In yet another display of Pak judiciary acting as a tool of the establishment, Islamabad’s Judicial Magistrate Mureed Abbas has issued arrest warrants for human rights activist and lawyer Imaan Mazari, along with Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leaders Ali Wazir and Manzoor Pashteen. The move is widely an attempt to silence critical voices and suppress any resistance against the deep state’s authoritarian grip.
The court justified the arrest warrants by citing the repeated absence of the accused from court proceedings. However, many argue that these legal proceedings are nothing more than politically motivated tactics to intimidate and harass activists who have consistently called out the Pak Army’s oppressive policies in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and beyond. The accused are facing charges of allegedly organizing an anti-state march and disrupting public order—common accusations used by the establishment to target dissenters.
The next hearing is scheduled for April 26, with the court ensuring the presence of the accused through the issuance of arrest warrants. However, the absurdity of the judicial process is exposed by the fact that one of the accused, Ali Wazir, has already been imprisoned for the past nine months. The issuance of an arrest warrant for a man already behind bars reeks of incompetence or, more likely, deliberate malice by the Army apparatus. Wazir has been targeted for years due to his outspoken criticism of the Pak Army’s role in Pashtun lands, and this latest development only reinforces how the judiciary is weaponized against those who dare to speak up.
Criticism of the move has been swift. Imaan Mazari, a fierce critic of the military’s excesses and human rights violations, condemned the decision, calling it a blatant mockery of the legal system
Pakistan’s deep state has long used fabricated cases, forced disappearances, and legal intimidation to break dissenters. The judiciary, instead of upholding justice, continues to function as an extension of the military’s will, ensuring that no voice of opposition remains free to challenge the status quo.
