Dear All,

From the news it seems that there is just one important investigation underway in Pakistan.

The high profile ‘case’ in progress is that of Dr Asim Hussain, owner of Karachi’s Dr Ziauddin Hospital(s) and long-time friend of former President Asif Zardari. The doctor is a long-time resident of North Nazimabad and is understood to have been, for many years, on quite good terms with the MQM. Dr Hussain was also former federal petroleum minister in the last government.

The doctor was picked up by the paramilitary force, Rangers, in a high-publicity arrest on August 26. Prior to the arrest, the whole nation was informed by an enthusiastic media that the Rangers, specifically, and the armed forces, generally, were going to make Pakistan a better place. The sub-text was that this would be achieved by teaching certain politicians a lesson. The MQM was already on the defensive at the time of the doctor’s arrest, and when he was detained, the nation watched with bated breath: the general assumption was that getting Dr Hussain was the way to get Asif Zardari.

The Rangers kept Dr Hussain for as long as they legally could -- for 90 days. During this time he was held at an undisclosed location, and his family was taken to visit him only as and when his gaolers deemed fit. When he became unwell, they were forced to move him to The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), but his family was summoned (in the middle of the night) to do the actual paperwork and the hospital admission. A panel of doctors was to examine him at the hospital to assess his state of health but the night before this Medical Board could do so, the Rangers took him away from the hospital without medical discharge. They also took his hospital file with them.

At the end of the 90 days, Rangers’ prosecutors insisted they should be allowed to keep the doctor for even longer. The court refused and he was handed over to the police. When the police said they could find no evidence of the (tardily placed) charges against him (treating and harbouring terrorists at his North Nazimabad hospital), another agency stepped into the fray and insisted that now they should have custody of him -- thus he was taken by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), who said they needed to investigate him for "illegal land allotments".

Soon after NAB took the doctor into their custody, the interior minister of Pakistan made some astonishingly biased statements about the curious case of Dr Hussain. These included threats to Sindh’s provincial government (which has been flexing its muscle on the matter of extending the Rangers’ mandate in the province), and insinuations that there is absolutely no way that Dr Hussain can be innocent. He also threatened to release a "video of Dr Asim".

The whole matter has become near farcical now. Dr Hussain has been accused of treating terrorists at his hospital. Yet no action has been taken against the Karachi hospital where Taliban commander Mullah Omar is alleged to have been treated and died. Similarly, no action was ever taken against the Jamaat-e-Islami members from whose Rawalpindi Westridge residence al-Qaeda’s Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was picked up. No action has been taken against restaurants that served food to terrorists or shops that sold goods to terrorists…

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the hospital employee who has turned state witness against Dr Hussain are unknown.

Little mention has been made of the fact that this witness (Dr Yusuf Sattar) was picked up by Rangers from the North Nazimabad hospital soon after Dr Hussain’s detention. For weeks he was a missing person because Rangers denied having him in their custody, despite CCTV cameras recording of them taking him away. It was only after his family went to court that Rangers admitted they did indeed have him. A couple of months later he was their witness.

It was probably a fair assumption that getting Dr Hussain would be a good way to get to both Zardari and the MQM, but the way this whole drama has played out has made a travesty of both the law and provincial autonomy. I have to say that the Pakistani government has never showed as much zeal in capturing and questioning any jihadi militant as they have in detaining and nabbing Dr Hussain.

So let’s see who’s next in line after NAB to get the doc? Customs Authorities? Income Tax inspectors? FIA? K-Electric? Motorway Police? Heck, he’s got to be guilty of something! It’s as simple as getting from A to Z…

Best wishes