Daily Times

Both Advisor to the PM on Information and Broadcasting, Firdous Ashiq Awan and Punjab Information Minister, Fayazul Hassan Chauhan, have termed the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) attack a political conspiracy, which was engineered by ranks of lawyers loyalist to PML-N and other opposition parties.

It is nothing but political immaturity and an attempt to tilt the windmills. Accusing others based on presumptions is both dangerous as well as detrimental to democracy. This will undermine and overshadow the investigation. The obvious issue, which no one is willing to talk about, is that the pistol-laced lawyers took considerable time to reach the hospital. The question that arises is why had the police and other law enforcement agencies not sprung to action to rein in the mob while they were on their way to target PIC!

Institutional incompetence, accompanied by structural interference as well as managerial mismanagement, resulted in poor professional engagement. The most populated province is being run without a fully-fledged home minister. The portfolio of the home minister is with the CM Sardar Usman Buzdar, who lacks required administrative and operational acumen.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken the de-facto control of the provincial matters. Lahore is being remote-controlled by Islamabad.

Victims of mob mentality and institutional insanity are ordinary people

Another argument forwarded in favour of institutional inaction is the initiation of cases against police officers allegedly involved in Model Town tragedy. The justification offered is justified, indeed. Should the police not be held to account for acting recklessly?

The elephant in the room is that the police are ill-trained when it comes to containing and controlling rioters/protesters. Whenever the police flex its muscles, it ends in the senseless killing of people.

Besides, a decades-long interference in its operational and administrative mechanism has left the police all over the country professionally inefficient. Had the police acted timely in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, the unfortunate incident at the PIC could have been averted. When the right people are not placed in the right places, such incompetence is natural.

To avoid such tragedy in future calls for both ensuring accountability of those involved in the PIC tragedy following the law, and implementing institutional structural changes.

Nations learn from the tragedies and put in place priorities for the future course of action.

We, as a nation, have not learned. After all, victims of mob mentality and institutional insanity are ordinary people.

What have we learned from the heart-wrenching Sialkot lynching of August 2010 of the two teenager brothers, Mughees and Muneeb, on allegation of theft? The lynching of Mashal Khan by his fellow students on allegations of blasphemy at Mardan University in 2017 would not have happened.

Have we learned from Mashal lynching case? The recent PIC attack and lynching of four patients would not have occurred.

However, it should be ascertained that what is the reason behind mob mentality and mob justice?

It is pertinent to mention my recent write-up, titled, “Time to act against mob mentality,” published recently covering multidimensional factors at play.

It sufficed to reproduce some excerpts from it.

“Psychologically speaking, Cristen Polito, who writes on behavioural wealth, family dynamics, sustainability and well being, is of the opinion that humans have a tendency to imitate to one an others’ behaviour. We end up processing beliefs and acting out in ways, which we should never have done if considered independently.”

Psychologists call this occurrence mob mentality.  “It describes how humans adopt behaviours and buy merchandise, and allow trends based on their circle of influence. It explains how one’s point of view can easily be altered by those around them.”

Other factors being utter disillusionment with state and its judicial system, societal acknowledgement of herd-mentality as bravery, a route to uproot alleged crime and criminals, legal loopholes favour both accused and perpetrators of crime because of their material status. Nevertheless, despite structural fault lines, “mob justice” cannot and should not be allowed to operate like this.

The malaise of mob mentality is deeper than that imagined in this state of Pakistan. There also exists an institutionalised “mob justice.”

There are law enforcement agencies, operating as “mob courts;” extra-judicial actions and extra-judicial killings like half-dry and full-fry, fake encounters and enforced disappearances by the police and other law enforcement agencies respectively. This gives some sort of validation to mob mentality. We compromise and do not punish those who challenge the writ of the state when it is a matter of ordinary. Victims of mob mentality are vulnerable.

Lawyers from Karachi have threatened to target doctors in hospitals if they do not beg pardon from those lawyers put behind the bars.

The violence against the white coat has increased in recent years. Now and then, national newspapers highlight high-handed behaviour meted out to healthcare professionals, sometimes even subjected to violence. Justice demands those behind PIC cruelty be dealt with an iron hand.

Compromising on the rule of law and letting those involved off the hook is akin to inviting another tragedy. Even during the war, attacking a hospital amounts to war crimes.

A deliberate attack on hospitals amounts to “war crimes,” the then UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon said while addressing the UN Security Council just after a hospital was targeted in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2016.

“Let us be clear: intentional and direct attacks on hospitals are war crimes. Denying people access to essential health care is a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

Will the state turn the corner by punishing Black Coat fascists?

Just wait and watch.

The writer is an Educationist and a freelance contributor