Editorial: Reactions to Hafiz Saeeds release
India has handed its protest note against the release of Jamaat-ud Dawa leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to Pakistanis high commissioner in New Delhi, saying it was disturbed by it while it still wanted Pakistan to take action against those responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The US State Department has objected too, saying:
In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, we made very clear that there is an international responsibility to cooperate and to bring the perpetrators to justice and that Pakistan has a special responsibility to do so, transparently, fully and urgently. The same day, however, President Obamas Special Representative to Afghanistan-Pakistan, Mr Richard Holbrooke, announced in Islamabad that the US president had okayed an additional $200 million as aid to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan.
Sensitive to international opinion and keen to restart peace talks with India, Pakistan has decided to appeal the release of Mr Saeed by the Lahore High Court.
It was first reported that the prosecution had shown some special evidence to the honourable court; now it comes to light that it had not. How it seeks to appeal in order to overturn the decision of the court cannot be imagined.
The truth is that Hafiz Saeed is out of protective custody, free once again to speak as he sees fit in light of how the army performs in Swat and elsewhere.
The national press, unhappy with the release, has reacted in interesting ways. One paper editorialised on June 4:
India is unhappy that Saeed and some others arrested in the aftermath of the attacks have been released. At the very least, their release sends a bad [signal] that the government here is perhaps not up to the task of prosecuting them even if evidence is adduced. The Pakistan government must urgently explain what it plans to do next or else risk losing another opportunity for peace, now that the elections have concluded in India.
There is lack of trust in the general ability of the state to prosecute high profile and powerful people presiding over parallel centres of influence and power. Another paper editorialised thus:
In the current climate this evidence needs to be produced before people. We must tackle terror wherever it exists. This is also the key to eliminating the groups that fuel it and by doing so distancing them from people who still have doubts about their role. The failure to prove charges against men accused of involvement in violence in the past has been a key factor in their growth. The courts cannot of course be blamed for doing what is just. They can only act on the basis of what is placed before them. It is up to the law-enforcement agencies to now explain why they have been able to produce no charges at all against a man for whom full-fledged raids were conducted under the full glare of TV cameras late last year.
The editorial of a third paper equally took issue with the way the prosecution had conducted itself:
As the counsel for the petitioner argued, the UNSC resolution 1267 which targets JD makes no mention of detaining its leaders or members but only imposes a travel ban, arms embargo and the freezing of assets. This creates the perception that the charges were fabricated after the arrest. The stand taken in the court by the Deputy Attorney General was equally flimsy. According to him, the government is not bound to convey the reasons for his arrest to a detenu. Supposing this was permissible, which it is not by any standard of justice, why did the prosecution fail to bring before the court what it considered the real reasons, if any, for the arrest?
Most of the Urdu press either ignored the subject, probably waiting for more details to come to light, or was completely taken up in slamming Indias reaction to the release. Editorials sought to answer the question as to why the Indians were so riled by the release of Mr Saeed. Reacting to a Times of India comment accusing the Pakistan government of
engineering the release of Hafiz Saeed by presenting before the court a weak case, they referred to Indias own questionable interference inside Pakistan and defended the courts decision to let Mr Seed go free. *
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Seems like entire English Media is resonating my thoughts and Urdu dailies are similar to Pakistani Member's views. Which one is more reasonable is upto the reader to decide.