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Malik is currently undergoing dialysis treatment. Persons close to him reported Monday that he is seriously ill and that his family and friends are very concerned about his condition. He is being treated in the Pakistan Medical Institute in Islamabad. His doctors have advised that he be sent abroad for treatment.
The brutal torture of Malik, a leading lawyer in the country who was also the elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, demonstrates the nature of the repression taking place in Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf plans a rigged election in order to ensure that for all practical purposes the military government will remain in power.
All enlightened opinion in Pakistan is agreed that the coming parliamentary election will be severely rigged and will not reflect the views of the nation's people, who in recent months have taken to the streets in order to demand democratic reforms. The ruling regime's strategy is to hold the election while denying the possibility of a real transformation to democracy.
The military, which has spread its tentacles into all areas of life, including the economy, is determined to have its way. This is demonstrated also from the fact that not only local opposition but also international criticism is being manifestly ignored by the regime.
The greatest obstacle to the military's scheme were the judges who asserted their independence and who were allowing applications from the citizens, hurt by attacks on their civil liberties, to be heard. Among these applications were many cases filed by families of people who have disappeared.
About 3,000 people have disappeared during the last four years and their whereabouts are unknown. The Supreme Court under the leadership of Iftekhar Chowdhury had granted leave to proceed in these applications and ordered the government to reveal the whereabouts of these disappeared persons. However, the government seems unable to do so, as many of them may no longer be alive.
Many of the disappeared were from the professional classes such as doctors, engineers and the like who were arrested without the slightest evidence, often only on false information provided by self-interested parties. Any revelation of the whereabouts of the 3,000 people who have disappeared would likely be a serious embarrassment to the military regime. It was under those circumstances that in March 2007 an attempt was made to remove Iftekhar Chowdhury as the chief justice.
The attempt to suppress the Supreme Court was resisted by large numbers of Pakistan's lawyers. About 6,000 of them, almost half the members of the country's legal profession, were arrested and several of them were tortured while in custody. Strong international protests led to the release of many of them. However, several lawyers who hold positions of leadership in the Bar associations are still in custody.
The military onslaught on the lawyers was part of the strategy to isolate the Supreme Court judges who were determined to assert the independence of the judiciary and uphold the democratic rights of the people. Quite clearly the military regime in Pakistan wants to suppress the legal profession in a very serious manner for the purpose of preventing legal challenges to the military regime. The silencing of the bar is an essential component of silencing the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan has now become an open prison for all secular-minded people who aspire to democracy, rule of law and human rights. Munir Malik has now become the symbol of the repression of the secular spirit and the legal profession of the country. He was tortured in a prison which is well known for torturing its inmates. The decision to send him to this prison demonstrates a deliberate will on the part of the regime to carry out this torture.
The regime bears full responsibility for the harm inflicted on Malik and others. The international community has an obligation to fully support all torture victims and at the same time is obliged to ensure an impartial inquiry into the massive scale of torture that is taking place in Pakistan.
These are hard times for all who care for democracy and human rights in Pakistan, as is highlighted by the case of Munir Malik. The world should actively support the struggle for the independence of the judiciary, for free and fair elections, for freedom of speech and publication and for decent human treatment for all persons.
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(Basil Fernando is director of the Asian Human Rights Commission based in Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan lawyer who has also been a senior U.N. human rights officer in Cambodia. He has published several books and written extensively on human rights issues in Asia.)
