It is appreciable that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has taken notice of the media outlets airing interviews with the former spokesperson of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and later the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA): Ehsanullah Ehsan.
But the whole episode raises some very serious questions around the role of law enforcement agencies which could allow and condone such media coverage for a self-confessed criminal.
For instance, one major private TV channel had interviewed the former JUA and TTP spokesperson and was advertising the upcoming broadcast in both electronic and print media. Meanwhile, Pakistan has maintained that India, through its intelligence agencies, is involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan by financing the Taliban. If we accept such claims from Pakistani authorities at face-value, then that makes it all the more disturbing that they would be releasing such video confessions or allowing media organisations to interview a criminal who has claimed the responsibility for so many lives lost.
Let us go over some of the problems and questions that this raises.
Firstly, who is the audience of this confession? If it is the locals of FATA, long tormented by the Taliban and other religious extremist militias, the video confession is akin to rubbing salt in the wounds of the thousands who have been affected by the violence. On the other hand, if it is to pressurise India amidst the Kulbhushan Jadhav row, the confession is unlikely to prove anything without concrete evidence. Consider Pakistan’s shambolic effort last yearat providing dossiers of ‘evidence’ about the Indian role in the country to the UN Secretary General. That episode alone suggested that our authorities do not necessarily agree with the international community on what constitutes concrete evidence of foreign meddling — no matter how real such interference might be.
Secondly, the episode highlights the usual problems with media trials. Put simply, allowing media outfits to question a dangerous suspected criminal is against the law. At a time when the courts should have tried him for the killing of thousands of innocent people, the state is using the media to sway the narrative to its liking even before a trial by court. Even if the links to Indian agencies RAW and NDS are well established, as claimed by Ehsan, the courts of Pakistan are the correct legal forum to establish this — not video recordings.
Pakistan’s war against terrorists is far too serious a matter to be handled in this theatrical manner. No law enforcement agency ought to handle sensitive security issues in such a manner.
