Eisha Zeb

A note for the record regarding the raids on my house. On 20 October and 4 November, my house in Islamabad, where my wife and children live, was raided. Hum News reported on 4 November that the raid was conducted by the KP Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). No FIRs or warrants were shown. I found this strange, because I had bail in all the known cases against me and had been appearing both before the courts and in other investigations. The government itself had submitted to the High Court in October that there were only two cases in which I was charged. In the case with respect to protests in Peshawar on 10 May, the ATC had confirmed bail on 9 October. In a frivolous case on illegal recruitments in the ACE court, provisional bail was obtained on 5 October, and then extended to 9 October, 23 October, 13 November, and 28 November in consequent hearings. In addition, I appeared in the NAB office when asked to assist in an investigation on 27 October. I also appeared in the ACE offices in Peshawar in an investigation with respect to Khyber Bank, on 27 November. Both cases are fake, and in my opinion politically motivated, but that is a separate discussion. Since it appeared that no law enforcement agency had any reason to raid my residence, and since no FIR or warrant was shown, I filed a 22A petition to be able to file an FIR at the local police station. After hearings and postponements in the courts in Islamabad on 22 November, 30 November, and 07 December, today the local Islamabad police admitted that they were not part of any raid on my residence. They had already admitted this to my lawyer @ShumaylAziz, having no record of any raid on either of the two dates of 20 October and 5 November in their roznamcha. They have committed to the court that they will file an FIR by the next hearing on 16 December, because their not being present makes the raids illegal on yet another count. This would raise serious questions on why, assuming Hum News reported correctly, that the KP Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) would raid my residence illegally? Did they not know that I have bail in the FIR on me by them? Was there some other concealed FIR that I still haven’t been shown, even despite my visiting their office on 27 November (23 days after raid) and walking in and out without arrest? Or was there no FIR? And why weren’t the local police taken along, as mandated by law? And why all this when I have been collaborating in every investigation, despite how frivolous the cases may be? In any which way, these raids are now in clear violation of the law. I hold no malice towards anyone. I also don’t reside at any blessed address such as Avenfield House W1K 7AG to be able to claim special privilege. But I do believe that like ordinary Pakistanis, I should have the right for the law to protect me. I should have the right to my political views. I should have the right to expect my wife and children to be safe in their house, protected by the state. I should have the right to expect that public servants such as the ACE Director, whose salary is paid for by public taxpayer money, not allow their departments to be used as a tool for political engineering. I am sure that is not the case. Maybe no government entity was involved. Could we then assume that in the prevailing environment, you could have criminals posing as policemen raiding houses, taking advantage of a new culture of raids without warrants and FIRs. What does one do then? Does one have the right to self defence? I don’t know. What I do know, is that as I have done over the last six years since I have returned to the country, that however the law may treat my colleagues or me, that we must fight for the law. Pakistan needs us to.