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Wife of detained Pakistani lawmaker speaks of absolutely cruel ordeal

 


Almost a year ago, Saira Wazir’s life changed. A physical education teacher at a girls’ school in northwest Pakistan, she was preparing her students for an upcoming tournament when she heard the news.

Her husband Ali Wazir, a lawmaker from Pakistan’s troubled tribal belt, was arrested on December 16 on charges of sedition after delivering a speech criticizing the country’s powerful army at an unauthorized rally.

Wazir, who is also a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a civil rights group, was formally charged with sedition by an anti-terrorism court on November 4. He denied the charges.

Saira Wazir, who has not disclosed her whereabouts, said the ordeal took a heavy toll on her family.

PTM leaders Mohsin Dawar (right) and Wazir (left) join a protest at the National Press Club in Islamabad in January 2020.

Our family has been broken up, the mother of six told RFE / RL Radio Mashaal in a telephone interview from Pakistan. Life has been very difficult without my husband.

My children always ask me when their father will be released, she said, adding that she was considering suicide. I can’t bear to look at their distraught faces.

Anti-state speech

Wazir was arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar and transferred to the port city of Karachi, where he was accused of making an anti-state speech at an unauthorized rally in the city. city ​​on December 6.

Several other PTM leaders were also charged with comments made at the rally. The protest took place to mark the sixth anniversary of the murder of more than 150 people at a school in Peshawar in December 2014, an attack blamed on the militant group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Wazir’s lawyer, Salahuddin Gandapur, told Radio Mashaal that the Supreme Court has set its clients’ bail hearing for November 26.

PTM leaders have scheduled demonstrations on November 24 in several cities to protest Wazir’s detention.

Wazirs’ arrest last year was not his first confrontation with authorities.

He was released on bail in September 2019, four months after his arrest following a deadly incident in the North Waziristan tribal district.

Wazir was leading a demonstration against the detention of locals by the police and the imposition of a curfew in the area when shots were fired. Police said some of the protesters were armed and opened fire first. Protesters denied this and said soldiers started shooting as they approached a security checkpoint, killing 13 people.

The PTM has campaigned since 2018 for the rights of Pakistanis estimated at 35 million ethnic Pashtuns, many of whom live near the border with Afghanistan where the military has campaigned against the militants.

A protest rally in Karachi on November 14 demanded the release of Wazir and information on the forcibly missing.

The group has drawn tens of thousands to public rallies in recent years to speak out against brutal Pakistani military tactics that have killed thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more from their homes since 2003.

International rights groups say authorities have banned peaceful gatherings organized by the PTM and that some of its key members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country. Some members have also been charged with sedition and cybercrime.

Saira Wazir said her husband should not be kept in detention because he has not committed any crime.

Many people have made these kinds of allegations, but they roam free, she said. So why did they arrest my husband? It is absolutely cruel.

The Wazir family bore the brunt of the violence that ravaged Pakistan’s tribal belt, which became a hotbed of activism after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that ousted the Taliban from power. Seventeen members of his family have been killed in targeted assassinations and activist attacks since 2001.

Hypocritical approach

The Wazirs affair returned to the forefront after the Pakistani government on November 19 released Saad Rizvi, the jailed leader of Tehrik-e Labiak Pakistan (TLP), a banned radical Islamist party.

His release came weeks after the government and the TLP struck a deal to end 10 days of violent protests in which at least nine police officers were killed and dozens injured.

Supporters of the TLP had called on the authorities to release Rizvi and to expel the French ambassador for publishing political cartoons in France depicting the Prophet Muhammad of Islam, a request to which Islamabad did not respond.

A protest in Quetta on November 14 joined calls for Wazir’s release.

The decision to free Rizvi and hundreds of other jailed TLP members has been widely condemned, with lawmakers and activists accusing the government of capitulating to demands from an extremist group that has used violence to pressure the government.

Rizvi’s release came after the government signed a temporary ceasefire with the TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, on November 9. The month-long truce with the TTP, which has led a deadly insurgency that has killed tens of thousands since 2007, has also been widely criticized.

Both agreements have prompted accusations of double standards.

This is a hypocritical approach, Mashaal Mohsin Dawar, lawmaker and other PTM leader, told Radio. The government has signed deals with terrorist groups that have killed Pakistani forces and civilians and jailed peaceful activists like Ali Wazir. It is open discrimination against the Pashtuns.

Mohsin Dawar (left), accompanied by Wazir, speaks with a journalist from Radio Mashaal in March 2020.

Pakistani media reported in July that Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa told lawmakers in a closed meeting that Wazir could be released if he apologizes to the military. , which plays a disproportionate role in the domestic and foreign affairs of the country.

In an editorial published in the Washington Post on November 15, prominent Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir asked why Wazir was being treated differently by authorities.

Wazir has been behind bars since December for delivering a critical speech on the military, Mir wrote. He never killed any soldier. There is an amnesty for the killers, but why no pity for Wazir?

As Wazir languishes in prison, his family fear for his health. Wazir, who is diabetic, has been hospitalized at least once during his detention.

When I met him in prison, he told us to be strong, but I am not a political person, said Saira Wazir. I am a wife and a mother who is worried about her health.

All of this baffles me, she added. My husband is simply asking that the human rights of the Pakistani constitution be respected. Doesn’t someone want to tell me what’s wrong?

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