Foreign Office released a curious statement in response to hanging of Motiur Nizami in Bangladesh. According to the government, the Jamaat leader’s ‘only sin was upholding the constitution and laws of Pakistan’. The government has carefully worded its furious response as a condemnation of the ‘flawed process’ that convicted Nizami, a point that has been made by international human rights groups. However these same human rights groups have also given the same judgment of our own legal process and said that hanging those convicted by military courts is ‘not justice‘.
This point of criticising legal process is for PR purposes only. In reality, Pakistani state does not care one iota about international norms of ‘due process’ and strongly defends our sovereignty as we know best what is required for our national security and how to best handle those who are working against the national interest. Therefore, our sympathy for Nizami is not out of concern for due process and international legal norms, it is out of nationalistic pride.
There is no concern for the ‘due process’ of those killed by Pakistani forces in extra-judicial killings, neither there is concern for those hanged following secret trials by military courts that have been condemned by international legal groups. These too are Pakistani citizens, but where is our outrage and concern for their rights?
Nizami is considered a hero for his actions, so we do not want to see him punished for them. Even though he stopped being a Pakistani in 1971, his actions supporting Pakistan military gave him status of Super Pakistani and therefore he is given more rights than actual Pakistanis. This is justice?
