Do Not Kill A Mocking Bird

Little Zainub was destroyed in Kasur by a maniac. She lost her life needlessly and so have been lost hundreds of thousands of lives of defenseless children, women and men in our country not because of famine, floods or disease; suicide bombings or earthquakes as you might imagine.They were killed by lusting men, others by neglect and greed and many more are eliminated by hubris of power, privilege of indulgence, trigger happiness or simply a killer urge to gain speed on crowded roads .In these various kinds of vicious surges there are a few factors which are easily identifiable. Among them are rank criminality, complete absence of fear of law, utterly ineffective popular resistance and finally a dreadful collapse of our society’s binding cross weave where social values do not matter any more.

The other day a son fatally clubbed his mother for waywardness as he thought and incinerated her body in their own car, a sister slit the throat of her sister in Karachi, a mother poisoned her kids to marry her love, a father slaughtered his entire family to wed another woman and a son riddles his father and brother with bullets for property or goes on to choke his mother to death with a pillow for money.All this is happening routinely and none is moved beyond a temporary sense of indignation, passing horror or some measure of grief. No body should be moved as a matter of rule and going social practice ,which has been set up by repeated occurrence of such ghastly crimes and their unethical politicization for sectarian, ethnic, racial or shallow party gains.

You might disagree which you may, but tell me why has there been no action still when years ago more than 250 workers were burnt alive in a factory in Karachi through deliberate arson by ransom seeking thugs? This case is still languishing in courts. What no one stopped blood thirsty people in a village in Kasur from burning a Christian couple in a brick kiln on blasphemy suspicion and no body has been taken to law for the heinous crime? Why is a cold blooded killer iconized in our society like a saint –martyr who killed an unarmed Salman Taseer on an impulse and instigation just because he was being fair towards a non Muslim suspect ?What about honor killings and Karokari deaths?

When you steal from national treasury, crush a child under the wheels of your racing Land Cruiser and never show remorse or even look back, when Party worker dies of falling in a ditch before your eyes in a dharna and do nothing to save him, and when 14 of your followers are gunned down including a pregnant mother and you play politics or reward the firing squad; Zainubs will be murdered again and again.

Why would Ivan the ordinary not be so bitter when there is hardly anything in his chipped begging bowl to assume that the rule of law prevails and that courts were not only dispensing justice but also being obeyed.A filthy rich ogre of a convict goes around like an emperor and treats the country’s highest court with undisguised contempt openly.The country’s Chief Executive publically calls Supreme Court verdicts a piece of trash: who then will enforce the court decisions ?A highly connected female model caught red handed smuggling out half a million dollars , more than a year ago is still moving about freely when the Airport official who caught her has been murdered already. An tyrant Achakzai MPA from Balochistan who ruthlessly crushed a Traffic constable on duty under his speeding SUV in broad daylight has just been released on bail after a VIP treatment in jail. He turned out to be not only vicious but a liar too yet he is honored or feared.

Shahrukh Jatoi ,a pampered brat from a privileged family,guns down young Shahzeb Khanzada just because he was trying to protect his sister from the upstart’s lusty mischief. He lived in jail like a royal guest and released by the Sind High Court scot free after a dubious deal with the dead boy’s parents.Not only that but also Anti Terrorism Act’s provisions which prevent bail in such cases and call for a speedy trial were also very suspiciously dropped from the charge sheet. Power and privilege have become awfully blatant in our country where money and influence can buy anything ,even the affection of the parents against the blood of their children. Why then should people remain sane under duress and why their reaction to an involuntary provocation like a biker slipping and hitting a bystander be not so violent? Absence of due process of law and money hatches fixed into the course of prosecution give rise to malevolence and arbitrariness among people.

In this blinding sandstorm of power, steep privilege and bland lawlessness what assures an ordinary citizen that state will protect him? Nothing practically and actually nothing. What then prevents the powerless to seek protection from crime gangs, sectarian militants, this Lashkar and that Sipah or simply the strongman in the neighborhood. There was nothing more damning and ominous than Zainub’s father expressing faith in the CJ’s personal attention and COAS’s express instructions to nab the lurking killer.That means man in the street has completely lost faith in the state as a system,and now it is powerful individuals who may come to his help.This is not governance it is anarchy, this is not writ but a state wreck.

Do not prosecute unprotected ordinary citizens but pity them for having been abandoned by the state to the wolves in the street.Ever visited that part of a jail where influential criminals and accused fro filthy rich families are detained.You will be amazed to see five star facilities available to them.Jails have become luxury rest houses where interns literally party protected by the jail wardens as personal guards.They are no more penitentiaries which cause introspection among convicts nor deter those about to follow suit outside.There is no fear of being jailed but an anticipation of protective custody.

Where does one go from here for redress if wronged? Possibly to the revolting dens of the mafia dons, trigger happy gangsters or throat slitting militants? They say there is a ferocious gangster in Rawalpindi who is notorious for his impulsiveness and those who disobey are rumored to have been fed to his pet lions. Thus their ruthless coercive ability ensures instant and mostly total obedience while the state fidgets and the law dither. See where have we led to and abandoned the mass of our people; there could hardly be a more hideous betrayal of the trust.

Fact of the matter is that we have discarded humanity as a cumbersome load long ago and shed character and fear of God as worthless practices. Lust, lechery, greed, abject peonage and cowardice have become our social currency. Rule of law, decency, fair play and dignity in self restraint have been consigned to nostalgia and academic discourse in the seminar rooms. Despite our hem and haw and plenty of hot air, Zainubs will continue to be killed and tossed over garbage dumps. When law is diluted in a society, criminality thickens. And when conscience is choked humanity dies.