THE brother of a man who was among the four victims of a shootout in Sahiwal in January has gone to the Supreme Court asking for a judicial commission to probe the incident. The four people, three of them of the same family, were killed allegedly by the officials of the Counter Terrorism Department which was established when the conventional law-enforcement machinery failed to meet the challenge posed by terrorist groups in the country. Not only has the probe, which involves a joint investigation team, been termed faulty, the investigators too have been accused of tampering with evidence in order to protect certain CTD officials. The complainant has shown exceptional commitment to persevere in the face of discouragement. Earlier, the Lahore High Court had dismissed a similar petition by the same man, while his pleas to Prime Minister Imran Khan for constituting a judicial commission did not yield any results either. The application insists that the formation of an independent judicial commission is his only hope to get to the facts.

A police encounter is always difficult, if not impossible, to prove. An aggrieved party has to begin the trek towards justice by registering a complaint against the police with — who else but the police. That is a daunting task which can make the complainant exhausted and bring the pursuit of justice to an early end, leaving the case unresolved forever. In instances where this initial hurdle is overcome, the complainants are later heard speaking of being obstructed by officers who want to save their colleagues at any cost, even if it means violating the law. Forces especially created to meet extraordinary situations are even more difficult to rein in and hold accountable since they are always empowered with special authority and freedoms to pursue their assignment. Ultimately, a fair probe is dependent on the direction given by the judges of the higher courts, just as the Supreme Court now holds the key to bringing some closure to the Sahiwal shootout.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2019