“A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad” — Albert Camus
LAST Saturday, journalist Asad Toor finally got bail. It took nearly three weeks — three weeks in which his case went from court to court, all the way up to the Supreme Court in a manner of speaking. When he was first called in for questioning, his lawyers filed for pre-arrest bail but the judiciary didn’t think it necessary — he was arrested.
And then came the process which is called justice in Pakistan where the prosecution keeps simply asking for custody of the accused for ‘interrogation’, while his lawyers and family watch helplessly, waiting for the day the courts will be kind enough to send the former to jail (on judicial remand) so that bail becomes a possibility.
In Toor’s case, the FIA questioned him once before they called him back again for more questions, only to arrest him. The agency got five days to ‘interrogate’ him but then asked for more from the judge; and was given his custody for a few more days. After this, they still needed more time “to recover some things” from him, according to a story in Dawn. Fortunately, the judge had had enough and sent Toor to jail.
Meanwhile, his case was highlighted in the Supreme Court, when lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed mentioned the matter to the chief justice, who coincidentally was hearing a case about a physical attack on Toor some years ago. It so happens that........