There has always been a touch of drama to everything that Rao Anwar, the former SSP of Karachi’s Malir district and the fallen exterminator of what were mentioned as big criminals, has been doing for many years.

He strutted across his fiefdom as the master of all he surveyed, and if his disappearance was a mystery that kept the entire population wondering about his invisibility trick and the powers of his protectors, his appearance in the Supreme Court has parallels in fiction only.

Rao Anwar enjoyed dancing on razor’s edge. He is reportedly the only police officer to have survived the spree of reprisal killings unleashed by the people responsible for Karachi’s killing fields, and he won the title of ‘bahadur bacha’, How he managed to stay at his Malir post longer than normal, how he bounced back laughing after each short-term eclipse, and how he established himself as the master of police encounters are utterly incredible stories. All this has come on record only over the past few weeks and after his downfall.

For him, the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud on January 13 this year was one of the routine operations he had been getting away with. But he was trapped by circumstances that were not of his contriving. The killing of Mehsud occurred at a time when Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) had caught the imagination of the Pashtun youth and forced a change in their elders’ method of avenging murder.

The peaceful tribal dharna in Islamabad to demand justice for Naqeebullah Mehsud perhaps had no precedent in the history of Pakistan’s tribal areas. The youth’s mobilisation caused alarm among the traditional controllers of the tribal belt and protecting Rao Anwar became a prohibitively costly bet.

Further, the Naqeebullah murder hit the headlines at a time when the apex court was relishing an upsurge in public interest litigation and this case could not be ignored. Nor could those helping Rao Anwar to defy the law hold out indefinitely. Rao Anwar made only one contribution to the turn of events. He was careless about the choice of escorts when he tried to fly out to the Gulf from the Islamabad airport. That he was not arrested there and then perhaps also blew off his cover.

Now Rao is in the hands of investigators, and any further comment on his culpability or otherwise should be avoided except for wishing that the investigation will be thorough and unbiased either way, and that the trial will be fair. To what extent the powerful patrons of the accused will be prevented from influencing the proceedings in his favour though remains to be seen.

The case has much greater significance than adjudication on the charges against the SSP under suspension. It has brought into focus the whole issue of extra-legal killings that has caused indescribable suffering to thousands of Pakistani families and infinite notoriety and shame to the country in the councils of the world.

The first point to be admitted is the huge size of the challenge posed by extra-legal killings. According to the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) and a police report submitted to the Supreme Court, 444 people were killed in 745 police encounters in Malir during the seven years of Rao Anwar’s sway there.

Accurate country-wise figures of encounter killings are hard to come by but the figures mentioned in the media reports are quite nerve-racking.

According to official sources, 1,318 people were killed in police encounters during the last four years (2014--2017) in Punjab alone (259 deaths in 2014 in 267 encounters; 450 in 2015 in 359 encounters; 340 in 2016 in 291 encounters; and 269 in 2017 in 239 encounters).

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) gave a figure of 1,277 encounter deaths across the country in 2014 (Sindh 925, Punjab 276, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 76), and the figure rose to 2,106 men and seven women in 2016.

Obviously what we are looking at is a major law and order issue.

The Rao Anwar case has revealed some of the factors contributing to the acceptance of extra-legal killing as a praiseworthy part of the police culture. He received encouragement for extra-legal killings not only from departmental superiors but also from political authorities. He enjoyed the patronage of elements powerful enough to shield him from intelligence sleuths for weeks.

Similar stories of protection of encounter specialists in different parts of the country have been circulating for decades, and evidence is available to show that encounter killings have been encouraged by governments or persons holding high offices. The Supreme Court too recently observed that some police officers were promoted while allegations of encounter killings against them were being investigated.

It is a pity that while holding encounter killings totally unacceptable one has to offer arguments that should be known to every citizen and every member of the law enforcement agencies. Each extra-legal killing is a blatant violation of the very first fundamental right guaranteed in the constitution of Pakistan: "No person shall be deprived of life and liberty save in accordance with law."

This right to life is available not only to citizens of Pakistan but also to everyperson who may at any time be present in the country. This category embraces foreigners on a visit to Pakistan, or those engaged in any legal work, and even illegal migrants, who are considered fair game by professional killers.

Each encounter killing is also a violation of the state employees’ solemn pledge to discharge their duties within the confines of law.

Besides, it has often been pointed out over the many decades since extra-legal killings began to be reported in Pakistan that any state actors used by the powers that be to liquidate hardened criminals learn to kill people to serve their own unlawful purposes. It is no secret that the threat to kill in encounter anyone held in unlawful custody is used to extort money. Rights organisations have often been approached by families of illegally detained persons with the request that they should help registration of regular cases against the detainees, though that is no guarantee of security as prisoners have been taken out of jails and shot dead by the roadside.

Over the few past years those liquidated in encounters have included political dissidents from amongst the victims of enforced disappearance.

Encounter killing is also the worst form of abuse of power by members of any law enforcement agency (LEA) and any official who takes to this path forgets all ways of legitimate exercise of authority. The evil spreads throughout the vital parts of the administration like cancer.

The harmful effects of encounter killings do not remain confined to those who get involved with this vile practice. Any administrators or political authorities that blink at any extra-legal killing, even without actually sponsoring it, are likely to lose the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

The situation demands the start of a serious drive to eradicate all forms of extra-legal killings, in the so-called police encounters or otherwise. The programme should include:

-- mandatory and meaningful judicial probe into each death in encounter or in custody or of a "missing" person and trial of all state functionaries found guilty of killings;

-- strict action against police and other security personnel responsible for illegal detention, especially at unauthorised premises;

-- payment of compensation to illegally detained persons and families of the victims of encounter killings possibly out of fines imposed on the offending officials.

Will the Rao Anwar case lead to a campaign to end extra-legal killings? If it does not, the call for justice for Naqeebullah Mehsub and the thousands of others wantonly killed will remain unanswered and Pakistan will once again invite censure for failing to learn from experience.