issue
To maintain public order
Thousands of political workers are being arrested across the country in the name of 'preventive detention' which has the sanction of many laws on statute books and is even part of the constitution
By Aoun Sahi
Thousands of political workers have been arrested throughout the country during the last one month or so to stop them from taking part in rallies being held in different cities to show solidarity with chief justice Pakistan.

RIPPLE EFFECT
And they say the media is free
By Omar R. Quraishi
This is precisely what I said to myself last weekend while trying to watch the chief justice's now-epic journey from Islamabad to Lahore. Those who attended it say that they haven't seen anything like this since Benazir Bhutto returned from exile in 1986. A road journey that takes at the most five or six hours to make took around 25 -- of course there were numerous diversions, in addition to the road blocks placed at various points by the ever-friendly and helpful Punjab police.

Ever since he emerged as a controversial cleric on the scene about two years ago in the scenic Swat valley, Maulana Fazlullah spends very busy days. This is thanks to the FM channel that he has installed at his under-construction seminary. Black turban, long beard and a military jacket have become the trademark attire of the 33-year old cleric who loves horse-riding and considers it part of the Sunnah.

Obsessed with jihad and implementation of Islamic Sharia, Maulana Fazlullah has stepped into the shoes of his father-in-law, Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the jailed cleric and head of the banned 'Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi' (TNSM).

A huge madrasa is being constructed on the right bank of river Swat which is close to the tourist spot, Fiza Gutt. Hundreds of volunteers work from dawn to dusk while the wealthy faithful send truckloads of construction material.Each time an announcement is made through the channel.the demand is met within hours and the response is so overwhelming that the Maulana has to stop followers from more donations because the target has been achieved.

There is mixed reaction to these announcements. Some of the locals say that the Maulana is playing his cards very cleverly by making the masses believe that all the money and material comes from the God-fearing Muslims of the area. This, they think, is to counter the argument that he's getting monetary support from outside. Others reject this and say that the wealthy Pashtuns from the Nikpikhel belt of Swat in particular and the businessmen from Mingora in general were the source of the unprecedented generosity shown so far.

The Maulana has encroached on the collective land (Shamlaat) along the river's bank and the hundreds of kanals of land are being levelled to use it for horse riding, physical exercise and Juma and Eid prayers. However, government officials including the DCO Swat, Hassan Khan believe that the administration is mindful of the activities of the Maulana and his men because the exercises by youngsters in the open area were in fact imparting physical training to those under his influence. "This is seen as a future preparation of the jihadis," remarked the official.

Motivated youngsters in Taliban attire and long hair surround the slightly lamed cleric round the clock. He is the most powerful personality in Swat at the moment. The off and on mysterious explosions shattering the silence of the night in the river's bed have also aroused curiosity among the people and the police are searching for clues to determine their nature.

Some locals claim that heavy weapons are being tested, as the native Maam Derai village of the Maulana has been swarmed by outsiders, a claim Maulana Fazlullah rejects . However, there is no denial of the fact that Maulana and his organisation is in close contact with several militant outfits including the banned 'Jaish-i-Muhammad.' The Maulana is against female education and preaches against administering polio drops to children. He praises parents who take out their girls from schools and make them sit at home -- through a campaign launched through his FM radio.

A number of girls have been stopped from going to school because of his fiery speeches. The Maulana has also changed names of three villages including Maam Derai, Koza Bandai and Bara Bandai. He has named Maam Derai as Iman Derai, Koza Bandai as Shariat Bandai and Bara Bandai as Islam Bandai etc.

Defending his opposition to girls' education, the Maulana said that women should not go outside their homes, in line with strict 'Islamic' rule of observing purdah (veil). "The only permission for a woman to go outside is to see a doctor if she has health issues. There is no need to impart engineering and scientific knowledge to women," the Maulana said when asked whether he was in favour of sending girls to schools in purdah.

He praised the ousted Taliban regime for arranging education for girls in strict Islamic environment. Although this is not factually correct as Taliban did not allow adult girls to attend schools and colleges, banned women employment and beat up women with sticks for applying nail polish. It is rather strange that the Maulana supports male doctors treating women but would not allow women to study and become doctors themselves.

"It is the responsibility of men to feed and finance their women, who would ensure that strict purdah is observed and they remain restricted to the four walls of the house," he argued.

Being a victim of polio himself, the Maulana is discouraging polio drops. The only source of his information regarding the polio vaccines is a report published in an urdu newspaper run by a religious organisation. "Anyone dying of polio is a martyr. I have not asked people to stop polio drops, otherwise not a single person would administer it," the Maulana said.

Obsessed with the philosophy of militant jihad, the Maulana believes that fighting against aggressors and occupation forces was obligatory for all Muslims. "Defending one's faith and honour against attackers and oppressors was not terrorism but a right of the people." He said people of Afghanistan and Iraq are in fact fighting terrorism imposed on them by the outside world and a glimpse of it can be seen in Waziristan and the missile attack on a religious school in Bajaur Agency to kill young students and their teachers.

He said that imposition of pure Islamic system was his mission. He supports the stance of the Jamia Hafsa students to occupy the children's library in Islamabad, which he thought was a reaction to the policies and so-called enlightened moderation of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. "The suicide bombing, attacks on government installations, throwing of threatening letters and growing unrest in the country is a reaction to the pro-west policies of President Musharraf," he said. The Maulana gave a call to the people of the area through his channel and was able to assemble thousands of armed people, mostly youngsters, at Kabbal ground in support of Jamia Hafsa when he was informed by from Islamabad that army helicopters have been seen hovering over the madrasa.

Wanted by the government on terrorism, the Maulana and his close aids await trial in at least seven such cases, but the authorities are unable to lay hands on him given the support of people he has mustered. "I will appear before the court, but my people will also attend the court proceedings. I am fighting the case of my people," he said, adding that the army and the bureaucracy get annoyed whenever he challenges their writ and demands imposition of Islamic laws in the country.

Due to pressure and threats from Maulana supporters, a lady health worker in his native Maam Derai village has removed the signboard from her house and is ready to resign. However, some people of the village including close relatives of the Maulana continue to encourage the lady to serve the needy and poor people, but the pressure is mounting on her and others.

Tension and unrest is growing over Talibanisation in the Frontier province after threatening letters were circulated to businesses, schools and hospitals earlier last month. As a follow-up to the initial threats, the 'moral police' (whose members remain unbeknown to everyone including the police) have once again unleashed bombs on those who had not heeded their warnings.

People are infuriated over the failure of police to unearth the groups behind these incidents. These unknown groups have so far bombed video shops in Peshawar, Dir, Mardan, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Bannu and most recently, in Charsadda. On May 4, two powerful bomb blasts destroyed 22 video shops. CDs were smashed in Tangi and Charsadda, triggering panic in the area. In another instance in Charsadda, a bomb was defused before it could go off. The first blast took place in Muskan Video Centre while the second at Superstar Video Centre causing a loss of millions of rupees. However, no human casualty was reported.

No information was received from the police authorities regarding these incidents. Feroz Shah, DPO Charsadda, said that IG investigation, Fayyaz Toru, could give the information but he was busy. The correspondent was advised to contact Arbab Fateh Gul, SSP investigation, but he was also not available in his office when contacted.

Among the shop owners, mood was not upbeat. "All the destroyed video shops are closed. Others are also not doing business after the blasts," said a resident of Charsadda. In Timergara, the headquarters of Dir Lower, new letters were dropped at video shops on Monday asking them to wind up their business or else face dire consequences. The video and audiocassettes business is also under threat in Dir. "I have invested million of rupees in my business and also am in a lot of debt. Now if someone blows up my two shops, I will certainly start robbing or killing people for money," a video/audio cassette owner said seeking anonymity.

These groups have not even spared governmental institutions like schools and hospitals. A girls' school in Gujrat, district Mardan, was attacked on May 4, damaging its main gate. Fortunately, however, it was learnt that girl students are still going to schools as before. In January, threatening letters were issued to numerous girls' schools asking them to wear fez-veil or else their schools would be blown up. Such threats to girls' schools were also given in Lower Dir district. In Swat, female education was staunchly opposed by the son-in-law of the jailed Sufi Muhammad, Maulana Fazlullah, who asked people to stop sending girls to schools because they were the source of 'obscenity'.

Aside from video shops, barbershops were also blown up in Lower Dir, Upper Dir and some northern districts for shaving off and trimming beards. It adds to the apprehensions of the people of Dir Upper that even after several months, culprits behind the threatening letters to barbers, nurses, hotel owners and PCO owners are still dodging the law enforcement agencies. Initially, people did not pay attention to the letters but after the Wari, Dir Upper blasts in barber and a mobile/CD shop, the scenes changed.

The unidentified intimidators of different unfamiliar organisations have so far threatened barbers to renounce shaving off beards, hoteliers to remove television sets from their hotels, PCOs to remove posters, and now the nurses of district headquarters (DHQ) hospital Dir Upper to resign from their jobs. It must be mentioned that part of the reason lies in the government's apathetic attitude over the threatening pamphlets, which encouraged the unseen architects of this plan. The names of the organisations changed from Sunnat-e-Nabvi Movement to Islami Sunnat-e-Rasool, Amar Bil Maroof-wa-Nahi Anil Munkar and Islami Janbaaz, all unfamiliar.

In March, when initial threats were launched, barbers of Dir boldly decided not to ban shaving beards. They defied again and ignored the threat the second time as well and continued to shave off and trim beards. All this changed with the April 23 bomb blasts in barbershop, and fear gripped barbers not only in Wari but also across the district. In this incident, a barbershop along with seven other shops was destroyed and three persons wounded. "I had spent Rs.257, 000 on the establishment and decoration of my shop in 1996 and it was my only asset and the source of income for me and my three brothers. I and all my brothers, Gul Rehman, Badshah Zada and Naseeb Rehman, have been left penniless by these blasts," complained barber Akbar Zada, whose shop was blown up in Wari. He said that he had no money to re-establish his business and would start work on daily wages with other barber to eke out his living.

Under extreme pressure from the invisible enemy that issued another pamphlet, the barbers of Dir had no option but to ban shaving off beards in the town. It was followed by barbers in other areas of the district like Wari, Darora, Chukiatan, Usherai and Bibyawar.

Interestingly, barbers in Usherai Dara went even a step further and banned playing songs in their shops to avoid the looming danger. After the ban, young people could be seen with grown shaves in Dir. However, it has given impetus to the sale of shave-related items like shaving cream, brush, razors etc because people are now compelled to shave their beards at home.

The forced ban, on the other hand, has brought financial problems for barbers and they twiddle their thumbs all the day as most of the customers used to shave off beards at barbershops.

Another barber posed a question: "Today they are asking people to wind up their businesses, tomorrow they will drop letters to houses demanding that this should be done and this should not be done, and in case of defiance the houses will be bomb. It's very ridiculous. Where is the government?" Though ban on shaving off and trimming beards was also imposed in Timergara and Munda but more than three barbershops were blown in Maidan for defying the threats.

But now, according to a local journalist of Timergara, barbers have resumed shaving off beards. Police, on the other hand, remains clueless but has been put on a high alert to expose the elements behind the threatening pamphlets. It is also encouraging that political leaders and elders of Dir Upper are not only against these threats but have also extended helping hand to police in bringing these elements to justice.

It is also pertinent to mention that the organisation, Amar Bil Maroof-wa-Nahi Anil Munkar, which had claimed responsibility for the 2006 bomb blasts at an internet café and music shop in Dir town, warned hotel-owners in the first week of April to remove television sets from their premises, the threat which was ignored. Last week, yet another unknown organisation Islami Janbaaz threatened of carrying out bomb blasts in hospital if nurses of DHQ hospital Dir Upper did not resign from their posts and end 'obscenity'.

"Through this pamphlet you are warned to resign and vacate hospital and if this is not done, very soon bomb blasts will be carried out in hospital and you will be responsible for all human casualties," the pamphlet threatened. Daringly, the pamphlet was left on the table at Central Registration Point (CRP) in the hospital at 10:00am during the rush duty hours. "I had written to DPO, DCO and EDO health and informed them of the pamphlet threats," the Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital, Gul Zaman, said. "We take these threats seriously," he added.

He informed that presently 14 nurses were working at the hospital and they would continue their job. "We have asked the police to provide protection and they have increased their vigilance," he said. However, nurses say they are not scared. "The intimidators are as timid as rats and we are not going to fear from such elements," a senior nurse at the hospital said. Another nurse said this was their job and they would do it bravely. The MS also said there was no question of stopping nurses from work due to these threats.

When contacted, the district police officer, Awal Khan Safi, said that though police were still clueless but they were after the unknown intimidators and would get them soon. "It's not only the problem of Dir Upper district but of the whole province." However, he said that he had ordered the deployment of police personnel in plain clothes at night in Dir Khass, Wari and other areas and was hopeful to catch the masterminds.

In my childhood all grandmothers used to hum a little tune to themselves as they went round their household chores; they were little ditties, some made up snatches of song, some of poetry, and that is where I learnt this one. Probably there was a book somewhere in the house, and I have looked and never found it, so I might not be entirely accurate but if so, mind your own business. I do know it is out of the romance of 'Mirza and Sahibaan', and it goes thus:

"Hujray Shah Muqeem day, ik jattee arz karay

(At the tomb of her beloved saint, a maiden offers up a prayer)

Main Bakra devaan pir da, jar sit taun kont maray

(I would sacrifice a lamb, if my hated husband would die in his sleep)

Tay hattee sarray Kiraar dee, jithay nit paya deevaa balay

(And may the traders kiosk burn to the ground, where there is always a lamp lit)

Tay kuttee maray fakir di, jerhee nit payee choun choun karay

(And may the fakir's pet dog die too, who is always yelping her head off)

Tay gallian ho jaan soonjiyaan, tay vich Mirza yaar phirray

(And may the streets of the village be desolate and empty, and may my beloved Mirza roam them)!"

At first glance it seems a peculiar sentiment, mean and vicious; but take a second look and think about it a bit and it will be clear that it is a very basic human sentiment, to wish doom, defeat, death and despair upon everyone to leave the coast clear for your loved one. If you don't believe me, think back on the recently concluded Cricket World Cup! If you cast the Australians in the role of the redoubtable Mirza, it is obvious that someone somewhere has been offering up the prayers of Sahibaan, and what is more they have been answered!

A dozen or more wonderful players of the game have bit the dust and decided to quit in disgust, most of the vaunted captains and coaches are in disgrace if not actually in the gutter, and the cricket Control Boards all over the world are licking their wounds and looking for other jobs, and the kiosk is up in flames and the whole breed of the fakirs dogs are dead! The Aussies must be the loneliest eleven right now; they have won a major tournament, and no one has the time or inclination to celebrate with them! They are all too busy kicking their own teams in the butt.

The Americans have a saying, "If it isn't broken, don't mend it" It is a piece of wisdom we seem unable to take to heart. Cricket was a beautiful and graceful game which a few of us had played for a century or more, and were perfectly happy. But we have to muck it up.

I remember a few decades ago, when batsmen discovered a brand new stupidity; instead of playing the game they 'hung their bats out to dry', simply hung the bat in front of the ball and refused to get out. The upshot was an endless string of drawn matches, so how do you think we tried to get out of the mess -- we started six-day test matches!

Along came Mr Packer and his brilliant idea, one-day matches which exchanged the grace of this most graceful of games for cheap thrills. They also changed the pristine white of flannels for ridiculous monkey suits in all the ugliest colours of the rainbow. The logic was that no one had the time or patience to sit through five days of cricket.

And now we have come full circle. As we didn't have time to sit through five days of the game, they now want us to sit through six weeks of shenanigans! I think the result is that we have completely wrecked the taste in the mouth, and no one will want to look at a cricket bat for a few years at least. Ah well, all good things pass and so will this.

Thousands of political workers have been arrested throughout the country during the last one month or so to stop them from taking part in rallies being held in different cities to show solidarity with chief justice Pakistan.

Most of these arrests are made under preventive detention laws. These laws permit the authorities to detain people without trial for up to three months (a review board can extend such detentions up to a limit of eight or 12 months depending on the grounds of detention) if they are considered to be "acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order or considered likely to commit a breach of the peace, disturb tranquility or do any wrongful act".

It means that if the government feels that a person being at liberty can be a threat to the law and order or the unity and integrity of the nation, it can detain or arrest that person to prevent him from doing this possible harm.

According to a Superintendent of Police (SP) of Punjab Police most of the political workers of different parties during the last one month or so have been arrested under different sections of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) 1960 but there are certain other laws like Pakistan Security Act 1952 or different sections of chapter XIII of the Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan (CrPC) that allow such moves. He tells TNS that most of the people under these laws are detained for 36 or 72 hours maximum and once the call of protest or gathering of their party is over they are released. "The lists of people to be detained come from home department."

I.A Rehman, Director Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) thinks that all such laws are very much against fundamental human rights and are a continuation of inhuman colonial laws. "Preventive detention laws allow a person to be detained in prison, not simply because of something they have done in the past, but based on an assessment they may cause some problem in future." He questions on what grounds does the government or the police preempt that this or that person is going to commit some offence? According to him these 'black laws' are designed not to stop criminals but rather to harass innocent people who cannot otherwise be targeted as its object is 'preventive' and not 'punitive'.

He thinks that the concept of preventive detention in operational terms seems to have been in existence in different shapes since the early period of British rule in subcontinent. The first statutes which contained specific provisions for preventive detention introduced in this region were the East India Company Act 1784 and the East India Company Act 1793.

"Pakistan adopted preventive detention statutes much before it had a constitution. After independence Mian Iftikharuddin and his democratic friends left Muslim League on this very issue," he says.

"Pakistan Public Safety Ordinance 1949 was passed containing provisions for preventive detention and the East Bengal Public Safety Ordinance 1951 was promulgated with more power for preventive detention, followed by the Security of Pakistan Act 1952 containing provision for the same purpose. Thereafter the Constitution of Pakistan 1956 was adopted containing provisions for preventive detention and then MPO 1960. So preventive detention laws have a long history in Pakistan and because all governments are anti-people so such laws suit them," says I.A. Rehman.

Pervaiz Malik, PML-N MNA says: "More than 3000 workers of PML-N including women were arrested before May 5 (the day the chief justice was supposed to address the Lahore High court Bar) in different cities of Punjab on blank detention orders under MPO." He says that it is clear-cut violation of constitution since "article 19 of constitution gives right to freedom of speech and expression and assembly to every citizen".

Government officials, however, do not agree. "Constitution provides the rights to government to do so," Minister of state for Law and Human Rights Shahid Akram Bhinder tells TNS. According to him it is right that the constitution allows freedom of speech, expression and assembly but article 19 also states that all these rights are subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, or incitement to an offence. "Government has been given this right through constitution of Pakistan to impose reasonable restrictions to maintain public order," he says.

He says that these laws are not introduced by present government but it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who provided constitutional cover to preventive detention laws. He says that in November 1975, by means of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the power of the High Court under Article 199 for the grant of bail to a person detained under any law providing for preventive detention was taken away. "The High Court was also denuded of the power to make an order prohibiting the detention of a person," he says. "When Bhutto observed that courts were still taking notices of arrests under preventive laws, in 1976 he introduced the Fifth Amendment according to which "a High Court shall not make an order for the release on bail of any person detained under any law providing for preventive detention."

The same laws were implemented during Zia regime and after him both Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto as prime ministers twice did not even try to amend these laws. "They used these laws openly against their opponents. Why are both parties making so much noise now?" he questions. "During their regimes these laws suited them, now these suit the present regime."

Pervaiz Malik admits that they 'misused' these laws during their regime but he thinks "it is good to learn from others' mistakes." He is of the view that these laws may not be as problematic but the way the present government is implementing them is the main issue.

Senator Babar Awan of PPP does not agree with Bhinder. He says that all preventive detention laws were enacted much before Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's regime. "The credit of Bhutto government is enactment of a people-friendly constitution. The article 4, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 25 were introduced in 1973 constitution that guarantee the fundamental rights of people," he says.

According to him it is in fact the implementation of law which makes it violative of civil liberties and fundamental rights. "These laws should be acted upon fairly in view of principles of policy of state as enumerated in article 29 to 39 of the constitution. What we need is the equal treatment of law, equality of law and parity in application of all these laws. There are countries like USA, UK and many Schengen countries having strangest law of detention and arrests made after 9/11 but state functionaries do not exceed their limits while implementing the same."

Babar thinks these laws cannot be abolished but are needed to be made people-friendly. "Their implementation should be subjected to article 10 of the constitution." The most important role in the implementation of these laws can be ensured by parliament but because of their performance that end is not achieved so far, he thinks.

This is precisely what I said to myself last weekend while trying to watch the chief justice's now-epic journey from Islamabad to Lahore. Those who attended it say that they haven't seen anything like this since Benazir Bhutto returned from exile in 1986. A road journey that takes at the most five or six hours to make took around 25 -- of course there were numerous diversions, in addition to the road blocks placed at various points by the ever-friendly and helpful Punjab police.

I should add at this point that my extreme consternation -- and hence the 'what-the-hell' phrase was not actually about the unprecedented size of the reception the chief justice's presence managed to garner but rather in response to the fact that for several hours I couldn't get any coverage of the rally on TV. It began with calls to our newspaper offices by some people who said that they couldn't get three major news channels -- Geo, ARY and Aaj TV -- and were wondering why. They said that they could get most other channels but not these. This was easily confirmed by myself -- in fact all of Geo's four channels were not being shown, not even the music and youth-oriented channel Aag.

Quite expectedly, suspicion veered towards -- as it would -- the electronic media regulator but it immediately came out with a public statement that it had nothing to do with the blockade. Still, there was lingering doubt because governments in Pakistan sometimes tend not to own up to such acts of censorship, mistakenly thinking that this strategy of obscuring information and indulging in double-speak would actually fool the public. By this time it became apparent, mainly telling from the various reports on the local channels that were still on air, that this censoring was mostly confined to Sindh.

True to one's reporting instincts, I rang up my cable provider -- apparently the largest in all of Karachi and probably the whole country as well -- and spoke to a representative. First he told me that the channels were off because their signals were not being received. Now this made no sense given that the channels had by now complained that they have been taken off air and I told the representative this. He tried to hide a laugh and then said that that was all the information he had. I asked him if the electronic media regulator was behind this and he said the same thing: "Sir, this is all I can tell you".

A friend and columnist messaged then to say that probably the MQM was behind this, and that it had ordered the cable operators to do this. This didn't make any sense -- "Why?" I asked -- "what could it possibly achieve by doing this?" I asked her. Soon enough, one of the party's MNA publicly denied that the MQM had anything to do with the censoring of the TV channels.

By late evening, cable operators resumed service of the three channels in question, though apparently in phases. Also, it turns out, what my friend had said about a particular political party being behind the sordid censoring of the electronic media, sort of began unfolding. An MQM press release on the matter denied that it was behind any such thing but then went on to say that the channels could have been taken off air because of the reaction of the 'awam.' It also launched into a complaint saying that the electronic media -- presumably the three channels in question, especially -- did not give any coverage to a rally that it has organised outside the Karachi Press Club the same day as the Chief Justice's Lahore journey. It claimed that attendance at this rally was 'ten times more' than that at the Chief Justice's reception and hence this action on the part of the TV channels was proof of their malice.

On Sunday, however, any mention of this link was ignored by the prime minister who said at a press conference that the TV channels were taken off air because of some issues between them and the cable operators. This would mean that any TV channel which protested against the forced closure was either misinterpreting what happened or was lying.

The prime minister also said, as he has many a time in the past, that the media was free to report whatever it chose to. Well, from what happened on Saturday afternoon that doesn't seem to be the case at all. And the worst part is that who-ever is behind it will get away scot-free-again.