- Under a seat-of-the-pants governance
On Monday the Islamabad High Court bailed out 23 protesters held on sedition charges for launching a protest rally in the city. Those arrested included a number of political activists, including some highly educated academics with a strong social and political commitment. It was an orderly protest. None shouted slogans against the state and none advocated violence. The court reprimanded the Deputy Commissioner maintaining that the government should have the honesty to admit if they are wrong. The court asked how could the administration question someone’s patriotism. This shows that the courts are still free despite devious attempts to pressurize them.
Article 124-A of the Pakistan Penal Court (PPC), dealing with sedition, is a repressive remnant of the Colonial era with an aim to curb the freedom struggle. Thousands of political activists and prominent leaders were arrested under it by the colonial authorities over decades. Sedition charges however failed to stem the tide of popular unrest leading to the independence of the sub-continent. It is ironical that an arcane relic of the colonial period should still be on the law book of a free country. There is a need on the part of the Parliament to thoroughly review and update or delete 124-A. The black law is founded on the misconceived notion that people are obligated to feel affection towards the government or else be punished. The vagueness in its text has also allowed the sedition charge to be misused against political and rights activists and those exercising or demanding their constitutional rights. No movement, struggle or protest, even if its demands are offensive or distasteful to some should be considered seditious as long as it remains peaceful. Declaring such views as seditious would suggest that instead of maturing as a democracy the country is regressing.
It is an irony that law abiding protestors are booked on sedition charges while attempts are not being made by the agencies of the state to bring former General Pervez Musharraf to Pakistan despite having been sentenced by the court for committing high treason. Instead important people in the echelons of power insist on Musharraf being innocent.
