Ukraine anniversary

dawn.com/news/1739205/ukraine-anniversary

February 26, 2023

A YEAR after the Russian military rumbled into Ukraine, the

conflict is locked in a stalemate, with neither side willing to back
down, and the threat of escalation ever-present. In effect the war
has pitted Russia against the Nato-EU combine, the latter framing
the conflict as a battle of democracy versus fascism. Things are a
little more complex than that. While the invasion — dubbed a
special military operation by Moscow — is patently unjustifiable,
Russia and the West had been baiting each other for years, and
Ukraine was the spark that brought hostilities into the open. Both
sides have contributed to the crisis; Russia by invading a
sovereign state, and the US-led West by expanding Nato virtually
up to the Russian frontier, fuelling Moscow’s fears that it was
being encircled.

At present, there appear next to no signs that both sides are

willing to compromise, and seem determined to fight this war to
the finish. Commenting on German tanks reaching Ukraine via
Poland, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow
was ready to take the battle “to the borders of Poland”. At the
other end, America’s top diplomat Antony Blinken dismissed
China’s plan for a ceasefire in the UN, saying it will give Russia a
chance to consolidate its position. In previous remarks, Russian
President Vladimir Putin has summoned the ghosts of World War
II, recalling that German tanks were once again headed east — a
chilling allusion to the brutal Battle of Stalingrad. Certainly, if
both sides continue on the current trajectory, a conflict of global
proportions cannot be ruled out. However, apart from the direct
combatants — Russia and the West — there is little appetite for
 getting dragged into the war. At the recent UN General Assembly
meeting to discuss the war, 32 states, including Pakistan,
abstained on a resolution censuring Russia. Logic demands the
war be wound up, but as the history of international relations
shows, rational actors can behave entirely irrationally.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023

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Cricket quarrel - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

dawn.com/news/1739206/cricket-quarrel

February 26, 2023

THE dispute between the caretaker Punjab government and the

Pakistan Cricket Board over who should foot the security bill for
the T20 league matches in Lahore and Rawalpindi may deprive
cricket enthusiasts in the province of the entertainment that the
Pakistan Super League has to offer. The PCB has already
threatened to move all scheduled matches to Karachi unless the
government withdraws its demand of Rs450m from the board for
making security arrangements for the matches. Punjab’s Chief
Minister Mohsin Naqvi has rightly stated that his caretaker set-
up in the province does not have the authority to undertake such
a huge expense. The cabinet too has voted against spending such
a big amount from taxpayers’ money to provide security cover
for what is a commercial franchised league. The PCB, on the
other hand, says it was the government’s duty to make security
arrangements, whatever the cost. It also fears that if it makes the
payment for the cost of the security as demanded by the
provincial government it would set a precedent and Sindh may
also demand the same for the matches in Karachi. Also, it says
there’s no guarantee that the Punjab government would not
come up with similar demands during future international
bilateral series. Hence, the stand-off between the two sides,
despite back-and-forth discussions and meetings during the last
two days.

One is constrained to see that it is the government’s argument

that stands out, especially at a time when the federation and
provinces are required to save every penny they can to meet
fiscal targets for securing the IMF loan deal. During the last fiscal
year, the provincial government had spent Rs2.2bn on security
arrangements for PSL and other international bilateral series.
Around a quarter of that amount was spent on the league alone.
That is a huge cost, much of which was expended on the
arrangement of security lights, tower and wires, generators and
fuel, transportation of security personnel, etc. The PSL being a
commercial league, with PCB earning substantial profits from it,
it is only fair that the latter pick up the security bill, instead of
putting pressure on the government by threatening to shift the
matches to Karachi. The league is built upon the core concept of
‘home and away’ and the PCB cannot deprive Pakistan’s cricket
buffs from the ‘home cities’ of the teams of ‘cricketainment’.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023

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Under pressure - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

dawn.com/news/1739207/under-pressure

February 26, 2023

THE instability that has wreaked havoc on the legislature and

executive for the greater part of the past year now threatens to
consume the judiciary as well. One of the ugliest political feuds of
our modern history has seen the Constitution twisted and
manipulated by both government and opposition to suit their
competing claims on power. Now, within a year after passing two
momentous judgements — one that overturned the PTI deputy
speaker’s ruling on the vote of no-confidence, and another that
seemingly ‘rewrote’ Article 63-A of the Constitution — the
Supreme Court is once again the centre of attention over its suo
motu proceedings on the question of whether elections for
dissolved assemblies can be put off for more than 90 days.

However, many believe it is time for the Supreme Court to look

farther beyond. The court is being asked to set matters straight
by reviewing its past judgements that have paved the path to the
current political crisis. These include the Panamagate ruling, the
disqualification of lawmakers like PTI’s Jahangir Tareen on weak
pretexts, and so on. The demands come as patience on both sides
of the political divide has run out. The PTI has threatened to
trigger social upheaval if the question of elections is not resolved,
while the PML-N is publicly attacking the integrity of sitting
judges and accusing them of prejudice. Recently leaked audios
allegedly involving one of the sitting Supreme Court justices are
being used by various public figures to impeach the apex court’s
integrity in the court of public opinion. It is in this context that
the composition of the nine-member bench of the apex court
appointed to hear the suo motu case has been challenged by the
PDM and the Pakistan Bar Council.

There is weight to the question of why certain senior judges —

including the senior puisne judge — have been excluded from a
bench which is deciding on a matter of such grave national
import. There is also the question of judicial propriety: should a
judge allegedly involved in a political scandal be sitting on the
bench? These are questions that the chief justice must address
with great urgency. He must also contemplate why several key
stakeholders are so unhappy with the judiciary, and what he may
do within his powers to put to rest their concerns. There is a very
real danger that the judiciary may continue to be dragged deeper
into controversy, given the stakes for the political parties. At the
same time, this could be an opportunity for the judiciary to
extricate itself from the many crises that have been plaguing the
country. A judicial debate, involving the full court, over the major
judgements passed in the past five years may open the doors for
some reconciliation and closure.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023

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Opinion

Path of instability
dawn.com/news/1739208/path-of-instability

February 26, 2023

PAKISTAN is currently muddling through a storm of political

instability, economic downturn and resurgent terrorism. Large
sections of Indian media and pundits have seized the opportunity
to demonise Pakistan as the epicentre of the problems plaguing
South Asia. In doing so, they aim to absolve the Indian
government of its own contribution towards an unstable South
Asia.

Worrisome trends in India tell a different story. Nobel Laureate

Amartya Sen in an interview characterised the present Indian
government as communitarian, majoritarian and anti-Muslim,
which he deems as a ‘reduction’ of India from the pluralistic and
culturally rich country it once was. He is not alone in raising
these concerns. Since India is the largest state in South Asia, it is
important to understand the recent rise of Hindu nationalism
there, and why it matters to regional stability.

The secular, pluralistic and democratic country that Nehru had

envisioned is rapidly giving way to a Hindutva-driven rashtra.
Nehru’s book The Discovery of India des­cribed “unity in
diversity” as the defining character of Indian civilisation. Conver­-
sely, the BJP’s political philosophy derives its inspiration from
RSS leader Savarkar, who asserted that Hindu identity was the
essence of India. Eventually, the Modi-led BJP actualised the
nationalist political ideology of Hindutva. According to Aakar
Patel, author of Our Hindu Rashtra, India today is a Hindu
majoritarian state in practice.

The second dimension of today’s India is the personality cult of

Narendra Modi that has been systematically developed. The BJP’s
2014 manifesto Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat (‘One India,
Excellent India’) featured the pictures of many BJP leaders, but
the title page of the 2019 manifesto Sankalp Bharat, Sashakt
Bharat (‘Resolute India, Strong India’) had only the picture of
Modi, a shift aimed at portraying Modi as the only hope for a
strong India. In a Foreign Policy essay ‘The Cult of Modi’
published last year, Ramachandra Guha describes in detail how
Modi has used a massive propaganda machinery to enhance his
image as the “great redeemer of Hindus and Hinduism”.
Arundhati Roy argues in an article published by The Guardian
recently that Modi’s policy of violent Hindu nationalism was
“underwritten by big business” like billionaire Gautam Adani.
Nehru’s India has given way to an India driven by Hindutva.
The third aspect of communitarian India is the growing anxiety
of the country’s minorities. In 2018, then BJP president Amit Shah
described Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh as “termites”.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, offered Indian citizenship
to religious minorities from neighbouring countries, except
Muslims, which the UNHCR characterised as “fundamentally
discriminatory”. The Muslim-majority population of Indian-
occupied Kashmir has also suffered from communication
blockades and lockdowns for years. The US Commission on
International Religious Freedom asserted in its 2022 report that
Modi’s India was committing “systematic, ongoing, and egregious
violations of religious freedom” against its minorities.

Hate speech and attacks targeting Muslims have become routine

in India. Saffron-clad Hindu mobs frequently lynch Muslims on
the streets. In February 2022, RSS followers made headlines in
Karnataka when they heckled a hijab-clad Muslim student,
Muskan Khan. On Aug 15, 2022, 11 convicted men, who had gang-
raped a pregnant Muslim woman, Bilkis Bano, during the 2002
anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, were released prematurely and
received a heroes’ welcome. The recently relea­sed BBC
documentary India: The Modi Question describes in detail how
then chief minister Modi oversaw a pre­­planned pogrom of
Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. Minorities in India face hate-mong­-
ering programmes, like ‘Ghar Wapsi’ (conversion to Hin­du­ism) or
‘Love Jihad’ (discouraging Hindu women from meeting Muslim
men). Even Bollywood is embracing right-wing narratives that
glorify Hinduism and disparage Islam.

The fourth plank of the Hindutva strategy is to isolate and

demonise Pakistan. A massive disinformation campaign against
Pakistan was run in Europe using fake NGOs (unearthed by EU’s
DisinfoLab). Indian leaders recycle their mantra that Pakistan is
the epicentre of terrorism, without acknowledging Pakistan’s
valiant fight against terrorism.

If these trends continue, and minorities are pushed to the wall,

South Asia’s largest country could head towards tumult. Pakistan
and other South Asian nations are already facing serious political
and economic challenges; if there is instability in India too, there
would be grave implications for regional peace and prosperity.
As the BJP-led government completes its second term, one hopes
that it heeds wiser counsel, and prevents India from turning into
a majoritarian state that is fast losing its democratic ethos.

The writer is a former foreign secretary and author of Diplomatic

Footprints.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023

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‘Angertainment’ - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

dawn.com/news/1739210/angertainment

February 26, 2023

HAVE you ever made a decision knowing that it’s a mistake but
you go against better judgement, in the hope you’ll be proven
wrong? This is how I felt when I chose to watch breaking news
coverage of PTI leader Imran Khan showing up in court to seek
bail. Channel X made it out like the courts were waiting for Khan
to arrive at his leisure while Channel Y was reporting dire
consequences for his no-show. Was the truth somewhere in
between? I found my answers the next day in the newspapers
and I realised how much trouble I’d be in if I had to rely on TV
‘angertainment’ as my source of information.

There is a channel for whichever politician you support and then

extreme versions of it too. As a result, there’s varying degrees of
the truth audiences want to hear. Fair and balanced reporting
has been replaced with corrupt media practices.

Nowhere was this made more evident than the Dominion case
against Fox News in the US.

The US voting company Dominion filed a defamation case against

Fox News in March 2021 for airing false claims about the 2020
elections. One claim was that Donald Trump’s defeat was due to
electoral fraud committed on Dominion machines. Earlier this
month, a brief calling for a summary judgement was released to
the public. The near 200-page document establishes that senior
figures, including anchors, knew they were airing false
information.
There’s varying degrees of the truth audiences want to hear.

It also shows the panic that set in when Fox News correctly called
Arizona state for Biden the night of the election. Executives
panicked because they feared losing viewers. Sure enough, there
were protests outside Fox offices by Trump supporters the next
day. Anchor Tucker Carlson texted his producer and revealed his
fear that “Trump is a demonic force … who could easily destroy
us if we play it wrong”.

In an email by VP Prime Time Program­m­ing, Ron Mitchell on

Nov 18, he expresses concern about losing viewers and suggests
they “not ever give viewers reasons to turn us off”.

So they decided to support Trump’s narrative of election fraud

and aired it, according to the complaint “800 times”.

This is not about facts. This is about indulging in misinformation

to keep viewers hooked. This doesn’t sound like a news
organisation. It sounds like a propaganda outfit. I wonder how
viewers feel knowing that there is documentation of Fox anchors
privately calling Trump’s electoral fraud claims “kooky” and
“totally off the rails” and “dangerously insane” and, according to
the big man himself, Rupert Murdoch, “really crazy stuff and
damaging”.

My personal favourite is how one of the sources for the election

fraud claim said she got her information from “experiencing so­­-
mething like time-travel in a semi-conscious state” which allowed
her to “see what others don’t see and hear what others don’t
hear.”

The Dominion defamation case is likely to be a landmark

judgement. Defamation cases are tricky because it’s often difficult
to prove the person/organisation willfully spread
misinformation. But Dominion claims their documentation
shows “the words of multiple Fox employees provide
overwhelming direct evidence of actual malice”. Lawyers for
Fox, meanwhile, argue their anchors are protected by the First
Amendment. But civil liberties lawyers say that while journalists
have the right to report what Trump said, that right does not
extend to validating his statements.

Fox News knew it was lying and did many disservices to its
audience when they claimed otherwise. I believe one of the
consequences of those lies resulted in the Jan 6 attack on the US
Capi­tol. They may have to pay a huge price for their strategy.
Perhaps the figure of $1.6 billion may serve as a new form of self-
censorship or maybe that amount does not matter when there’s
more profit to be made in airing falsehoods.

Closer to home, I know many of us may be able to draw some

parallels with news or­­ganisations here that put on air folks
who’ll say anything to get ratings. They know what works to get
audiences and get them riled up. They get away with it because
there are no consequences, at least not in Pakistan. Perhaps the
rewards for peddling lies outweigh the polarisation caused to
society.

As journalism professor Jay Rosen noted, Fox is not a news

organisation or opinion. “It is something else: Power formation
by means of resentment news.” For profit.

When did news organisations stop caring about public interest

and become all about shilling for politicians, the military industr­-
ial complex or corporate interests? Prob­ably when businesses
saw the media industry as an opportunity to buy influence. It’s
imperative then that audiences understand they are watching a
propaganda arm of XYZ party and not a news organisation
whose job is to disregard your feelings and go out to report the
events as they happen. To do otherwise is the real threat to
democracy.

The writer is currently researching newsroom culture in Pakistan.

Twitter: @LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023

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Not so holy anymore

dawn.com/news/1739211/not-so-holy-anymore

February 26, 2023

ALTHOUGH most commentators and analysts agree that what is

being witnessed today is chaos and a slide into anarchy, optimists
may still argue some good will come out of it, as whatever has
been happening for a number of years now had become
untenable.

Love him or hate him, Imran Khan should be given credit for
triggering the crisis and shining a spotlight on the elephant in the
room, after his falling out with his key military supporter, the
recently retired army chief, and his consequent ouster from
office in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.
Whilst other politicians have retreated to their lairs in similar
situations in the past to lick their wounds so they can live to fight
another day, Imran Khan followed a ‘scorched earth’ policy and
embarked on the path to bring down the entire edifice of the
system.

Obviously, he was able to do this because of the policies of the

security establishment which presented and promoted him as a
viable, clean alternative to ‘dirty and corrupt’ politicians with
whom it had no issues till they started to assert their
constitutional, civilian authority.
Imran Khan should be given credit for shining a spotlight on the elephant in
the room.

In a country with nearly half its life under direct military rule
and even longer under quasi-military rule, state largesse at the
disposal of the autocratic military ruler enabled the so-called
establishment to create constituency through patronage for its
own self and its surrogates.

In an almost unprecedented turn of events, Imran Khan’s falling

out with the top military commander provided him a chance to
claim a chunk of the constituency that the establishment had
carved for itself and he did do with great relish.

This constituency part-owned by Imran Khan now, lends weight

to his claim that in any future partnership, unlike in the recent
past, it would be him who would be the senior partner and not,
as he claimed, a mere minion whose job was to rubber-stamp
decisions taken elsewhere and serve as a punching bag.
It warrants bearing in mind that this constituency is not the
usual one of shirtless voters across the length and breadth of the
land, but one with influential players in the country’s power
corridors including men in uniform, black robes and other
movers and shakers of Pakistani politics.

On top of such powerful supporters, Mr Khan and his party have

excelled at creating and sustaining a narrative, even if many of
its elements fall in the post-truth category, by pulsating it
relentlessly via social media. As things stand, theirs is the
dominant narrative, with their rivals mostly trying to play catch
up, and that too in a rather clueless manner.

I am not sure if examples such as Trump’s rise to power and

influence in the US or the Brexit campaign and the referendum
vote in the UK, following similar media/campaign strategies can
have a bearing on any electoral exercise in Pakistan. But if they
do, Imran Khan will yield a huge electoral dividend.

That must be the reason that so many statements of the

government leaders today leave one with the impression that
one is processing the view of the opposition. Rarely has a
government looked so besieged, so exposed and with no comfort
blanket.

With the noose of a sinking economy around its neck, spiralling

inflation, a plummeting growth rate which means millions more
added to jobless lists across the country, and elections this year
(whether or not in 90 days for the two dissolved provincial
assemblies and for the other two and the National Assembly a
few months later), there is no protective canopy.
If things weren’t bad enough with Imran Khan constantly trying
to destabilise things, even as his ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ (fill the jails
campaign) ironically is turning out to be a ‘Jail Khali Rakho
Tehreek’ (keep jails empty campaign), terrorism is raising its ugly
head again. It is beyond the scope of this column to examine in
detail why terrorists seem to be enjoying a free rein.

Suffice it to say that the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of

our military-civil leaders of the time whose blunders, after the
fall of Kabul and their manner of engagement with TTP (and not
with TTP patrons, the Afghan Taliban), and the largely
undisclosed concessions extended to the terrorists seem to have
resuscitated them.

Against this backdrop, you would be well within your rights to

ask me, how in the world any optimist would see anything
positive emerging from the constitutional, economic, governance
and security conundrums facing our beloved land and its
multitudes. Allow me the liberty.

For long I have believed in the rule of law and supremacy of the
Constitution. A critic may find this an oversimplification but
every time over the past decades when Pakistan seems to have
stared down the abyss, the predicament has followed a bout of
adventurism, shenanigans, deviation from the Constitution.

Today’s situation is no different. We needn’t go back deep into

the annals of history. Just rewinding to less than a decade ago
would bear me out. The worst consequence of such deviations is
that they need facilitators/collaborators to get away with and this
leads to institutional decay.
Even as the Constitution is treated with contempt by unelected
institutions, they need some form of endorsement for their extra-
constitutional plots and games. Thus, sympathetic or
vulnerable/compromised elements are found in key institutions
to do their bidding.

If you ask me, this is the most alarming factor, even more than
‘corrupt’ politicians who can, and have been booted out at will.
Their removal has solved nothing, as each such instance of
adventurism and political engineering and its endorsement
creates a deeper rot elsewhere.

If everyone accepts that we are sliding into chaos and anarchy

and the status quo can’t be sustained then let all that ails us be
acknowledged. When the sacred cows are reminded they aren’t
better than the rest of us, they may shed their holier-than-thou
attitude and address the rot within.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.

abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023

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Enforced disappearances
dawn.com/news/1739212/enforced-disappearances

February 26, 2023

EARLIER this month the United Nations Human Rights Council

wrapped up the 42nd session of the Universal Periodic Review
Working Group, a state-driven process by which UN members
review the human rights records of their peers, to identify areas
where the states under review have made progress in the
realisation of their international legal obligations under the
human rights treaty framework, and where further work might
be necessary.

This session represents the fourth UPR cycle, with Pakistan’s HR

record being reviewed by a ‘troika’ of Argentina, Gambia and
Nepal, and concluded with a series of recommendations posed to
improve Pakistan’s compliance with its international human
rights obligations. Of particular significance in these
recommendations was the issue of enforced disappearances,
which continues to be a perennial black mark on Pakistan’s
human rights record.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons

from Enforced Disappearance (CED) defines ‘enforced
disappearance’ as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other
form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons
or groups of persons acting with the authorisation, support or
acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge
the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or
whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a
person outside the protection of the law”, and despite the coming
into force of the CED over a decade ago, Pakistan has yet to ratify
it. Prior to the CED the UN General Assembly had, through
resolution 47/133 in December 1992, adopted the Declaration on
the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Moreover, the prohibition on enforced disappearances remains a
seminal norm under international humanitarian law,
constituting a crime against humanity pursuant to the 1998 Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Pakistan is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and

Political Rights, which grants persons the right to liberty and
security of person, and protects them from arbitrary arrest or
detention. According to the ICCPR, no person shall be deprived of
their liberty save in accordance with the law; these are not novel
rights, indeed, the Pakistani Constitution itself enshrines these —
and other — rights in its first chapter, and any violations of these
rights constitute a breach not only of domestic law but of
Pakistan’s international legal obligations as well. Enforced
disappearances operate to remove the victim from the protection
of the law — whether international or domestic — rendering
them exceedingly vulnerable to further oppression such as
custodial and forced confessions which are significant issues in
the Pakistani context.
Gradual expansion of the security apparatus has contributed to an atmosphere
of impunity.

In its submissions to the UPR, Pakistan gave scant mention of its

work on the issue of enforced disappearances, claiming instead
that it was in the process of promulgating domestic legislation to
criminalise such acts, and that it had constituted the Commission
of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. This commission,
according to Pakistan, is “expeditiously and efficiently” dealing
with instances of missing persons, and has been able to dispose
of a “majority of the cases”. The view from the ground, however,
tells a markedly different story; according to a series of appellate
court proceedings, the issue of enforced disappearances
continues to persist despite the commission being constituted
over a decade ago.

In his June 2022 order in a ‘missing persons’ case, Justice Athar

Minallah of the Islamabad High Court averred that “[t]he Court …
is, prima facie, of the opinion that the Commission has failed in
its duty nor can it justify its existence in the circumstances”,
further lambasting the commission as a white elephant by stating
that “(i)t has become obvious by now that [the commission] has
not been able to effectively achieve its object”.

Constituting commissions or promulgating new statutes to

‘criminalise’ enforced disappearances is little more than a fig leaf
intended to distract from the fact that the offences of kidnapping
and false imprisonment already exist, and that the state itself —
the erstwhile guarantor of persons’ constitutional rights —
commits these offences. Enforced disappearances are
fundamentally an issue of enforcement, where the state lacks
either the capacity to effectively investigate, prosecute and
penalise such offences, or the appetite to rein in these ostensibly
‘rogue’ elements within itself committing these crimes.

This arbitrary detention — without due process of law and

contrary to the explicit provisions of the Constitution — can best
be exemplified in light of the ‘Global War on Terror’ post the 9/11
terrorist attacks, which for critics served as a pretext to not only
invade foreign sovereign nations either ‘unwilling or unable’ to
address violent extremism in their territories, but to also conduct
‘enforced disappearances’ of the latters’ citizens. ‘Black sites’
routinely held individuals for prolonged periods, detaining them
without trial and isolating them from any domestic or
international legal protections. Pakistan cannot thus prevaricate
on the issue, condemning such human rights violations at the
global level while simultaneously employing the same
methodologies to justify its own offences towards its citizenry.

It is unsurprising that the West’s doctrine of ‘aggressive self-

defence’ came to inform domestic approaches to law
enforcement, precipitating the rise of enforced disappearances.
The gradual expansion of the Pakistani state’s security apparatus,
including the progressive — and arguably reckless —
amendment of its criminal legal framework, have since
increasingly contributed to an atmosphere of impunity.
Moreover, the demographics of those ‘disappeared’ is also
particularly telling, with the ranks of missing persons comprising
a significant number of journalists and human rights activists, as
well as members of socio-ethnic minority groups agitating for
their collective rights.

It is in this context, therefore that Pakistan’s accession to the CED

is critical; where Pakistani authorities are either unaware,
unable, or unwilling to adhere to the provisions of its own legal
system, or where they routinely ignore the solemn
pronouncements of its superior judiciary, having a coherent and
binding international legal instrument on the specific issue of
enforced disappearances would ensure international scrutiny
and — potentially — meaningful change and clarity within this
body of law.

Sikander Ahmed Shah is former legal adviser, Ministry of Foreign

Affairs, and law faculty at Lums.

Abid Rizvi is an expert on international law.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023

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