Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar’s intervention in the Zainab case and the subsequent decision to form a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate the matter are certainly appreciable. Right now, the entire country looks to him for exemplary justice for Zainab, and cases similar to hers all over the country. It is ironic that the Punjab government has stopped the victim’s father from speaking about the case. It shows that the provincial government wants only their stance to prevail, while keeping aspects about the case which are contrary to ‘official facts’ hidden. In this scenario, how can justice be done without hearing the point of view of others? It is already apparent that locals are intimidated by gangs involved in these kinds of heinous crimes in Kasur. Everyone believes the ‘gang’ could not run its activities without the connivance of the black sheep in the district government, management and the political elite. At the moment, only the victim’s father Amin Ansari and a few of his relatives are pointing out the inconsistencies in the case. Since the JIT is made up of government officers, citizens already doubt its impartiality. Zainab’s father has already claimed that he and his relatives were actually the ones to nab the suspected serial killer and hand him over to the police. Muhammad Amin made this claim at a press conference on January 25. To substantiate his claim, Mr Ansari referred to the picture showing the suspect sitting on a cot, claiming it was taken at the house of his (Amin’s) brother after “we seized him (Imran) and handed him over to police”. Since the JIT is made up of government officers, citizens already doubt its impartiality. Zainab’s father has already claimed that he and his relatives were actually the ones to nab the suspected serial killer and hand him over to the police Mr. Ansari has claimed that the police had deliberately failed to nab Imran since January 5, the day Zainab went missing when his relatives nominated Imran as a prime suspect. Amin said he and his relatives got Imran picked twice but police released him on both occasions. “Later, we had to ask Punjab police inspector general (IG) and the Joint Investigation Team head for the arrest of the suspect and then we nabbed him and handed him over to police,” the victim’s father claimed. Amin Ansari has the photograph and the CCTV footage to support his stance on nabbing the suspect. Suspiciously enough, the Punjab government is planning to give a reward of Rs 10 million to the JIT members, whereas it seems that the truth is, it was actually the bereaved family thanks to whom the suspect was finally arrested. Amin’s claims could be a tip off to another heinous side of the grave incident that could not be thoroughly and justifiably probed without the direct and vigilante monitoring of the JIT by the Court. The society and justice system cannot afford any lapse in rational and factual instigations. Any manoeuvring by the JIT, intentionally or unintentionally, or overlooking any significant aspect would spark outrage countrywide, and this time the people’s rage could manifest itself violently. The other extreme concern of the citizens is the strangely diplomatic and politicised behaviour of the Punjab government not only in the Zainab case, but the mysterious way it is handling the entire issue of child sexual abuse in Kasur. The political statements, the gestures of the local management, and the sudden deep silence of the natives speak something obnoxious. Perhaps, the district Kasur is hiding something more heinous, dreadful and scandalous. The investigators need to thoroughly look into the claims of Muhammad Amin Ansari, the victim Zainab’s father, that why Imran was not arrested when he was first nominated on January 5. Why Imran was released twice by the Kasur police after he was nabbed and handed over to police by the victim’s relatives? The locals and the social media were pointing fingers on the senior police officers. Why they are yet to be taken on the list of suspects? The Chief Justice of Pakistan would certainly remember the case of 400 porn videos of 280 persons that was popped up from Kasur in 2015 after a man registered a complaint of being blackmailed by the abuser of his son. Here is an excerpt from the information available on the Google. “The Kasur child sexual abuse scandal is a series of child sexual abuses that occurred in Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur District, Punjab, from 2006 to 2014, culminating in a major political scandal in 2015. After the discovery of hundreds of video clips showing children performing forced sex acts, various Pakistani media organisations estimated that 280 to 300 children, most of them male, were victims of sexual abuse. The scandal involved an organised crime ring that sold child pornography to porn sites, and blackmailed and extorted relatives of the victims. The scandal caused nationwide outrage, among allegations that the Punjab police and Malik Ahmad Saeed Khan, Kasur’s Member of the Provincial Assembly from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), were involved in an attempted cover-up of the abuse.” Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, the government departments and the news agencies termed that case as the largest child abuse scandal in Pakistan’s history. But it never culminated to justice despite large-scale public condemnation and a fatwa by more than 50 Pakistani clergy and religious scholars supporting for capital punishment of the culprits, and demanded that the government console the victims and their parents. Chief Justice of Pakistan, it would your great service to the nation if you reopen the aforementioned case and invite applications from the victims, and do the long delayed justice. It would turn to be historic step towards harnessing the clean-up of child sexual abuse from our society. The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed Published in Daily Times, February 1st 2018.