gone mad and an unbridled majoritarian and fascist society that believes in trampling the rights of the marginalised, the weak and the dissenters.

One can only appeal to the high and mighty lords to do the justice they ought to do and cry halt before it is too late. Pakistan is slipping away. A future historian will record the verdict that our judiciary let it slip right out of its hands.

The writer is a practising lawyer. He blogs at http://globallegalforum.blogspot.com and his twitter handle is @therealylh