We also foolishly believed \\”Curveball\\” aka Rafid Ahmed Alwan http://www.curveballbook.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafid_Ahmed_Alwan and Judith Miller who was closely associated with Chalabi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller_%28journalist%29

I read the article by Muneer Malik posted by rasudha with great interest. There is no question that he is a man of great integrity – and I was also touched by his invocation of people like Tilak and Gandhi, who are slowly being forgotten even in India. Among other things, therefore, I like the subcontinent-wide sweep of his historical (and contemporary) imagination.

But I was concerned that the uncompromising stance he asserts seems a little out of place for a political actor. Politics after all, is the art of the possible. While activist judicaries often constructively break the status quo, they are also an essential part of “the system” themselves, and can’t help upholding it, even if only to help break it by parts. So it is just a matter of degree – how much of each aspect a particular judiciary possesses.

People who have not have followed Pakistani politics as closely as I have – may not know that Muneer Malik has been one of the most visible lawyers in the movement against Musharraf – with a very high public profile. He appeared on Geo TV’s “Great Debate” in late September just before the Presidential Elections of Oct 12 – along with Justice Tariq Mehmood. Against them were Ahmed Raza Kasuri and Sherafghan Niazi, arguing the case for Musharraf. In the colorful terms of the debate – the pro-Musharraf side was called ‘Jiyo Musharraf’ (Jiyo is a play on ‘Geo’) and the anti-side is “Jeene Do Musharraf”. (Jiyo translates roughly as ‘Live Long!’ and Jeene Do as ‘Let us Live!’)

Muneer Malik’s eloquence in the debate is outstanding, remarkable also because he is clearly more comfortable in English than in Urdu but he still makes excellent points. The debate is worth watching, though it requires knowledge of Urdu/Hindustani.

The debate proceeds well enough – until the very end, when Kasuri begins to curse out Muneer Malik, which Geo bleeps out. Yet word gets out on what was said, and in a few days, another lawyer blackens his face with a can of spray paint just as he is entering the Supreme Court.

The incident, which involves lawyers on both sides – shows how great a degree of uncivility was reached in the run up to the most recent events.

What is also of great concern in the context of Muneer Malik’s arrest – is the fact that Kasuri is the man whose ‘FIR’ against Bhutto in his own father’s murder – eventually launched the case that led to Bhutto’s conviction and hanging. In the face blackening case, Kasuri filed another FIR, which named both Justice Mehmood and Muneer Malik. Given that Kasuri is Musharraf’s lawyer, he has a lot of power and influence within the system. He is also has an extremely confrontational style, obvious in the debate and something he acknowledges himself.

Especially given this background, many questions naturally arise, and Pakistan should be much more forthcoming about where and in what manner Muneer Malik and Tariq Mehmood are being held.

Muneer Malik sounds like a man of great integrity and decency. Pakistan should be proud that after 60 years of instability and corruption, it can still produce such people. It is sad what he is going through: its a really ugly world we live in.

Thanks a lot for the article, Rasudha.

I think it is best to study and understand the situation some more before displaying the same hubris we have in other areas of the world. The past decade has taught us all about the soft naivete of high expectations. Democracy doesn’t just sprout from a seed. You need to keep turning over the soil for a long time and sometimes pray for rain.

You are right. But to use your analogy, when seedlings sprout, you shouldn’t allow the bulls to tread all over it. Have you ever seen lawyers believing in something enough to risk their lives for it? I wanted to find out in June how the lawyers became brave enough and organized enough to fight a dictator to reinstate their chief justice. And I came across the lawyers movement and Muneer Malik who wrote some articles in Dawn. I wanted to post this on the news tab but it was not the appropriate place. Read this article by Muneer Malik. We risk alienating the people of pakistan by not supporting them when they need it most. Once again America will be blamed for backing the dictatorship. The least we can do is make sure the activists are not tortured and murdered by letting Musharraf know that we care what happens to them and that he will be made to answer for it.

I’ve been writing all the Senators and congressmen all day about finding out what happened to those lawyers, including Muneer Malik, who have been illegally detained. I fear for their life because they are the biggest threat to not just Musharraf, but also the army and ISI. I feel the whole American media is not representing the truth behind the emergency. They keep harping on Bhutto but noone mentions Muneer Malik. How did Bhutto hijack this situation, getting all the sympathy when in reality she is allied to Mush? Noone is discussing the fact that the lawyers movement and the judiciary are being crushed and the activists tortured. America needs to stop supporting this dictator immediately! The media need to look past Bhutto.

I am sorry I implied the blog you were referencing was your own – actually all I meant to say was that the comment and the blog post (when it was up) said exactly the same thing, without further details.

When I first read the headline about Muneer Malik, I felt sick to my stomach. I immediately did a google news search for more details, which came up with nothing. I did that again in a few hours, but by this time the original blog post linked in the news tab had vanished. That’s when I wrote my comment on the news tab, which mercifully is also now gone.

brown came up with Asma Jehangir’s blog in his search, probably because google news searches don’t search blogs, but general google searches do search blogs, or he might have done a google blog search. Anyway.

To your point on whose burden it is to prove torture – I would actually argue, not being a lawyer – that being held incommunicado by a secret agency – ISI – is in itself an act of torture.