National Assembly & Highhandedness of Agencies
By Dawar Naqvi
Yorba Linda , CA
The media is a powerful entity. It has the powers to make the innocent appear guilty and the guilty look innocent. But the most pronounced manifestation of its powers is experienced when it boldly presents the truth. The latest incident to become telling ‘news’ is of a young man Sarfraz Shah who was shot dead in broad daylight by a group of Rangers in a public park in Karachi .
According to eyewitness accounts and footage made by cell phones on the spot, Sarfraz was unarmed and shot at point blank range by the security personnel. The footage shows Sarfraz pleading for his life but he is shot and left to bleed to death, his pleas for help falling on deaf ears. Neither the security personnel nor the others present at the scene tried to make any effort to save his life.
Today the media is free thanks to the liberal policies of ex-President General Mushrraf.
It was nice to see members of the National Assembly across the board condemning the killing of Sarfraz and urging Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to give exemplary punishment to the accused.
In the 1990s many innocent people were killed and tortured by intelligence agencies in Karachi but no one was punished for the heinous acts. On 19 thJune, 1992, an operation was launched by the Pakistan Army with the blessings of the Nawaz Sharif government.
In November 1994 the army was withdrawn and replaced with paramilitary Rangers and specially trained police. The Government adopted a policy of extra-judicial killings instead of prosecution. Between 1995 and 1996, hundreds of workers with active association with MQM were extra-judicially killed by the Rangers and police, sometimes in cold blood. ( Pakistan Chronology 1947-1997, published by Ministry of Information and Media, ISBN 969-507-000-0).
Unfortunately there were few media channels in those days which were fully controlled by the government and agencies. In 1996, president Farooq Laghari dismissed the Government and mentioned extra-judicial killing as one of the reasons for the dismissal.
I request the members of the National Assembly to condemn the agencies and rulers involved in the unlawful operation against the people of Karachi in the 1990s .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
