THE Supreme Court’s judgement on Tuesday which stated that intelligence agencies could not detain people without sharing information about their whereabouts with their relatives, is the latest in a series of events that have lifted the lid off the state within a state that exists in Pakistan. As the bench pointed out, apart from laws in the federally and provincially administered tribal regions, no legal cover was present in the country that sanctioned the confinement of people without authority. The judgement also observed that the army had taken away 35 detainees from the Lakki Marwat internment centre, but only seven individuals had been produced before court. The apex court’s remarks strengthen the view that the security establishment deals with elements it views as threats beyond the pale of the law. However, this approach allows for the illegal abduction, detention and torture of suspects. In a state that considers itself a democracy, this is unacceptable. The judgement, as well as other cases such as that of the Adiyala 11 and the Baloch missing persons, confirms that the security establishment is accountable to no one. Regardless of the fact that the suspects might be picked up on suspicion of militancy or separatism, arbitrary and illegal detention is completely unjustifiable. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s efforts the state, which up till recently said it had no information about missing persons, produced some of the ‘disappeared’ in court as we witnessed on Saturday. This shows someone within the establishment knows exactly where the missing are.

Unless proven otherwise, accusations of the intelligence agencies’ high- handedness will stand. The security establishment must come on record about the extent of enforced disappearances and resort only to legal means when it comes to pursuing suspects wanted for terrorism or militancy. Having said that, the civilian justice system must also start to deliver; the failure of the civilian administrative set-up in Malakand is a prime example of how the security establishment was given space due to the civilians’ inability to manage the situation.