ISLAMABAD: December 16 has some lessons for the state as it reminds the country of two tragedies: the fall of Dhaka and the Army Public School (APS) massacre.

This was stated by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa while speaking at a farewell lunch hosted for him at the National Police Academy on Monday.

The CJP said the APS tragedy shook the whole country and led the nation to look into the approaches that were being used by the state.

“Today is the 16 of December and this unfortunate date reminds us two tragedies that the country has faced. One was the fall of Dhaka and the other the tragedy of APC Peshawar.”

Says APS incident prompted nation to reconsider its approach

About the lesson from the fall of Dhaka, he said a social contract is created between the state and the citizens and if the social contract loosens, if the interaction between the state and citizens is not strong enough or if the state starts ignoring the rights of citizens, then people somehow break away from that social contract. “How does the state take care of its citizens, the mechanism is defined in the constitution, the rule of law and the constitution is the social contract which contain the fundamental rights and the rights of the citizens,” the CJP remarked.

The state must ensure citizens’ fundamental rights and this is the only way to keep the citizens engaged whatever the state is doing otherwise the citizens will disengage, he observed.

The state can look after the citizens in two ways: governance has to be according to the law laid down in the constitution and the state has to ensure that the fruit of fundamental rights reach the citizens. Police also play a very important part of this.

“Unfortunately, sometimes perception about the police was to curb fundamental rights and freedom rather than ensuring the fundamental rights and freedom,” he said, adding time has come we should rethink the whole approach of the police.

The APS incident prompted us to reconsider our approaches. Terrorism had been growing many years before the APS but that was the incident when the nation thought enough was enough and we should do something about it. This resulted in the formulation of National Action Plan.

The lesson is that when we get together on one agenda, we can make wonders, he added.

The National Action Plan has many items, including reforming the criminal justice system.

“On the judiciary side, we have took a number of initiatives and things are getting better and showing results,” he added.

Designated Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, retired inspector general of police (IGP) Afzal Ali Shigri spoke about steps taken for police reforms.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2019