In civilized societies, every institution performs within its constitutional bounds. The constitutionally and legally determined jurisdictions of state organs within federal or state structures are sacrosanct and do not brook any contravention or intervention. These societies have developed unwritten norms, which are unfailingly followed by state employees and the public in letter and spirit. The end objective of all this legal and constitutional approach is the common good and the protection, safety, and prosperity of the people.
The state’s attitude towards the subject is like that of an affectionate father maintaining social and economic equity and justice among various segments of the populace, and restraining the delinquent members of society through rule of law and indiscriminate dispensation of justice. Over the years, the administrative state organs within their respective structures have developed systems to deliver in accordance with their duties without let or hindrance, fear or favour going by their legal and discretionary powers.
The citizenry is well conscious of their legal and constitutional rights and duties. Generally, citizens avoid seeking any undue favour over and above the law. Any financial or legal favour that undermines the system is anathema to them. They would be ready to pick up a fight for the observance of a legal norm with the least consideration of their own advantage. In a way, they are guardians of the efficiency of systems within state organs. This legal and constitutional consciousness has saved their societies from the scourges of corruption, acquisition of wealth and property, tax evasion, financial impropriety, and pilferage of public funds.
Has the soil of this land become too barren to bring forth a daring man of action?
Au contraire, these scourges, taken as a norm of life in underdeveloped societies, have rendered life hellish for common citizens. The lower strata of citizens in these societies bear the brunt of bullying, mendacity, brutality and barbarity of state organs without any hope for legal compensation or dispensation of justice. As in our society, the law has become the most abused concubine of the powerful who buy justice and gets away with any vulgar crime they commit against their fellow citizens or the society and state. This, combined with social and economic inequity, brutalizes societies breeding anger and anguish, unrest, lawlessness, violence and mob justice.
Our other monumental failings apart, we failed to create a tolerant society; enforce the rule of law; dispense economic justice secure the life and property of our citizenry, and meet their basic constitutional right to education, healthcare, shelter, and clean drinking water. A Government, in the words of John Adams, is not instituted for the profit, honour, or private interests of one man, family or class of men. For the past seven decades, all our governments have been faithfully going against such governance. The continued bad governance has bred violence and brutality in the society.
It is too shameful to recall a few shocking instances of brutality in our polity. The brutal killings of innocent protesters in Model Town of Lahore; the gunning down of husband and wife along with a teenage daughter before two minor children in Sahiwal by the Punjab police; the frequent mob justice killing and burning corpses, shelters and places of worship of the blasphemy suspects; the unlawful and inhuman cases of full fry and half fry being perpetrated on innocent fellow citizens by the Sindh Police, and the enforced disappearance of citizens, is a slap on the face of the ruling elite.
The recent brutal killings of two blasphemy suspects in the police custody in Quetta and Mirpurkhas reflect how far deeply the religious radicalization has dehumanized the society. The police men involved in the killing of the blasphemy suspect Dr. Shah Nawaz Kumbhar were greeted and garlanded in the presence of the senior police officers including the DIG and SSP Mirpurkhas by so called religious and spiritual leaders and their followers including the local Member of National Assembly. These mobsters followed and harassed the family and snatched the corpse of the slain doctor to burn it. As the smell of the burning flesh of the slain doctor filled the air, the masked zealots melted away.
The terms of full fry and half fry, invented by a brutal and shameless police officer in moments of his sadist nature, are employed arrogantly for those killed or injured in fake police encounters. The modus operandi is quite simple. These persons are taken into police custody on any concocted charge. They are given the option to pay a hefty amount and walk away or face full fry or half fry. The half-fried persons become a permanent burden on society passing an anguished and angry life. Recently a Brohi young man was half-fried in Jamshoro. Later, the Doctors, as a last resort, opted for the amputation of his leg.
Interestingly, no police officer has so far been punished for this brutality. One police officer reported to be close to the powerful quarters gained notoriety in fake police encounters. Some reports suggested that he killed over 400 persons in fake police encounters. He was finally prosecuted for killing a young Pathan model a tribal agency in a fake police encounter. The high walls of Karachi jail could not retain him for any longer period. He walks as a free man.
The brutality displayed by our law enforcing agencies; the apathy and indifference shown by the ruling elite; the ruthless run for acquisition of wealth and property; manipulation of justice by the powerful; corruption and violence are so pervasive in our society that only a brutal revolution could rid the country of these cancerous inflictions. The current odd mélange of myopic political leadership at the helm could not remedy them. They are the beneficiaries of this petrified system.
Leaders spring from the soil of the land. Has the soil of this land become too barren to bring forth a daring man of action? Sadly, it seems so. The people have resigned to sufferance with a suffocating stillness. What we hear are the blasts of the smoking guns of terrorists and insurgents or the shrill noise of radicalized religious lot.
The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books.