Pakistan’s military on Thursday unleashed an astonishing tirade against the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) which accused its spies of acting like a state within a state.
On January 30, HRW condemned the impunity of Pakistan’s intelligence services over the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, who was killed after writing about links between al Qaeda and rogue elements in the military.
The military called the HRW statement “extremely derogatory, biased and contradictory”, and accused its Asia Director Brad Adams of discrediting the judicial investigation, demonising the ISI and castigating the government.
“Brad Adams may have his head buried deep in sand and HRW may be choking under heaps of bias but it is quite apparent that such diatribe is exceptionally disparaging,” it said. The journalist told HRW before his death that he had been threatened by intelligence.
agents. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency denies any responsibility for his death.
HRW said in January that the ISI should “stop acting as a state within a state” after the government failed to identify and punish Shahzad’s killers.
Adams said the ISI remains “beyond the reach of Pakistan’s criminal justice system” and that abuses “will only stop if it is subject to the rule of law, civilian oversight, and public accountability”.
“It is unclear where Mr Adams forms opinions like these from but one thing is evident that his thought process and ability to logically analyse a situation suffers from serious bias,” the military hit back.
It then launched a vigorous defence of the Supreme Court and the judicial investigation that was set up to investigate the murder, pointing out that the courts have recently initiated investigations into the intelligence services.
“It is not without reason that the Supreme Court of Pakistan is the guarantor of the rule of law and the architect of constitutional future of our country. To expect the Judicial Commission probing Saleem Shehzad’s alleged murder headed by Justice Saqib Nisar, to spare or shy away form the so called ‘culpable ISI’ is not only disrespectful but also out of character of the Honourable Court,” the military said. The spokesman said the HRW should visit the Supreme Court website to see what kind of historic and hitherto unheard of court actions have been initiated by the apex court regarding ISI / intelligence agencies and the unprecedented obedience / compliance they have readily commanded.
“We would seriously urge HRW to read the report of the commission of enquiry into the incident and see facts as they are,” he added.
Military fights back HRW’s accusations against ISI
