Enforced disappearances, internment centers, the blackholes of former tribal districts controlled by the military, murder with impunity of citizens in Chaman and tribal districts by security forces, media curbs, plight of minorities and their forced conversions are too well known to bear repetition. It is also known that the disbanding of National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) and the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) under the present government has closed the doors of redress mechanisms and further aggravated the grim situation of human rights in the country.
As if these violations were not serious enough, another threat to human rights has emerged during the past two years: the threat of arbitrary and prolonged detentions, torture and harassment by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the name of curbing corruption.
The allegations of torture were first made about two years ago when reports of a university professor dying allegedly in NAB custody and installation of CCTV cameras in its detention centers first surfaced. Taking note of these reports in December 2018, the NCHR Chairman Justice Chowhan wrote to the accountability watchdog body to allow a team of the commission to inspect its detention centers. NAB, however, ignored the request and there was no explanation as to why it did not allow the commission’s inspection team, even though the law mandates the commission to do so.
The world would not have known about it had Justice Chowhan himself not bemoaned it publicly during a seminar in Islamabad in February 2019. “We wanted to investigate the allegations leveled by Professor Kamran to see if those are correct, this is denial of rule of law,” he said. He added, “we need support of civil society to raise voice against it.”
A few weeks ago, Senator Sehar Kamran published an in-depth research report titled Human Rights Violations and Misconduct by the National Accountability Bureau. The report documents with appropriate references 12 cases of how people have been tortured and how their rights and human dignity was violated in NAB custody. There has been a suicide, attempted suicides and deaths believed to be caused by NAB’s inhuman treatment.
The most glaring case quoted by Senator Sehar Kamran is that of the suicide by Brigadier (r) Asad Munir, and the note he left behind for the chief justice of Pakistan.
The most glaring case quoted by Senator
Sehar Kamran is that of the suicide by
Brigadier (r) Asad Munir
“NAB has initiated three investigations and two inquiries against me in the last one year. I am committing suicide to avoid humiliation, being handcuffed and paraded in front of the media. I request you to take notice of NAB’s officials’ conduct so that other government officials are not convicted for the crimes they had not committed,” he said and pleaded for changing the system “where incompetent people are playing with life and honor of citizens in the name of accountability.”
Sehar Kamran has quoted how NAB has also been criticized by reputed national and international institutions. The Human Rights Watch, in a statement recently said, “Pakistani authorities should stop using a dictatorship-era body, possessing draconian and arbitrary power, to intimidate and harass opponents.” Higher judiciary in Pakistan too has criticized it on a number of occasions for “utter disregard of the law, fair play, equity and propriety,” and being a “classic example of trampling of fundamental rights (and) unlawful deprivation of freedoms.”
On December 6, a few days before the International Day of Human Rights, Deputy Chairman Senate Salim Mandviwalla, while accusing the NAB of serious human rights violations, declared to approach international human rights bodies to blacklist the corruption watchdog body.
“I am going to approach every ambassador in Pakistan, every human rights committee of every parliament I know in the world to inform them about human rights violations being committed by NAB,” he said. He added, “I will ensure that NAB is blacklisted internationally.” To begin with, a privilege motion has already been moved against NAB officials in the Senate. For the first time there is talk of holding accountable NAB before the Parliament.
Within hours of Mandviwalla’s press conference, NAB refuted the allegations and asked the accusers to prove charges of ‘deaths in custody’ within 14 days or else face legal action. It is worth mentioning that all charges of high handedness and rights violations leveled recently pertain to the period of present NAB chairman.
Himself being a former judge, the chairman knows that in strict legal parlance these deaths may not fall in the category of ‘death in custody.’ But can NAB deny the torture, grave violations of human rights and harassment of accused and detainees with a sadistic pleasure resulting in the deaths, suicides and attempted suicides as mentioned in Sehar Kamran’s report?
This is not the first time NAB has threatened ‘legal action.’ It has done so in the past also. This is déjà vu. It is like raising one’s arm threatening to strike but not having the courage to give the blow - a characteristic of those who are lacking in courage, conviction and internal strength.
The writer is a former senator