Daily Times

Even the title is very unpleasant and heartbreaking to read especially for Noor’s immediate family. How will they reconcile with such an enormous and tragic loss? They enjoyed 27 years of her giggles and frolicking; watched her crawling, learning to walk – falling and getting up in her bid to be on her feet; they saw her growing from a toddler into a strong, enlightened and opinionated lady who wanted to make a life and career of her choice. She loved to fight for the women’s emancipation and their rights as equal citizens of this country.

Though entrusted to the bosom of mother earth, she must be beckoning from amongst the choir of angels in the heaven to her parents, siblings, friends and, indeed, to us all with her usual brightness of eyes and sweetness of smile telling us to carry forward her battle against the demonic darkness of toxic souls, apathy of society, patriarchal inhumanity, misogynistic brutality and the stinking tribal mentality. A dark and brutal soul has cut short Noor’s life. But her death has once more phenomenally laid bare the ugly face of our patriarchal society, and the pathetic situation of our law enforcement, prosecution and judicial justice.

In practice, we have two distinct sets of law, two scale of justice for wealthy elite and the underprivileged. The corruption of police and the staggering cost involved in judicial proceedings have rendered justice inaccessible to the common man. The state has utterly failed to protect the life, property and honour of its citizens. The blood of the poor is spilled; its property vandalized and honour trampled with impunity. The daughters of the nation have borne the brunt of the brutality perpetrated by their heartless relatives, blackmailers, killers, sadists, shameless elite. In the name of honour, girls are axed to death, stripped naked and paraded in bazars in front of disinterested spectators and even thrown to ferocious hounds to have slow and excruciating death to the point of ridiculing law and justice.

The fear is that the roller coaster of the power and influence of wealthy elite can impede the course of law culminating into an exemplary punishment for the murderer

This is the society we have created over the past seven decades where we do not get tired of preaching the virtues of Islam and the Madina state. We have enough of empty words and hollow slogans. No more please. The Madina state was founded at the right time after the reformation of the society for the rule of law, equality before law and justice for all. That society was marked by piety, honesty, integrity, sincerity of purpose, selflessness, sacrifice, forgiveness, affection, compassion where social equity and justice reigned supreme.

The moral health of our society and our crumbling governance structures do not allow us to dream of Madina state. It is better to lower our aim to creating a society marked by civility, improved governance and tangible rule of law. The grisly murder of Noor has thrown a formidable challenge to our society and its governing structures – police, investigation, prosecution and judiciary – confronting them with a hard test. With the arrest of the perpetrator and the recovery of weapons from the scene of the heinous crime, the case is simple and straightforward. The fear is that the roller coaster of the power and influence of wealthy elite can impede the course of law culminating into an exemplary punishment for the murderer.

This fear is not misplaced. We have witnessed many instances of manipulation of loopholes in our criminal laws and the evidence-based judicial system requiring eye witnesses by highly expensive and fully competent lawyers, who waltz with words, intimidate witnesses in cross examinations and sow doubts in the mind of the presiding judges. I recall the big names of Bar Council from Islamabad and Lahore pleading the innocence of Shah Rukh Jatoi. His case was also simple. The prosecution’s plea was that the accused had been teasing the sister of Shahzeb (son of a serving police inspector). Shahzeb had an altercation with Shah Rukh. The latter went to his car, took out his pistol and, accompanied by two friends, shot dead the former.

The wealthy father of the accused lost his battle in the judiciary. The young boy was handed down capital punishment. Later, the father of the deceased filed an application in the court forgiving Shah Rukh and withdrawing his case from Sindh High Court. After this application, the family of late Shahzeb disappeared from public view. Rumors swirled in the city for some time about their immigration to some other country. The Sindh High Court set Shah Rukh free and directed the lower court for his retrial. What transpired between late Shahzeb’s family and the powerful father of Shah Rukh Jatoi could be anybody’s wild conjecture. However, the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Justice Saqib Nisar, took a suo moto notice and reordered the arrest of Shah Rukh.

This is the justice system we have to go through to get justice for our Noor. It has always remained vulnerable to manipulation by the wealthy and powerful. Noor’s father howsoever, determined that he would not be able to fight this battle all alone. His colleagues, friends, law abiding citizens, civil society will have to stand by him in his crusade to get justice for his slain daughter. “When the bad men combine, the good must associate” (Edmund Burke). It is not the time for silence or expediency. Without giving ear to gossips and imaginative stories, our message must be loud if we want to see all the vulnerable Noors safe and secure from the patriarchal and misogynistic inhumanity.

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books