Daily Times

The lynching of two innocent men at Youhanabad has been strongly condemned. We have several examples though where a similar treatment has been meted out to Christians without an outcry proportionate to the one the victims of Youhanabad are getting. For many, this retaliation was imminent. They could see the storm gathering on the horizon, soaked in the blood of the minorities whom the state has chosen to neglect or worse, to leave them at the mercy of the pathological mullahs. On social media, people are in awe to find Muslims killed by Christians. As if the odds of being Christian have always been higher than those of being Muslim. This reflects the mindset that encourages the killing of the minorities but refuses to accept any treatment vice versa. This lynching is not the first incident that should wake up the guardians of justice. Do we remember the Sialkot boys, the Kot Radha Kishan couple or the Ahmedi family burnt alive, along with a pregnant woman? Even a brief survey of the history of lynching would reveal hoards of such cases. People have been lynched time and again, but justice neither manifested in a symbolic gesture nor did it duly speed up to take notice of the gross unfairness of a few people against the other. Vigilante justice can be the product of injustice, but it can also be the result of selective, failing, or no justice at all.
The Youhanabad incident has fully revealed the trust deficit that exists between the state and its citizens. Another area where this deficit is conspicuous is in the people’s reluctance to pay taxes. They would rather pay millions in charity than trust the government to spend their tax money on their behalf for the welfare of the country. People also do not trust the government in providing quality education to their children. They would rather send their children to expensive private schools and in case of being poor, would rather send them to work than to the unproductive public schools. People are also loath to rely on the government to provide them with adequate security. Barriers, private guards and vigilante groups are considered better choices for protecting one’s community. In short, the social contract that the state makes with its people through the constitution and other legal premises is not followed through, eroding their respect for the law and the government’s ability to enjoy the loyalty of the citizens. It is a huge moral crisis.
The problem lies in the perception, the lens that the government has been using to view the situation. Skirmishes along ethnic and religious lines have been perceived as law and order problems, but they have always been political issues. Facets of the Constitution of Pakistan encourage inequality against the minorities, such as the infamous blasphemy law. Legal complications confronting the minorities have been left unresolved even 67 years after independence. Academic curricula encourage indifference and hatred against minorities and non-Muslim students are forced to study Islamiat. We have rendered Ahmadis non-Muslims and subjected a large section of the Christian community to janitorial tasks, leaving them perpetually destitute. Fortunately, the state has failed to excommunicate the Shias but remains equally inept in protecting them against the Wahabi wave. All these steps have been taken deliberately to ‘Islamise’ Pakistan, where minorities are treated as subhuman.
It is the government’s duty to provide its citizens the opportunity to become prosperous by legal means, irrespective of their beliefs or faiths. Societies where people are generally barred from adopting desirable lifestyles and careers are likely to become unstable, which could eventually lead to rebellion. The disorder we see in Pakistan today is the result of the unfairness of the justice system and the denial of welfare to the people. It is time for the government to reinvent itself and establish its writ over all those elements that have become powerful due to the comparative weakness of the state and its apparatus. It is not possible for the government to become strong without strengthening its institutions, especially the police and criminal justice system. The conflict between the citizens and the police is astonishing. Although mobs tend to be unruly and unlawful by definition, the growing tendency of protestors to stand up to the police and thwart their power reflects the institutional decay of the police system. Lynching indicates the depravity that the non-performing criminal justice system has created. The principal responsibility of the police and law is to thwart crime and violence, with the aim to increase freedom and happiness for the majority of the people. The statistics of crime and violence in Pakistan show how far these institutions have been successful in gearing the country towards freedom and happiness.
Terrorism and militancy should be eliminated. The government needs to work on its law enforcement agencies and criminal justice system if responsible and truly nationalist citizens are to emerge. Police cannot eliminate militancy or prevent it from emerging in the cities without the help of the citizens. A change in the attitude towards minorities also needs to be facilitated by weeding out the tilts against them in the Constitution and curricula taught in the public and religious schools. These measures are worth the effort because they will result in respect for the law and an improvement in the quality of human lives. In the absence of these reformatory steps, the scourge of terrorism and militancy will reappear to strangulate the country once again. Will we emerge from this recurring pattern? The ball is in the court of the government as always.

The writer is a freelance journalist with an academic background in public policy and governance. She can be reached at marium042@gmail.com