Daily Times

Modern as well as ancient civilizations have been based on human rights and equality for all. The modern constitutions, like that of America, the UK, Canada, and Australia, all guarantee the surety of human rights for all and sundry. This can be held in the case of many postcolonial countries, albeit the fact that human rights are in violation in such countries. As soon as one’s right is violated, it germinates violence which is the furtherance of brutal and savage behaviour by human beings. Ensuring human rights lends credibility to any civilization and its administration. Consequently, human beings at the individual level would be obliged to do what is rightly their duty. In case of violation of human rights, this consciousness of duty vanishes and the violence at individual and collective creeps in slowly but surely. Violence would still erupt if human rights were not ensured across the board and, especially if some humans are more privileged as compared to others. I don’t advocate the free fall of human rights and believe in the adage that where your hand ends, my nose begins.

As per history, the first written constitution was demarked in Babel with the words that tooth for tooth and eye for an eye will be there. But this was never exercised blindly because even the kings and princes were required to undergo this law but equally have been generations which violated these or any other rule in the name of wars and battles and crises. Consequently, violence crept in with such vigour that huge and long-established civilizations were wiped out from the earth’s surface. Human beings therefore have been dying and giving up their lives because of epidemics and natural disasters but equally have been the violations of human rights which caused human beings to die. Each time after the wars, truces were signed by the same human beings to live peacefully and the gist of all these truces was and is the guarantee of human rights. If I may remind the same gist worked behind the Magna Carta and campaigns of Martin Luther King and many other reformers and lovers of humanity.

The first written constitution was demarked in Babel.

But alack! We, even after living in the most advanced age of the humanity in 21st century, are undergoing similar violations of human rights and consequently undergoing violence and bloodshed even more vigorously because of scientific advances. There are instances of violent societies only because there is no justified guarantee of human rights for example, look at the war-torn, hunger beaten, and violence-prone societies of the world, where humanity is suffering miserably even when they have not made any fault and have not committed the crime, especially, the innocent, children, women, and the elderly are the worst victims.

In fact, we need to understand that the methodologies to quell the rights of the individual and societies cannot be implemented by force now because the people are more aware and can plan countermeasures which further results in bitter consequences for humanity. Look at the democracies in the West to which all of us wish to migrate and leave our country the earlier the better and many have migrated already. The reason is not that there one gets money and dollars free. One needs to work hard to earn a living triple the amount of input we give here in Pakistan. The crime is also not less than Pakistan in any way. The only attraction and belief like hope is the guarantee of equal rights of life, earning, work and living, etc. Even if you visit the USA just for a few days or months on a J1 visa, there is a surety of your rights, and these are given as well. It is not simply written; it is practised as well.

In all this scenario, if you look at Pakistan, where are we standing? We too have a written constitution where the rights of the individuals have been guaranteed but still, violence is there and we have not been able to become an egalitarian society. Something must be wrong with our system. One of the many reasons is the dominant discourse of ‘might is right’ which means if you have a might, it means you are secure and safe and can receive all your rights even if you are neglecting your duties blatantly and so you are always right. But if you are destitute in the matter of power or so-called might, you may keep on fighting for your rights till death and ultimately the system may eliminate you as a nuisance to the society.

Now, it is high time that we work on the agenda of providing equal and justified human rights to all our next generation at least so that Pakistan and its people may survive and stand equal to the generation of the world honourably. Pakistani people are fully equipped with natural and acquired capabilities to make their mark in the world but only if their rights are guaranteed and they are given a sense of security of peace, work, and life.

The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson University, Multan. He can be reached at zeadogar@hotmail.com and Tweets at @Profzee