No one killed Zain?

On a day when Pakistan was lit by the lightning of separation between Imran Khan and Reham Khan, I was a bit thrilled by another headline that, of course, was outshined by the ongoing political extravaganza. And it had a bearing on the concept and practice of ‘insaf’ and rule of law in a more direct manner than the wayward strivings of Imran’s party.
It would be interesting to quiz an average news junkie to guess the headline I am talking about. Well, on Friday Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali took suo motu notice of Mustafa Kanju’s acquittal by a Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court in the Zain murder case. This acquittal, announced earlier in the week, had underlined the vagaries of our criminal justice system and had invited some comments in the media.
Mustafa Kanju, son of a former state minister Siddique Kanju, belongs to a rich and influential family. He and his four security guards were accused of the murder of a 16-year-old boy Zain in an incident that took place in the Cavalry Ground area in Lahore in April this year.
According to the prosecution, Mustafa was allegedly drunk when his luxury car hit another car driven by a woman who was not identified. It said that Mustafa got infuriated and opened fire and two passers-by – young boys named Zain and Hussain – were hit by the bullets. Zain succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. An orphan, he belonged to a lower middle-class family.
In any case, the trial court had indicted Mustafa and his guards for killing Zain and inuring Hussain. The complainant was Sohail Afzal, Zain’s uncle. He would tell media that Mustafa had killed his nephew in the presence of many witnesses. Eventually, however, the witnesses and Sohail Afzal himself retracted. The anti-terrorist judge acquitted Mustafa and his guards. Thankfully, the chief justice has intervened and has ordered the Anti-Terrorist Court to submit the entire record of the case in a sealed envelope.
I see it as a strange coincidence that at the very moment when the chief justice may have issued his orders on Friday, I was attending in Karachi a consultative session on police reforms arranged by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency – Pildat. It is part of a comprehensive “legislative and policy advocacy effort for reform in the areas of Police, Prosecution and Free Legal Aid in Pakistan”.
This session, attended by police personnel who work at the ‘thaana’ level as well as by very senior officers in separate sittings, was truly a learning experience for me in spite of the fact that I have been a journalist and columnist for long years and pretend to understand the system we have lived with. It was good to hear the police side of the story. The candid manner in which the issues were explored, with some confessional asides, was refreshing.
This exercise is timely against the backdrop of the ongoing operation under the aegis of the National Action Plan. Enforcing rule of law is the name of the game. The point of reference in Pildat’s consultations is a position paper on the ‘Police System of Pakistan’ authored by Shoaib Suddle, a distinguished retired police officer who has served as IGP of Sindh and Balochistan. Similar consultative sessions have already been held in Islamabad and Lahore.
Let me clarify that I did not attend Friday’s consultative session on police reforms as a journalist but as a member of Pildat’s governance group. Besides, it was held on a non-attributable basis. This means that the participants cannot be quoted. In the overall context, though, the focus would remain on improving the image and the performance of the police. Many suggestions – including the ones not so obvious – were offered to, in a sense, reinvent the police force. One aspect discussed was the adversarial relationship of police within the criminal justice system. Consider the relevance of these issues with the acquittal of Mustafa Kanju.
It is hard for me to offer a gist of the proceedings. Nor should that be an intention because the process is leading up to a detailed report that would formulate policy reform proposals and suggest means of translating that policy into a reality. The crisis of law and order deserves the undivided attention of our rulers. Our national security is dependent on not only our armed forces and our strategic planning but also on the capacity of the primary law-enforcement agency, the police.
While the consultative session in Karachi was moderated by Shoaib Suddle, others who sat on the head table included Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider, Asad Jahangir, Muhammad Ali Nekokara, Shahid Hayat and Ghaulam Sarwar Jamali. Senior officers serving in key positions were among the key participants. Mercifully, we still have role models in the police force, retired as well as serving. But the leadership issue prompted a lot of concern, with some specific references to Sindh.
I have linked the discussion on police reforms with the murder of a teenage boy in Lahore and how it was handled by the police and eventually by the trial court to draw attention to the urgency of reforming our criminal justice system. A suo motu notice by the chief justice of the Supreme Court may only serve as a first aid. When I learnt about the acquittal of Mustafa Kanju and his guards on Tuesday, I felt outraged as well as powerless. It reminded me of a Bollywood movie: ‘No One Killed Jessica’, based on a real story.
I find that story relevant. Jessica, a model, was shot dead by the son of a powerful politician when she was working as a celebrity barmaid at a socialite party in New Delhi in April 1999. The trial court acquitted the accused and his accomplices in a verdict announced in February 2006. The headline in The Times of India next morning was: ‘No one killed Jessica’.
Consequently, a television journalist – played in the movie by Rani Mukerji – uncovered the corruption and conspiracy that was involved. A massive civil society protest followed, marked by a candle-lit procession at Delhi’s India Gate. By the way, this protest was inspired by an earlier movie, ‘Rang De Basanti’.
In the wake of that protest, the Delhi High Court took up the case and the young man was found guilty and sentenced to life-imprisonment. Later, the Supreme Court of India upheld that judgement. Our media and our civil society have not demonstrated a similar passion for a just cause. So, beyond a suo motu notice, we need an overhaul of our police force and the system of justice.
The writer is a staff member.
Email: ghazi_salahuddin@ hotmail.com