Seven years after Pakistan had woken up to the vile monstrosity operating from underneath its covers and criminalised child pornography in a historic first, its children remain just as unsafe. Only months after Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani was applauded far and wide for taking notice of the abhorrent crime of recording minors in compromising positions and seeking an increase in the punishment, the FIA has busted yet another racket active on the dark web.
This crackdown has made the limited powers of legislation–however revolutionary–clear as daylight. Clearly, there is not much the judiciary and even the legislature can do in the present circumstances unless law enforcement agencies ensure rigorous implementation of the code. Every single year, we come across a mega-scandal that shocks the nation to its core in a grisly deja vu of what transpired in Kasur in 2015. Pledges are made to protect the children at all costs.
Private and public enterprises engage in campaigns to raise awareness against bad touch in schools, but sadly, one news cycle is all it takes for the matter to be tossed to some dusty quarters. The latest pedophilic ring had already targeted as many as 10 victims. Implyingly, the state has once again failed 10 promising lives; chaining them to iron-clad shackles of shame, self-doubt and harrowing nightmares for life. Last year’s mega scandal had uncovered the roots of an ultra-functioning mafia operating throughout Punjab. Using enticements like money to help trap the victims and sealing their lips with the always-in-vogue threat of going viral: these dogs continue to thrive on their old tricks.
Despite the blockage of over 400,000 pornography websites, we remain steadfast in holding on to the seemingly cherished crown of the largest number of child pornography viewers. Of course, the state cannot break open doors, pull off bedcovers and physically close these websites, but an executive reinforces a national behaviour on the shoulders of exemplary punishments. Setting the seal on the conviction of those arrested and ensuring no influence or lined pockets allows them to slip through the cracks remain our ultimate defences.
Simply shushing the discomforting topic would not send the menace away. The need to strike such conversations and steer the focus away from a self-imposed view of morality cannot be stressed enough. At the end of the day, it is not a woman whose revealing clothes or outside ventures or “over-friendliness” can be railed against here. Pakistan has to close its ranks and protect its children on the streets, in the schools, and even need may be, inside the walls of their homes. Period.