Daily Times

SarfAraz Shah was killed in Karachi in cold blood. It was the height of brutality by men in uniform. He begged for his life, but he was shot. He begged to be taken to hospital, lying in a pool of blood, but he was denied hospital care. The obvious intent was to kill. A cameraman recorded the whole episode in its gruesome detail and the media brought it to public notice. Otherwise it would have gone into the press as a ‘killed in encounter’ story like hundreds have gone before. The media shocked a sleepy population, which lost its sleep for a few days. Regrettably, only for a few days, as usual. Remember the gory killings in Sialkot? There again the men in uniform and the bloodthirsty crowd committed the crime. Do we know what happened to the culprits? Has the media also decided to take a nap? What happened to the suo motu notice of the case? I hope some media anchors will take it upon themselves to follow up these cases. Just flashing it on thin air is not helping, a follow up may.

Many of us have seen the brutalities and killings carried out by the Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists. Some of us may even have seen the demonstrations by Taliban instructors how to sever heads. Taliban victims were tied up and the demonstrators chopped off the heads in different styles while the bodies were hanging, showing the throes of death. Gruesome sights to shatter anyone’s nerves.

Killings are not rare or isolated incidents. These continue every day and everywhere at the hands of those who have the power to kill. This is irrespective of which uniform they are wearing, are shaved or wear this kind of beard or the other. All are killers. They make their decisions and implement them. They have no regard for the ‘law of the land’ because they have not seen it work. But they have seen terrorists freed by the courts and murderers never brought to justice. The message is simple: if you keep the court under threat, you can get away with anything.

Then there are other kinds of killings. Rapes, honour killings, disfigurations, and naked marches in the streets. These cause a pain that lasts a lifetime. Mostly women are the targets. These cause the death of self-esteem, and in some cases the wounds are worse than straightforward death.

There are many other crimes that are committed and get consigned to the piles of files in the record rooms of the courts and wait for the never-ending ‘dates of hearings’. The impatience, intolerance, taking the law into one’s own hands, and brutal expressions of anger are all generated by the lack of faith in the system of justice in Pakistan. The most perfect system to thwart justice exists in the machinery involved in the system. This machinery acts on the saying that ‘everything is fair in love and war’. I would have put the author of this saying behind bars. No, ‘everything’ is not fair in any situation. Human beings have to justify their being ‘human’. In the jungle also, there is some system. If some of us remember ‘The Jungle Book’ of Disney, there was a very interesting dialogue. The ‘jungle boy’, Mowgly, is shown swords and other weapons by a ‘human lord’ around the area. Mowgly watches these weapons and asks, “What do you do with these?” The lord responds, “These can kill many.” Mowgly asks, “Do you then eat them?” The lord laughs and says, “No.” Then Mowgly asks, “Then why do you kill? In the jungle animals kill only for hunger.”

Our ‘civilised’ jungle has a written law but no one cares. We kill because we have anger, we want to settle scores, our egos to prevail, our sectarianism to overpower, and so on and so forth. The law has continuously, for decades, failed to control all this. There is no faith in the justice system; it is manipulated in favour of the powerful. In several cases, the favourite instrument to turn things in one’s favour has been the requirement of ‘witnesses’. Witnesses are bought and sold. Witnesses are threatened and killed to thwart the course of law. Circumstantial evidence, however clear and strong, is not admissible. In many countries it is.

I am no law expert, but I dare say that the experts have not delivered. Justice is either not available, or too expensive and cumbersome, or thwarted by corruption. The natural product is ‘anger’ in society. It is this anger that is growing with each passing day.

I believe no amount of cosmetic ‘suo motus’ will work. These actions are admirable when there is a lapse by government agencies. But the respectability of the suo motu is lost when it is taken on minor and frivolous matters. I would wish that it were used effectively where a large section of society can benefit by such action.

In conclusion, the laws and procedure need to be rationalised. The system of ‘evidence’ needs a second look. Why are our legislators in democratic assemblies not paying attention to make large-scale legal reforms? This is exactly what they are there for. Can the people’s representatives focus on removing the core cause of the anger in society causing lawlessness? Are they really aware of the social problems? Can most of them rise above their feudal backgrounds? Are some of them beneficiaries of legal manipulations and want the corrupt system to continue?

There is in fact little hope from the legislators. They have shown their inability or helplessness or both. Most of them may be involved in getting from the government whatever they can before their term expires. The only hope seems media pressure. Media has done well in exposing the ‘fault’; it now needs to ‘hammer’ away at it. I mean hammer to get the legislators to act. Otherwise more, and even worse, bloodshed may be seen.

The writer is a culture and media management specialist, a researcher, author, director and actor