1/ Mohsin Dawar begins by noting that the "state above a state" exists for the acquisition of not only power but business profit. He says that we should first accept that we are living not in a democracy but under martial law.
2/ Dawar suggests that the political movement launched by the APC should be named the Movement to Restore Democracy. He concedes that it was a mistake to accept the 2018 election results unconditionally.
3/ Dawar regrets that political parties didn't support Justice Faez Isa as they should have. Like him, PHC CJ Waqar Seth was punished for his judgment against Musharraf. Journalists were first fired & then slapped with sedition cases. Women journalists are harassed through SM.
4/ Dawar says that PTI & ISPR work together on social media to troll critics. Political workers are slapped with cases ranging from sedition to terrorism to defaming state institutions. Enforced disappearances continue. Actions in Aid of Civil Power Ord was imposed on KP in 2019.
5/ While govt said that it had merged FATA into Pakistan, what actually happened was that the law that was previously specific to FATA was applied to all of KP. Peshawar HC struck it down but govt got a stay through SC. Under what law are internment centers operating, Dawar asks.
6/ Dawar says that ex FATA & Balochistan remain no go areas. Target & custodial killings continue. In N. Waziristan, there was an IED blast & instead of reflecting on their own negligence, security forces imposed collective punishment on locals. Hayat Baloch was murdered.
7/ If IG FC hadn't visited Hayat Baloch's parents to commiserate, it's likely that PTI govt would've defended officers who killed him, as they did after Kharqamar massacre. Dawar says that Generals imposed artificial war on FATA for dollars. Bajwa's business was built after 9/11.
8/ Dawar asks #APC2020 to formulate a policy on the ongoing intra-Afghan dialogue. Khalilzad only visits GHQ, he says, & neither parliament nor foreign ministry knows what our state's role is in dialogue. He's afraid that militants are regrouping so that Kabul can be captured.
9/ Dawar argues that we need not only a revised Charter of Democracy but also a Truth Commission to examine the role of different institutions since 1947, to see who stood for people's rights & who didn't. He says political parties should also reflect on their own mistakes.
10/ Dawar says that political parties need to formulate an aggressive strategy that reflects public sentiments
Cognizant of the dangers this path entails, he ends with Faiz
ہاں جاں کے زیاں کی ہم کو بھی تشویش ہے لیکن کیا کیجے
ہر رہ جو ادھر کو جاتی ہے مقتل سے گزر کر جاتی ہے
First couplet he recited
یوں عرض و طلب سے کم اے دل پتھر دل
پانی ہوتے ہیں
تم لاکھ رضا کی خو ڈالو کب خوئے ستم گر جاتی ہے
"In 2014, Pakistani national Hafiz Saeed Khan was chosen to spearhead IS-K province as its first emir. Khan, a veteran Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan commander, brought along other prominent TTP members—including the group’s spokesman Sheikh Maqbool..." csis.org/programs/trans…
"IS-K’s early membership included a contingent of Pakistani militants who emerged in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province around 2010, just across the border from the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan."
"Many of these militants were estranged members of TTP and Lashkar-e Islam, who had fled Pakistan to escape pressure from security forces. The appointment of Khan as IS-K’s first emir, and former Taliban commander Abdul Rauf Khadim as his deputy,"
Meanwhile, I came to know through social media that you told members of parliament during the in-camera briefing on “National Security” that if I apologized to you, then I would be released! (2)
Isn't it a blatant violation of the constitution that you are the head of an institution that is subordinate to a government ministry, that receives salaries from citizens’ taxes and the national treasury, and yet it not only interferes in political and judicial matters... (3)
What's even more vile is potentially covering for the suspected killers & saying that the investigation is a "sensitive matter" whose details couldn't be disclosed. Tahir Dawar's son, @AmjidDawar, called for an international inquiry as the govt wasn't pursuing the investigation.
When he first disappeared, the details of which @AzazSyed shared in his column below, a PTI spokesman said that it was fake news & that he'd soon return safely:
His body was later found with torture marks in Afghanistan close to a Pakistani check-post.
According to Azaz Syed's story, Tahir Dawar had arrested militants transporting ammunition to Afghanistan. He resisted pressure "from above" to release them, though his senior officer eventually did.
Not only did ISI tell Justice Qazi Faez Isa that it didn't have the mandate to investigate TLP's finances (when it has assumed the mandate for literally everything else) but Chief Justice Nisar delayed the hearing for 5 months enabling TLP's electoral rise. All roads lead to GHQ.
"ISI did not disclose the 'source of livelihood, place of work, address, funding'...of the TLP leadership...we had inquired whether they paid income tax or had bank accounts. ISI responded...that it did not have the mandate to gather such information." dawn.com/news/1462177
Justice Isa asked why CJ Saqib Nisar delayed the Faizabad case hearing until after 2018 elections: