IT is difficult to comprehend why parents of the APS Peshawar carnage victims were shown video clips of militants’ brutality at Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing concerning the establishment of military courts. The families have been through enough, and one wonders why they had to be shown the recordings when all that was apparently required was their opinion on the 21st Amendment. On another note, the hearing was significant because it has once again brought to the fore the issue of the status of ‘banned’ groups in Pakistan. When Justice Qazi Faez Isa asked if the state had declared Daesh — as the self-styled Islamic State is also known — a proscribed organisation, the attorney general replied that he would produce documentation detailing the outfit’s proscription in court. This is perhaps indicative of the state’s overall method of dealing with the proliferation of militancy. While on paper there are grand plans and designs; when it comes to implementation, the state is largely at sea.

While it is debatable what sort of presence the IS has in Pakistan and how big a threat it poses to the country’s security, the nation needs to know whether it has been officially banned or not. The problem is that many militant outfits thrive because the state has left a grey area where they can operate. Groups like the IS, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and Jamaatud Dawa all fall within this category. Are these groups banned? If so, how are they able to organise and how are their leaders able to march in rallies and deliver speeches? Also, while an organisation may be banned on paper, its leadership is largely free to carry on business as usual. This dichotomy needs to be addressed. An authentic list of banned organisations needs to be made public and must be updated regularly. Moreover, all individuals associated with proscribed outfits must also be watched and their finances frozen. The Supreme Court would be ideally placed to ask the state for a comprehensive, updated list of proscribed groups in the country, and to inquire what steps the government is taking to prosecute the leaders of these outfits. The face of militancy is constantly changing and taking new forms in Pakistan. Up to now the ad hoc approach has failed to secure the country from the menace of terrorism and if matters continue to remain as they are, it will only provide more space for militancy to thrive.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2015

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