Daily Times

Deputy Inspector General Faisal Kamran’s vow that “no one is above the law” gained fleeting credibility last week when Lahore Police invoked the Anti-Terrorism Act to arrest four suspects in the Dharampura Underpass shooting. Yet the grainy cellphone footage of the incident-armed men in a black SUV firing indiscriminately, a guard assaulting a motorcyclist before fleeing-lingers as a damning testament to Pakistan’s culture of weaponized privilege. The video, viral not for its novelty but its symbolism, exposes a grotesque truth: here, power wears a uniform, and impunity is its license.

The suspects, allegedly shielded by “protocol,” operated with the swagger of those long accustomed to immunity. Their actions are not anomalies but symptoms of a system fractured by duality. For elites, security is a shield; for ordinary citizens, a sword. Last year, a Karachi video showed guards thrashing a rickshaw driver for delaying a bureaucrat’s convoy. Such scenes resonate because they mirror a visceral reality: 81% of Pakistanis feel “second-class” when VIP motorcades fracture public spaces. Ambulances stall, markets are barricaded, and citizens are reduced to spectators in their cities.

This paradox thrives in the shadows of a Rs500 billion private security industry, where oversight is fiction. Over 1.2 million guards operate nationwide-62% in Punjab lack certified training-many wielding illegal weapons with no accountability. The state’s complicity is glaring. Despite the Supreme Court’s 2018 order to curtail frivolous protocols, mid-tier officials still command police escorts like feudal lords. The 2020 Private Security Regulation Bill, proposing background checks, remains shelved as a casualty of elite indifference.

The human toll is stark. In 2022, a pregnant woman died after her ambulance was delayed by a minister’s motorcade in Rawalpindi. Each tragedy fuels a vicious cycle: fear justifies more armed “security,” which deepens public distrust.

The Safe Punjab Initiative-mandating biometric vetting and psychological screenings for guards-offers a flicker of progress. Yet the sight of a civilian confronting armed aggressors alone underscores systemic failure. While Punjab Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad’s notice of the incident signals rare accountability, rhetoric must translate to reform.

Pakistan’s streets will remain battlegrounds until the state dismantles the myth that security is a luxury. Until then, the uniform symbolizes not order, but oppression. *