Shrinking space

The detention by the Rangers of Karachi University chemistry professor Dr Riaz Ahmed, retired academic Mehar Afroze Murad and another activist serves as a chilling reminder of our shrinking space for dissent. The three were picked up on Saturday on their way to address a press conference at the Karachi Press Club calling for incarcerated and ailing ‘MQM-London’ member and retired professor Hasan Zafar Arif to be given his due process rights. Both Mehar Afroz and the other activist were soon released but Dr Riaz Ahmed continues to be incarcerated. Dr Riaz has been in the forefront of any struggle for human rights and human dignity irrespective of the religious and political affiliations of those whose rights are trampled by state authorities and other actors. The imprisonment of Zafar Arif is in itself outrageous. Regardless of the right or wrong of Arif’s political stance, as a citizen of the country he has rights – including the right to due process before law. He is a heart patient in his 70s and yet he has been imprisoned without access to a lawyer, his family and his medication. It is this treatment that Dr Riaz was trying to highlight when he was picked up.

On Saturday, it was first alleged that the arrested academics were members of MQM-London. That allegation died a natural death since most people in the city know that these people have nothing to do with the MQM. Dr Riaz has now been handed over to the police and charged with illegal possession of a weapon. For those familiar with Dr Riaz’s long record of civil rights activism, the idea that he would keep illegal arms would be preposterous. His friends and family might want to be thankful at a time when far more serious allegations and wild accusations have become almost the norm in order to malign activists and citizens. Dr Riaz has long been a critic of violence in all forms, both state and otherwise – and that includes the violence carried out by the MQM in the past; he has also vehemently opposed the MQM’s divisive politics. It is difficult to see his detention as anything other than an attempt to silence dissent. The Sindh government has regrettably been silent about the matter – which it usually is in such cases – leaving one to wonder if it has any interest in protecting the rights of the citizens. We are not known as a country hospitable to dissenting opinions and narratives, but such incidents indicate the space shrinking even further. This cannot be without consequences – left, right and centre. That is why it is of utmost importance, in cases such as that of Dr Riaz, that the requirements and norms of the law are duly followed without obstructions.