THE superior judiciary’s crusade against the state’s crimes on the missing persons’ front has reached a crescendo of sorts. Tomorrow, unless the security apparatus and the governments concerned produce the missing persons the Supreme Court has demanded be produced before it, the court appears set to deliver some unprecedented penalties. But the fight to protect the citizens against illegal confinement, mistreatment and even torture by the state will continue long after Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry brings down his gavel for one last time next week. The dismal truth is that when it comes to balancing the security of the overall citizenry against the individual constitutionally guaranteed rights of those suspected of waging war against the state, the latter has veered too far from its duties and entered the terrain of the grossly illegal. Just how far was made evident on Monday when the Supreme Court was told that two missing persons had died in custody — of natural causes, officials claimed, but that is a claim absolutely no one will believe.

That people have been abducted in Balochistan or allegedly detained on the battlefield in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata and then held illegally and even tortured by the security apparatus has been an open secret for many years. It was a wrong that had to be fixed and there was really only one of two options: either the state — the security apparatus and the government that nominally controls it — cleaned up its act on its own or it would eventually have to be pressured into doing so. By now, it has become clear that the course of self-correction is very limited: attempts at revamping the relevant laws and dealing with detainees legally have been overshadowed by a hawkish attitude that sees the issue of missing persons as an undesirable but necessary evil in a murky fight against shadowy enemies. Working within the confines of the law with detainees, respecting the supremacy of constitutional safeguards and rights and improving the rate of successful prosecutions that are upheld on appeal are seen as too complicated or onerous a task by the relevant officials.

So there has been only one path left to try to end the widespread human rights abuses that the security apparatus stands accused of: judicial intervention. The superior judiciary has inserted itself into many crises since 2009, but on the missing persons front, a legacy to be proud of is being built. The superior judiciary must continue to fight the good fight on behalf of the many more as yet nameless and faceless victims.