Justice has been served. At least for Naqeebullah Mehsud. It is therefore to be appreciated that the Supreme Court probed whether or not a police encounter was behind his killing. And now the Joint Investigation Team has found that suspended SSP Rao Anwar, along with three other law enforcement officers, are guilty of extra-judicial killing; terrorism. With Rao now behind bars on temporary judicial remand, it would be easy to think, cushty, job done. But sadly, this is not the case. And not just because it still remains for the courts to have their say. For the question of justice is not Naqeebullah’s alone. Rather, he represented the tipping point; when the Pashtuns came together to say no more. No more ethnic profiling and discrimination by the state for the state. Bluntly put, the rot goes much deeper. Which, of course, is what the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has been saying all along. As has the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). In its 2017 annual report, it notes that when it comes to extra-judicial killings (or police encounters, to use the misguided euphemism): “the level of impunity involved, and the apparent perception among law enforcement agencies that it is an effective and legitimate way of dispensing justice, does raise questions about the extent to which the practice has become institutionalised”. Indeed, the HRCP observes that more Pakistanis died in police encounters than in suicide attacks or gun violence in 2017. This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism. Or put another way: “The [Centre for Research and Security Studies] study shows that 495 people were reported killed in what the law enforcement agencies said were shootouts. The number of those killed in gun violence was 399, those in suicide attacks 298, and in bomb explosions 144.” This cannot go on. The fight against militancy is unable to be fought purely in targeted terms. Just as police pay-scales and bonuses ought never to be pinned to the number of ‘militants’ killed. Such an approach has been pursued by Indian law enforcement agencies in -held Kashmir and was rightly condemned. The way forward for Pakistan must therefore centre on the strengthening of all state institutions, including an overhauling of the criminal justice system. Particularly given that ethnic and religious minorities are hit the hardest when it comes to accessing due process. In fact, this needs to be at the top of the incoming government’s agenda. Because enough is enough. For no nation has the right to call itself a democracy as long as justice is profiled. * Published in Daily Times, April 27th 2018.