JOEL ROSE, HOST:
Pakistan's political showdown continues. The former leader of a fractious province that borders Afghanistan has officially been added to a major terrorism case, joining a long list of political figures implicated under anti-terrorism legislation. Betsy Joles has more on this from Islamabad.
BETSY JOLES, BYLINE: Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Act came into effect in 1997. At that time, sectarian and ethnic violence was raging in two of the country's most populous provinces. The anti-terrorism law provided a parallel legal system for speedier trials of those accused. Then came the U.S.-led war on terror. This is George W. Bush in 2001.
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GEORGE W BUSH: Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.
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JOLES: In the aftermath of 9/11, Pakistan's border belt became a base for militants regrouping after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. That gave rise to other insurgencies, like the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban, in 2007. They'd go on to carry out attack after attack in Pakistan. Here's news of one particularly deadly attack at the Army Public School in Peshawar broadcast on Geo News.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Non-English language spoken).
JOLES: Anti-terrorism courts were one way to try militants. But by this time, anti-terrorism legislation had also been used in cases involving politicians. Nawaz Sharif, the brother of the current prime minister, faced charges under it in 2000, as did General Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew Sharif in a military coup a year earlier. Zoha Waseem, a researcher focused on policing in Pakistan, says it ties back to the law's wording.
ZOHA WASEEM: Terrorism is very broadly defined, and that's been the case for a few decades now under this law.
JOLES: In the years since its inception, the law was amended several times to expand its definition and the powers it granted to law enforcement. These days, it could mean...
WASEEM: Anything from kidnapping for ransom, street crime, money laundering or supporting an organization that is considered to be banned.
JOLES: The terrorism case that names Sohail Afridi, the former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, now under emergency rule, relates to an attack on a state-run radio station. Supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan stormed the building and set it on fire after he was arrested in 2023. Footage from elsewhere in Pakistan that day shows Khan's supporters running through the street waving his party's flag as smoke billows around them.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Shouting in non-English language).
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JOLES: Khan himself is now facing terrorism charges, so are the leaders of a banned hard-line Islamist party. In recent years, Kashmiri, Pashtun and Baloch activists have been accused of terrorism too.
SHIREEN MAZARI: The problem is that you're trivializing the anti-terrorism law.
JOLES: Shireen Mazari knows the gravity of this law well because her daughter, Imaan Mazari, and son-in-law, Hadi Ali Chattha, are currently being tried under it. They're lawyers and have been in prison since January - first, in a case related to their social media posts and now for charges that include spreading terror. Mazari is a former politician who has, herself, spent time in jail. But with her daughter's situation, she feels powerless.
MAZARI: There's nothing you can do.
JOLES: There's nothing you can do. For NPR News, I'm Betsy Joles in Islamabad.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENLUV AND PAUL GRANT'S "JUNGLE GYM") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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