I think the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is entering the dangerous territory now.
Locating the missing girls is a different matter altogether. Their kidnappers and abductors are lowly lawless individuals or groups. They can be brought to the book with impunity. But asking the Eternal Ruling Party of Pakistan (the military) to go find the missing Pakistanis is not a course I will recommend anyone who does not want to go missing himself. Especially if the military agencies (Inter Services Intelligence and military intelligence) are the ones who made these missing Pakistanis disappear in the first place.
Now the Chief Justice is asking the agencies, actually the military, to go fish the missing Pakistanis out of the damp, dreary and dark dungeons run by the agencies.
If military can rule Pakistan uninterrupted why it has no right to make the irritating or “marked” Pakistanis vanish. After all it is military’s Pakistan. Not the other way around.
The army colonel and the Operations Director (simultaneously) of the Interior Ministry who had to provide a list of the missing Pakistanis showed his claws a little when he asked the court “to close the case”. But the chief justice did not listen and rather “rebuked” him saying: “Who are you to tell us to dispose of the case? It’s a question of our authority. You are responsible for tracing out the missing people”.
What about the military authority or the martial law? Or lack of any law for that matter? Lawlessness, in other words?
Come on Chiefie! You know the game. They can wrap you up real fast. Who will locate you when you go “missing”. Who do you have on your side? They have Bush and his extra-legal powers. You say it is the government’s duty to trace the missing people and the Interior Ministry should contact all intelligence agencies to know the whereabouts of people taken by the agencies. Which government you are talking about? You must have some school book, idealistic ideas about governments which listen and respond to people. It is military, dude! This is no ordinary political government. Not in Pakistan.
Who the hell are provincial home secretaries or the Interior Ministry? They have no power to contact intelligence agencies and ask them questions regarding whereabouts of people abducted by them.
You are asking the agencies to “find” them. They don’t have to find them. They “have” them. Who are you to order them around? Be careful. I am telling ya!
Do you know what they have told the 10 people they have set free? They had been warned not to talk to newsmen about their detentions, or else they will be arrested and never freed.
By the way, did you ask them where the 10 they have not released are? What do they mean they have “traced” them? Ask them who had abducted them in their own country? Where they had been in the intervening years? Why were they abducted? What was their crime? What about those who are still missing? What do they mean when they say they were able to locate only 20? Do you think they will “trace” the rest in two weeks? I mean release them?
You are already stepping on their toes. It is their territory. Their Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah just worked for them. Millions of people gave up their homes and hearths for them to enjoy the choice lands and perks in and out of service so they can make millions. Now the same people, or their descendants must pay with their freedom and liberty.
If you want to be free and live the rest of the days of your life out of some military dungeon then stay out of their way. Go locate missing girls. Don’t mess with them.
Don’t you know this is war of terror? Why do the people ask for their basic rights? Don't they know Military comes first. And its rights start with the right to rule Pakistan. Pakistanis are just their chattels. They can do whatever they want with them.
Don’t take any action against their military abductors as some people are urging you to. You may go missing too, if you do. Who will trace you if that happens?
