Crime of Baba Jan - Politics dictates justice in Gilgit Beltistan
Politics dictates justice
in Gilgit Baltistan. By Farooq Tariq
On 9th June 2016, the Supreme
Appellate Court of GilgitBaltistan sentenced Baba Jan and 11 other
political activists to 40-year prison terms in a case based on trumped up
charges of terrorism, rioting and assault.
The court was hearing the state’s
appeal against the GB Chief Court’s decision to acquit Baba Jan and others of
these charges. The Chief Court had set aside Baba Jan and others’ conviction in
the matter by an anti-terrorism court in September, 2014.
Their ‘crime’ was that they had
raised their voices for the thousands of families affected by the massive landslides
of 2010. The landslides had caused an artificial lake in the Attabadarea
of Hunza in 2010, rendering homeless thousands of families. Baba Jan
and other activists had mobilised the people of the region, holding
scores of demonstrations, to seek fair compensation and social support for
these families.
At one of these demonstrations, a
police contingent had opened indiscriminate fire at the protesters, killing two
locals, SherAfzal and his father. It is important to note that the
report of a judicial commission formed to probe the matter and fix
responsibility for the killings has yet to be made public. The reluctance of
the authorities concerned to release the report highlights
their malafide intentions in the matter.
The timing of the June 9th verdict
raises suspicions about its fairness and impartiality. Baba Jan was scheduled
to contest a by-election for Hunza-6 constituency in
the Gilgit-Baltistanlegislative assembly on May 28, 2016. Three days ahead
of the scheduled election, Baba Jan’s campaign team comprising local leadership
of the AWP GB had led a massive rally of his supporters including scores of
women and youngsters.
On the same
day, Zafar Iqbal of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (that governed
G-B before the current PML-N led government) had approached the Supreme
Appellate Court seeking directives for Baba Jan’s disqualification on grounds
that he had been convicted by an ATC. It is widely known in the Hunza-6
constituency that Iqbal is working in collusion with PML-N contestant,
a son of the G-B governer and a member of the traditional ruling
family of the region.
Completely ignoring the fact that
Baba Jan’s conviction had been overturned by the Chief Court, the Appellate
Court directed that by-elections be postponed till a decision was reached in
the G-B government’s appeal against Chief Court’s decision. This was not
unexpected since the Election Tribunal of the G-B had already accepted Baba
Jan’s nomination papers and allowed him to contest the election from
jail.
The Hunza 6 constituency is
an important part of the G-B region. The constituency is located on the
Pakistan-China border and serves as a main link between the two countries. With
the launch the $46 billion Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC), the
importance of this road link will multiply manifold for the two states and
their private capitalists.
In this backdrop, it is very clear
that the PML-N led federal government is extending its patronage to the
traditional elite of Hunza (GB governor) to prevent the possibility
of a candidate with mass public support to enter the G-B legislative assembly.
The government and its capitalist allies know very well that Baba Jan will
bring with him the concerns of the working men and women of the region to the
assembly otherwise dominated by the elite and not allow any corruption in the
multibillion dollar project.
The government has already witnessed
overwhelming support for Baba Jan in the June 2015 general elections. Baba Jan
had defeated two of the three candidates affiliated with mainstream political
parties, standing second only to the PML-N candidate who was backed by networks
of patronage extending from Hunza to the federal capital of
Islamabad.
Since then, mass support for Baba
Jan’s candidacy has further increased. All public opinion surveys done in the
constituency indicate a land slide victory for Baba Jan.
After losing mass support
in favour of an ordinary working class hero, the government was
clearly looking for an alternative to keep him out of the electoral race. The
only way to do so was to use the courts to uphold his conviction in a case
based on trumped up charges.
There were three judges in the
Appellate bench that upheld Baba Jan’s conviction on June 9th, including a
chief justice who hails from Karachi, capital city of Pakistani province
of Sindh. It was a split decision, with two judges in favour and
one against the sentence. The Chief Court bench that had overturned the ATC’s
judgment and acquitted Baba Jan and others comprised top judges. So in fact, three
top judges have declared Baba Jan and others innocent and two have taken a
political decision enabling the administration to keep Baba Jan out of the
electoral race.
To link the holding of the elections
with a decision yet to be taken is against all established norms of justice.
The election commission is supposed to judge a candidate’s credentials at the
time of the filling of nomination papers. When Baba Jan filed his nomination
papers there was no conviction against him. His nomination papers were rejected
by the returning officer but the decision was overturned by an Election
Tribunal, allowing him to contest the elections.
Baba Jan’s ordeal has exposed the
colonial nature of administration in the region. Constitutionally, GB is not a
part of Pakistan. It was given the status of a province with limited
self-governance in 2009, including the right for the people to elect their
representatives to the GB legislative assembly. However, the Pakistani federal
government remains in control of all major decisions related to the region. The
judges to the Chief and the Appellate Courts are appointed by the Pakistani
prime minister. Whosoever comes to power in Pakistan co-opts local elites and
remotely controls the region through them.
The elected assembly of 34 members
hardly has any decision making power. It is an impotent body.
The AWP leader was contesting the
upcoming election for raising of these and other issues concerning
the working men and women of the region in the assembly.
The administration should beware that
by putting Baba Jan and other activists behind bars it will not succeed in
silencing them or controlling the movement of working men, women and children
that they have helped build in the region. Baba Jan and others’ sentences will
not be accepted by the people who have developed a connection with their
struggle, reflected in the widespread popularity of the slogan Teri
Jan Meri Jan, Baba Jan Baba Jan, (Your dearest and Mine, Baba Jan
Baba Jan).
They compare Baba Jan and others with
South African revolutionary Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners who
chose incarceration but never compromised on their ideas of freedom and
equality.
The AWP Pakistan and AWP GB have
announced a mass campaign against the Supreme Appellate Court’s decision.
The major demands of the campaign
are: Baba Jan and other’s immediate release, cancellation of the case filed on
trumped up charges, publication of judicial inquiry report and punishment for
policemen involved in the killing of two locals during a 2010 demonstration.
Baba Jan’s sentence has created a
massive wave of sympathy for socialist ideas and for the AWP’s
political programme among the working men and women of the
region.
The campaign against the sentence
will build on this support and further popularise progressive ideas
and the party’s programme.
Farooq Tariq
General Secretary
Awami Workers Party
03008411945
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