TWO notices coming in rapid succession appear to be the first serious attempt to put an end to the extra-judicial prerogatives Pakistan’s secret agencies have enjoyed for decades to run a clandestine empire the prime minister called “a state within a state”. The judiciary’s jurisdiction has now rightfully expanded to include institutions and elements till now considered beyond the reach of law. This message comes loud and clear from the Supreme Court’s decision to issue notices to the ISI and the Military Intelligence in this regard. On Friday, the apex court directed the ISI and the Military Intelligence to submit reports to the SC on a petition that sought action on the law and order situation in the country’s largest province. The petitioner, a former president of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, had sought the court’s help because, he said, the federal and provincial governments had failed to protect life and liberty in Balochistan. He referred especially to the widespread disappearances and mysterious killings. Taking note of the gravity of the situation, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said it was not the time to sit idle “with our fingers crossed”, and asked the ISI and MI to give their view on the petition.

Two days earlier, the SC had summoned ISI chief Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the MI director general, the judge advocate general and the army commanding officer concerned to respond to the petition of a woman who said that one of her sons, a suspect in the October 2009 attack on GHQ, had died in mysterious circumstances, and his body thrown on the road near a Peshawar hospital. Petitioner Ruhaifa said three of her sons were among the eight taken in custody by the intelligence agencies, that there was no due process, and her son, Abdul Saboor, was among the four who were found murdered.

Since the days of Ziaul Haq, the intelligence agencies, especially the ISI, have arrogated to themselves political and ‘legal’ privileges which are in violation of the constitution and the penal code. They were emboldened in their brazenness because the compliant among the judges failed to uphold the law. Among the many examples of this encouragement by default of the invisible empire is Mehrangate, which involves the unauthorised disbursement of money by the ISI to its favourites to subvert the 1990 election. The judiciary must continue its pursuit of justice for all to prove to the people of Pakistan that ‘accountability’ is not a shibboleth used to persecute political dissent and that the guilty cannot escape justice because they are in uniform.