As an Anti-Terrorist Court in Karachi remanded former Federal Minister and incumbent Chairman of High Education Commission Sindh Dr. Asim to Rangers for 90 days on Thursday for further investigations into charges of terror-financing, non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and former PPP Minister Makhdoom Amin Faheem for their involvement in misuse of huge funds of the TDAP and approving and disbursing fraudulent trade subsidies of millions of rupees to several fake companies through fictitious claims and backdated cheques. In response, the PPP leadership has issued a stern warning to the government that it should desist from victimizing the PPP. It has threatened that if their leader Asif Zardari was arrested, a ‘war’ will be waged against the government. It seems that an incremental campaign is being waged by the security agencies against the political parties. In Karachi, the Rangers are doing the ‘cleansing work’ but in a style that is arbitrary and arguably illegal. As the MQM has been protesting, no charges and no reason are revealed but action is being taken against its workers and leaders. The arrest of Dr Asim presents the same picture. He has been arrested but the charges have not been made public. The law enforcement agencies claim that the charges will be revealed later. This argument is ridiculous as well as condemnable. A person is being persecuted but nobody knows for what. Where are the proof and the evidence? Such goings on should not be allowed in a lawful state. Dr Asim Hussain was detained under Section 11EEEE of the Anti Terrorism Act of 1997, which was passed as an amendment in October 2013 at the start of the Karachi operation, specifically to empower the Rangers to detain and question those suspected of being involved in terrorism.
Since then, the anti-terrorism law has been used to apprehend a growing number of individuals from all walks of life, from the chairman of the Fishermen Cooperative Society, to the head of the country’s largest association of builders and developers, to various officials of the city government. In their application for preventive detention, the Rangers simply have to inform the court that they possess “credible information” that the suspect is involved in terror-related crime. Whatever the former minister’s alleged involvement in corruption cases, it beggars belief that he could have been involved in acts of terrorism. This is the case with many others too who have been similarly detained under this draconian law. Such detentions, which the court is powerless to refuse or even demand details on, are creating the impression that the operation in Karachi has now gone far off the rails. Pursuing corruption cases is the mandate of the federal government, and inquiries for the purpose are conducted by the FIA with laws governing the rights of the accused. Ironically, neither the Sindh chief minister nor prime minister is aware of the reasons for the swoop against the PPP. What happened to provincial autonomy? This is not the way state institutions should work. It is the responsibility of the federal government not to allow the security agencies to act arbitrarily without following the law of the land. It seems that the government is helpless and does not enjoy control over the working of the security agencies.
pk.shafaqna.com
