Daily Times

The recent murder of 27-year-old Nazim Jokhio, who blew the whistle on the controversial hunting spree of the ever-so-precious houbara bustard has, for the umpteenth time, laid bare the disgusting ease with which any voice that dares sound off can be silenced. That the murder call was issued by none other than a sitting parliamentarian is a terrifying plot straight out of a B-grade film. Are we having a bloodied rerun of Mumbai in the late ’90s where a single out-of-sync line could land you in a stuffed sack, dumped by the roadside?

The problem is that there’s so much to lose sleep over what has unravelled. Yes, CM Murad Ali Shah has already taken notice but we are well beyond the point where just turning your nose up could get you off. It is 2021 and an overwhelming majority is still forced to live according to the whims of whoever owns the stick. Under some mysterious circumstances, Jam Awais has waved the white flag, but the leap from behind to bars to out in the open is not that huge.

Sadly, the grisly details have paved the ground for yet another battle royale between the provincial and the federal government. With Governor Sindh rolling up his sleeves to throw the challenge of “test case” Sindh Secretariat’s way, the coming days are bound to see the investigation lose its limelight amid scuffles over who is on the right side. Like it or not, the PPP cannot sweep scathing allegations over some of its machinery in Sindh under the rug. Another graphic video of an alleged MPA’s bodyguards firing shots in Qambar Larkana making rounds on social media would only intensify the crisis. Until Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari does not take stock of the chronicles of people in his fairy ring, all his attempts to salve such wounds would fail, miserably. There is an urgent need for Karachi to announce a JIT and turn on the heat for a speedy judgement. Because letting Islamabad walk away with a stronger hand is not an option here. This time, it is not a dispute over treasury affairs but the very existence of those who form the crucial foundation of the very democracy that has allowed them to enjoy the hot seat.

The raging local flair makes it nearly impossible to direct one’s attention to other just as grotesque aspects of the conundrum. Since the Wadera mindset refuses to bid farewell, the most fundamental of rights–the right to life–is the first to get trampled. Jokhio’s merciless murder even after he had gone online rubber-stamps the firmly-entrenched impunity enjoyed by our ruling elite. Never mind, the set-in-stone ban on hunting nearly-extinct bustards, whose annual massacre (in the name of foreign policy) has already earned us considerable bad press! *