It is the responsibility of the
third party like Amnesty International, which claims to be impartial, to ensure
that whatever it is communicating is true especially in the situation where
its report is based on the information received from others.
What the Amnesty International claimed
in its report regarding the alleged plot to kill a female anchorperson “Abida
Sheikh” (Jasmeen Manzoor), was
almost the same that she herself had stated in her blog that she wrote in
August 2013. In her blog ( http://jasmeen2013.blogspot.com/ ),
she stated two incidents. First one was about the alleged rigging in a polling
station of Karachi, while the other one was the life threat to her. Without
going in detail if whatever she reported about the incident of rigging was
true, it is better to quote the words of her won blog about the meeting with
MQM leaders. She said,
“After my last
show of the week, Governor Sindh, Mr. Ishrat Ul Ibad and senior leaders of
MQM spoke gently with me about those shows. The same night Mr. Altaf
Hussain apologized for the comments he had made about journalists and
anchors. I liked that gesture and appreciated it publicly.” These
lines clearly indicate that after the meeting with MQM leaders, the “issue”, if
there was any, had been resolved.
The latter incident that
emerged as bone of contention between her and MQM was the information about a life
threat. In fact, it is a blatant lie to claim that Jasmeen Manzoor had received
a life threat. She did not receive any life threat from any one including MQM
at all. The reality is that these were the police and the agencies` men who told
her that they had received the information of a life threat to her from MQM. "The Police and intelligence agencies
men came to my house shortly. I was told by them that they intercepted
telephone calls detailing that four target killers had been assigned to target
me or my family and made to look like robbery at gun point."
So, these were the
police and agencies` men who created a dispute between Jasmeen Manzoor and MQM,
otherwise, she did not any complaints from MQM that she admitted in these
words: “Before this incident (i.e., receiving the information of her life threat through the police
and the agencies men), I have never received any direct threat from MQM, let
me clear this and put it on record.”
In other words, the
principal complainant was not Jasmeen Manzoor (Abida Sheikh) against MQM, but
the police and the agencies. The question is, did the Amnesty International
require the record of the intercepted telephone call and the copy of the “all
agencies` reports” sent to the government as evidence from the claimant in order
to confirm if there was really any “plot to kill a female anchorperson”, or it
was just a personally, politically or ethnically motivated accusation against MQM?
To tell the truth, the amnesty
International altogether ignored the bitter fact that the law-enforcement
agencies have themselves become a party against MQM. The again and again
diversion of all operations, which were claimed to be indiscriminate, to MQM,
is the reflection of their malafied intention. This was the same ill-intention of
the law-enforcement agencies due to which hundreds of MQM workers and supporters
were extra-judicially killed by them in the name of “restoring peace” and this
gross violation of the rights enriched in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights is still on going in Karachi in the form of missing MQM`s activists by
the Pakistani law-enforcement agencies and then the discovery of their
mutilated dead bodies.
According to the spokesman of the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan, while giving her views to the BBC Urdu, http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/multimedia/2014/04/140428_mqm_riaz_ha.shtml ”The extra-judicially
killings in Karachi is the result of the thinking of the LEA (law-enforcement
agencies) that they cannot get the accused convicted and punished by the
courts”. In other words, the extra-judicial killings of MQM workers is not just
the result of the hatred of LEA for MQM, but it is also their open confession of that the fact that they do not have
sufficient and reliable proofs and evidences to prove their charges on the
accused in the courts. Then, is it logical to rely on their reports unless and
until they succeed to prove them in any court of law?
One of the undeniable
proofs of how the LEA`s prepare baseless “investigation” reports maligning MQM
came up when in his official statement submitted to the highest court of the
country (, i.e., the Supreme Court of Pakistan), the Director General Rangers
(DG Rangers_the head of one of the law-enforcement agencies) blamed that MQM`s
former federal minister Baber Khan Ghori was behind the missing/stealing of 19,000
NATO containers full of weapons and ammunition that were used in the crimes in
Karachi (http://www.dawn.com/news/1039406/dg-rangers-reveals-facts-behind-karachi-weapons-smuggling)
But, the credibility of
his report got exposed when the US department itself refuted that any of its
containers had ever gone missing from Karachi. (http://tribune.com.pk/story/600234/us-embassy-refutes-claim-of-missing-isaf-containers/)
This, on one hand, clearly reveals how the Pakistani
law-enforcement agencies biasedly involve MQM in different crimes, on the other
hand, it also shows how they misguide the Pakistani courts to give judgments in
the way LEA`s want.
Furthermore, the
Supreme Court of Pakistan has recently has upheld the verdict of the Sindh High
Court to acquit MQM workers who had been sentenced to death in the accusation
of a famous writer and a physician
Hakeem Muhammad Said by the Anti-Terrorist Courts. http://www.nation.com.pk/karachi/27-Apr-2014/sc-upholds-acquittal-of-mqm-workers-in-hakim-said-murder-case
Very similarly, the
accused MQM`s leaders and workers were acquitted from another high profile
“Major Kaleem case” by the Supreme Court. http://www.dawn.com/news/261106/karachi-sc-dismisses-pleas-in-major-kalim-case
In all these cases, the
lowers courts convicted MQM workers and leaders on the basis of the “investigation”
reports as well as the “proofs” and “witnesses” produced by the LEA`s before
them. However, the higher courts (High and Supreme Courts) rejected the lower
courts` verdicts and ordered to release the accused. Considering these, is it
logical to jump into conclusion on the basis of the verdict in Wali Khan Baber
case by the lower court?
It should also be kept
in mind that even the verdict of the Supreme Court in the Karachi violence case
against various political parties and groups including MQM, was also based on
the reports and in-camera briefings by the LEA`s. That is the reason, the
judges, in their verdict, used the phrase “We
have been informed that…..”, instead of “It is proved that…”. Taking into account these facts, is it justified
to accuse MQM merely on the basis of the unreliable reports of the same
law-enforcement agencies?
In fact, it was the responsibility
of Amnesty International, as an impartial body for raising voice against the
violation of human rights, to urge the government of Pakistan and its
law-enforcement agencies to provide all the rights stated in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights to the oppressed MQM and the Urdu speaking
community. But, very unfortunately, Amnesty International itself seems to have
been violating the fundamental rights by joining its vice with the perpetrators
involved in the genocide of a community. Will such an act help it make its
image better in the world, I do not think so.
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