The short essay, ‘The long wait’ by Sammi Baloch (June 28) was extremely moving, powerful and deeply disturbing. The prolonged disappearance of the writer’s father, Dr Deen Mohammad, from his work-place in Balochistan several years ago obviously continues to cause great anguish to his children, their mother and the whole family and friends. While perhaps they alone can feel the sustained pain ,they need to know that many uncounted others, in Balochistan and elsewhere in Pakistan , as also overseas, feel enormous empathy for them.

Our challenge is about how to secure purposeful action by the State in order to determine the whereabouts of Dr Deen Mohammad, to affix responsibility for his disappearance and to hold persons to account. As intelligence agencies are widely perceived to be responsible — rightly or wrongly — for some of the disappearances, and notwithstanding rejections in the past by official spokespersons or institutions of allegations of such involvement, it would be beneficial for the credibility and reputation of the agencies to address this particular case, as indeed similar other cases.

One does not recall a statement in recent times by the ISPR or by other military sources on the subject of missing persons in Balochistan. The damage done to the image of the agencies by such allegations is compounded by silence on this subject in phases almost as prolonged as the disappearances themselves.

While frequent disavowals of association or responsibility are not required, in this particular instance, as also in the remaining instances, a statement of the situation from the viewpoint of the agencies is overdue and would be most helpful. The intelligence agencies of Pakistan, military and civil, provide invaluable services of vital security interests for the state.

Even segments of opinion in countries hostile to Pakistan have acknowledged the professional excellence of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in gathering timely intelligence. Their work often prevents and deters serious threats to our stability. But the inherent need for secrecy breeds the potential for covert misuse of power, a danger common to all agencies and states.

While it is encouraging to note that the Speaker of the National Assembly has recently activated the work of a special committee on Balochistan which may hopefully also investigate cases such as the one of Dr Deen Mohammad, one hopes that the military leadership will itself take the initiative in this matter. Such a step will also weaken the attempts to malign the armed forces. Difficult, time-consuming and unpredictable in outcome though it may be, the only way to deal with individuals whose activities cause concern to law-enforcement authorities is to use the open, transparent, legal process. That may also entail long waits. But the gains are unlimited — and always sweet.

Senator (r) Javed Jabbar
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2020