Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) activist Hayat Preghal, after having been picked by the authorities close to three months ago, is now technically free. Or rather, he has been granted conditional post-arrest bail. Set against a Rs1 million-surety bond, no less. He has also been put on the Exit Control List (ECL). And his social media activities are to be monitored.

Sadly, this has been par for the course for members of this social justice movement that has spent the year actively campaigning against enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings; of which the Pashtun community has been on the receiving end for far too long — decades, in fact — as they remain caught in the crossfire between militants and security forces due to the accident of geography. Yet for all this, the PTM remains committed to non-violence and has shown solidarity with other communities under fire, such as the Hazara. Some of its leaders successfully contested this summer’s election.

In fact, back then, the movement had found an ally in Imran Khan. With the PTI chief promising to take their demands for fundamental rights to the COAS. Yet when the latter began talking of engineered protests and threats to national integrity — Kaptaan responded by cautioning the young Pashtuns against any anti-Army propaganda. And while it is true that he did refrain from fielding candidates in PTM constituencies, recent developments undermine the extent to which the tribal areas will be mainstreamed.

That it was the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which arrested Preghal back in July throws up concerns about the new civilian set-up’s agenda. After all, the FIA reports directly to the Interior minister; a portfolio currently held by Prime Minister Khan. Thereby suggesting that even if Preghal was not detained directly at his behest, he at least would have been in the loop. If this proves not to be the case, however, the crime then becomes one of a dangerous rupture in established command chains.

Preghal was booked under deeply problematic laws: the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) as well as the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Ostensibly for spreading online “defamatory, humiliating and insulting remarks/comments against the state institutions of Pakistan”. Or put another way, glorification of an offence and cyber-terrorism (PECA) as well as abetment and defamation (PPC).

The fact that this has taken place with a party at the helm which knows how to expertly harness the power of social media for electioneering — while also turning mostly a blind eye to the trolling activities of its supporters — far exceeds the ironic. Rather, the charges against Preghal demonstrate how the tsunami ‘revolution’ of Naya Pakistan is fast crumbling before it has even begun.

This is a mammoth betrayal. Not just of the PTM. But of all human rights defenders across the board. For it sends the message that they as well as civil society activists and journalists will confront the same hostile environment as before. And if this continues, everyone risks becoming a prisoner of conscience. *

Published in Daily Times, September 28th 2018.