By Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: Intelligence agencies faced serious criticism in Umar Cheema’s torture case by the Judicial Commission which probed the incident and has strongly suspected the involvement of the agencies, a disclosure well-taken by the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights that said it would direct the ISI and IB for internal inquiry and report back to the Committee.
The Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights Senator Afrasiab Khattak on Monday while presiding over the committee meeting that took up this case, said he would write letters to DG Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and DG Intelligence Bureau (IB) directing them holding internal inquiry to nab the culprits who abducted and tortured Umar Cheema, senior investigative journalist of The News. The head of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of Cheema’s case, DIG Bani Amin, has also been summoned in the next meeting as the victim journalist told the Committee the JIT had done nothing so far in reaching the culprits.
Reacting to the reports that Cheema is constantly being harassed through chasing, phone taping and other such dirty tactics, the committee said it would also direct the agencies to find out the culprits of this harassment. “If the agencies couldn’t do this, it would be a great failure on their part,” Senator Khattak further explained.The PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid, participating in the committee meeting, said the intelligence agencies must be reined in, their budget scrutinized and they should be brought under a legal framework for holding them accountable. “It is not the issue of one individual, Umar Cheema. Many have met this fate in the past and would do so in future if this trend is not arrested,” he said. It must be done immediately before Pakistan is charge-sheeted internationally for letting this reign of terror prevail, he said.
Senator Hafiz Rashid, another member of the committee, said they receive regular warnings from intelligence agencies against speaking out on critical issues and told we can meet the same fate like of Umar Cheema. Senator Surriya Aminuddin of Balochistan said forced disappearances and torture at the hands of intelligence agencies is on the rise in her restive province and those who are released are asked to remain silent and leave the country as otherwise they would be eliminated.
The committee took important decisions in the light of the statement of the Secretary Interior Qamar Zaman and Umar Cheema, who was abducted and tortured in the wee hour of September 4, 2010. Secretary interior though didn’t present the Judicial Commission’s report; he quoted the portions of its recommendations. The committee also directed the secretary interior to submit the commission’s report in the next meeting.
The secretary quoted one point of the recommendation that indicted the agencies. It states: “The Commission has established, through record of Motorway interchanges that a Land Cruiser with fictitious registration number had crossed the Islamabad and Balkasar Interchanges, during the early hours of the day on 4th September 2010. This fact gives strength to statement of the victim, Umar Cheema, that he was abducted in a Land Cruiser of some agency as normally agencies use fictitious number plates.” Chairman of the committee, Senator Afrasiab, concentrating on this point said it is a serious indictment and the intelligence agencies must be held accountable for such acts.
The recommendations also called for the early arrest of an individual Imtiaz Hussain s/o Abdul Razaq who had called National Crisis Management Cell of the Interior Ministry, stating the names of some individuals that, he believed, were involved in abducting and torturing Umar Cheema.
The PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid speaking on this issue said that it is high time to hold the agencies accountable and prevent them from spreading this reign of terror. “Self-correction is direly needed and urgently. That must be immediately done before it emerges as a charge sheet at international level.” Umar Cheema, speaking before the committee said he is virtually living under self-imposed house arrest as the harassment continues through chasing and phone taping. He said the whole Pakistani nation lives under the state of fear and dissenting voices are being targeted one by one. Cheema said, “It is not a matter of bravery or cowardliness but of conviction that has kept him standing and show steadfastness. We all are Pakistanis and no individual or institution has the right to question fellow countrymen’s patriotism.”
Source: The News
Date:2/22/2011
