Who Would Raise These Questions?

As soon as the detailed verdict of the Asghar Khan Case was read out, different news papers, columnists, anchorpersons as well as the political analysts started discussing its important aspects. Though much discussion had already been made after the short verdict, yet there was enough in the detailed judgment for them talk about. Similarly, the well-known political analysts Mr.Mujeeb-ur-RehmanShami, in his TV program “Nuqta-e-Nazr” also pointed out towards some important aspects of the judgment. He primarily focused on the eventually published paragraph of the former head of Military Intelligence, Brig (retd) Hamid Saeed`s statement submitted to the Supreme Court that was also made a part of the judgment.

In the program, Mr. Shami quoted one of the most important paragraphs in which Mr. Hamid Saeed explained the reasons why the military establishment had to initiate an operation to get the desired results in the 90`s elections. As per the paragraph, when Mr. Hamid Saeed was appointed as the MI chief and deputed to Karachi, there was very tense situation going on among various political and ethnic groups. The political parties had been involved in kidnapping each others` workers, torturing and even killing them. Then, He (the MI chief Hamid Saeed) had meetings with all of these parties and requested them to stop these crimes. In direct words, he said, “For God`s sake, do not do such evil things”. He furthers showed the supporting proofs and evidences of their crimes to them. In other word, he showed their real faces to them. As a result, according to his statement, the political parties refrained from repeating their ill-deeds and, thus, the crime rate came down remarkably in the city.

All these things show as if the MI`s chief Hamid Saeed is a very honest and wise man that he, without using any force, successfully reduced the crime rate in Karachi. But, how can an honest man incite people towards an illegal and non-Islamic act? On one hand, Mr. Hamid Saeed is posing himself as a pious man beseeching the politicians in the name of God not to commit crimes. But, on the other hand, he is himself offering millions o f rupees to them for the purpose of any non-Islamic act??Is it not stranger? Can such a man ever be relied upon?

Moreover, the question is, if the chief of Military Intelligence had really got the sufficient proofs against some politicians and their parties, then why did he not take any legal action against them? Can the prevailing Pakistani laws allow an officer from the law-enforcement agencies to treat the culprits in this way? Moreover, if the MI`s chief had the concrete proofs and evidences against the culprits, why did he not arrest and present them in the courts with the relevant evidences? Should the Supreme Court judges not have raised questions on these matters? Furthermore, if Hamid Saeed had produced these proofs and evidences in the court, could the Supreme Court not have been in the position to resolve the long pending Issue of Karachi? Why did the Supreme Court so easily digest his “revelations” and also make them a part of the verdict without logically analyzing them in the light of the constitutions?

In addition to this, Mr. Hamid Saeed also mentioned the incident of the Pacca Qila operation of 1988 and its resulting side effects. According to Mr. Shami, Hamid Saeed stated that when the PPP government launched the Police operation against the Muhajirs in Hyderabd and killed hundreds of people, the atmosphere got tenser in Sindh. Naturally, MQM strongly condemned it and declared it as an action against Muhajirs. Not only that, but even, according to Mr. Shami, there were some indications that Indian could intervene in Pakistan on this basis. In short, the former MI chief quoted these events so as to clarify the back ground due to which the Military establishment thought about stopping the way of PPP in the 90`s elections.

Regarding the Pacca Qila operation, MQM had been terming it as an act of genocide of its supporters, but, no one accepted it. However, after about 24 years it is being officially accepted that the Pacca Qila operation was launched against Muhajirs. The question is, when MQM was claiming the same, why was there the denial from the relevant people? Furthermore, when the military establishment was already aware of this fact, then what action was taken against the culprits of the PPP government in the past?

A more important question is when Hamid Saeed can declare the Pacca Qila operation as an attack at Muhajirs, why did he remain silent on the 1,000 times more brutal military operation against the MQM supporters during 90`s?Were he and the military establishment unaware of what was being done in Urban Sindh under the cover of operation clean up? Did they not know how disgracefully the Urdu speaking community was treated by the law-enforcement agencies? Targeting a specific political party, humiliating an ethnicity, extra-judicial killings and other violations of human rights were also highlighted by the Amnesty International, yet none of the MI, IB, FIA and ISI chiefs came to know all these facts? Did the election results of the 1993, 1996 not open their eyes that how differently the people of Urban Sindh were thinking as a result of all these things?

Either, Whatever was referred to in the Hamid Saeed`s statement was just to justify an illegal, unconstitutional, unethical and a non-Islamic act of stealing the 90`s elections against the Pakistan People`s Party,  or if all that was really true, why did the Supreme Court not notice these revelations and put any cross questions to him? In the same way, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami, being very experienced political analyst, also did not try to comment on this aspect, rather, just let it go. If such types of questions would be answered, the people of Pakistan would not be in so much darkness. May Allah bring that day when the people would come in the position to get answers of the questions from the responsible peoples …Aameen!