Nine years on there is no justice for Faraz Ahmed Naveed

A Statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: Nine years on there is no justice for Faraz Ahmed Naveed

AHRC-STM-208-2013.jpgNine years after the brutal murder of Faraz Ahmed Naveed on November 8, 2004 his family still awaits justice. No progress has been made in the investigation. The first report was made by the police officer who attended the scene of the incident and stated that Faraz' body had a bullet wound in his back and bore several marks of torture. The body of Faraz Ahmed Naveed, the son of Baseer Naveed, was immediately taken to the Jinnah Post Graduate Hospital, a government facility, for autopsy. The police officer who had originally made the report remained conspicuously silent at the hospital and it was evident that someone had spoken to him. The doctor, already informed that the killing had been ordered by powerful and influential persons, refused to carry out his duty. After waiting outside in the hot sun for three hours, the young man's parents were forced to take the body away for funeral rites without a post mortem as required by law.

Since the incident three investigation officers instructed to make inquiries were changed within a period of six months. None of their reports have ever seen the light of day, if indeed they were ever written. Nine years have now passed and yet the justice system has remained silent. This is yet another example of the failure of the criminal justice system in Pakistan.

This whole issue brings us to the obligations of a government regarding the protection of persons on the one hand and on the other, where it fails to protect and to ensure justice. In this case the government has failed in both of these duties. A young man has been killed and the government has failed to ensure even the basic aspects of justice. The most basic aspect of justice is investigation into a crime.

What appears quite clearly in this instance is that the governments in power were unwilling to investigate this young man's murder. The governments, for some reason which has never been explained and which is unlikely to be explained, were protecting the 'mysterious' killers. It is not that the governments have tried and failed but rather that the governments have never tried at all.

When the governments do not investigate murders for whatever reason, then that is a matter that affects not only the individuals of the family to which the young man belonged but it affects the very fabric of the whole society. No one in such a society can be sure that if they or someone dear to them faces a similar situation as this young man the government of Pakistan will at least ensure investigation into it.

This simply means that the government of Pakistan is unable to give an assurance to the people of the country that it is willing and capable of investigating crimes that anyone would do to any of the citizens. This means that the government of Pakistan fails in its most primary obligation as a state. If the state fails in this primary obligation what trust can the people have or should have in their government? What follows from this is that if people cannot trust their government in relation to such basic obligations what kind of expectation with which the people can live in such a society.

These are the serious questions that the civil society of Pakistan should ask itself on the anniversary of this cruel murder of Faraz Ahmed Naveed and the years of failure to ensure a credible investigation by the agencies of the government of Pakistan. Civil society must address this if sanity and trust in the society in Pakistan is to be regained and if such tragedies are to be prevented in the future.

Civil society must once again demand from the government of Pakistan a credible inquiry into this murder.
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