Our country is celebrating its 75th independence, better known as the diamond jubilee. However, the question of liberty still remains unsolved. The country has been put at crossroads due to the misuse of state institutions and bureaucratic hindrances. Law enforcement agencies extract their authority from a statute conferring those powers to its officials. What if that statute is vague? The obvious answer is disastrous as these loopholes can be, and have been, misused. The mother law of the counter-terrorism department (CTD) is Anti-terrorism Act (ATA), 1997, which has been more decorated with the fourth schedule (11EE) via an infamous amendment during General Musharraf’s regime. It manifests that a person can be put under the proscribed list on mere suspicion by the district intelligence committee. The role of CTD and its capacity is better known by every citizen after the “Sahiwal incident,” and it does not end here. On the eve of the last Independence Day, Muhammed Akram, a retired school teacher and physically impaired person, was abducted from his home, Ashiana Quaid, Lahore and put under preventive detention at Kotlakhpat jail. Interestingly, he was put under the first tier of anti-state elements and accused of being a leader of a banned outfit. However, the ground realities were totally different as he had absolutely no link with any non-state actor upon which he submitted a surety bond as well. Actually, there were certain strings attached to these proceedings as M. Akram knocked at the doors of NAB against some corrupt public office holders in the Ashiana housing scandal and ultimately, he got his reward of whistle-blowing by calling a terrorist. Even, some officials in the home department talked about encountering him through CTD and other agencies, so that he could be given just rewards for his uprightness.
Since the last year, M. Akram is being hunted down and his financial lifeline is being squeezed through the confiscation of properties and freezing of bank accounts. Even, his son received a letter at his workplace having UNSC articles and induction into the global terror network. In this country, a teacher only earns respect and honour throughout his life, and if his home is raided at the midnight, any rational person can understand how his remaining life will be spent and his character judged by society despite being declared innocent later. Unfortunately, our law enforcement agencies are so easily manipulative, that they never admit their mistakes and commit more blunders to cover their previous wrongs as is obvious in the solo fight of M. Akram and his family. Moreover, M. Akram filed a writ petition in Lahore high court, which also gave expeditious direction to concerned officials to resolve the matter. However, no response has been given even after a year. The facts of the case are the same as those in the famous case of late Asma Jahangir as her father was also put under detention applying the same 3MPO, 1960. Further, the home department applied delay tactics to grind an innocent man by buying more time for CTD as no departmental hearing was entertained despite countless visits of the victim’s son. It is pertinent to mention here that officials from the special branch are continuously threatening M. Akram’s family and pressuring them to withdraw the NAB case as his son filed a fresh application with more tangible proof. It is related to the same Ashiana housing scam about which PM Shahbaz Sharif was investigated once and now the federal government has clipped the wings of NAB after recent amendments. Last but not the least, the struggle of my father is going in vain seemingly and it is a need of the hour to initiate an anti-corruption movement in Pakistan, otherwise, our ruling elite and its abettor institutions will continue to cause irreparable damage to our beloved home.
@shahzadakram027.
- Are we really independent? - 14 August 2022