Pakistan has not lost its ability to shock. The latest being the stoning to death of a pregnant woman in the hallowed compound of the Lahore High Court (LHC). This news has reverberated around the world and throughout Pakistan, raising questions about ‘Shining Punjab’, a province being run by the brother of the Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan. Doubts are thus created about the ability of both brothers to govern the country, and the province, if a gruesome murder can be committed in the capital city of the Punjab. This has turned the stomachs of all Pakistanis, and all Punjabis, as being against the sensibilities of all who managed to read or hear about this crime. For once the religious right was not involved. Perhaps the Taliban should be asked to give their exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of this crime. The father and brother should be executed in a befitting manner — perhaps similar to their own measure of rage. Maybe the medieval ‘hung, drawn-and-quartered’ could be brought out of the history books.
The Sharif brothers have to reconsider their ability to govern. The crime, committed on the premises of the LHC, raises questions about the spectacle witnessed by hundreds of litigants with petitions in hand seeking justice from the same court. The effect of this behaviour on the persons present on the premises must have been extraordinary. Perhaps we do need a Taliban administration whose punishments are very similar, but only ordered and executed by the Taliban themselves. No one else is allowed to strike this terror; it is the exclusive domain of the Taliban themselves. It does give credence to the thought that the Sharif brothers have turned a blind eye to the spread of the Taliban into Punjab. The ‘stoning’ may just be the tip of Talibanisation or existence of the thinking that lurks beneath the ‘happy’ Punjab to reveal its ugliness and depravity. We will have to see how many of the people on the premises of the court who saw the murder, or even the judges who were busy dispensing justice at the time react. This was an insult to all of them. Let us see whether there is any outrage, or any action. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) would do well to have a dharna (sit-in) at the spot, maybe a monument to commemorate the deed in this the twenty first century. The Sharif brothers will have to prove they can perform at a level to justify the ‘mandate’ given to them in the last election. We must see whether any heads roll in the aftermath of this shocking crime. The talk show hosts are strangely silent, and even secular, modern Karachi is muted — a strange uncomfortable silence. Are the chattering classes and bleeding hearts not awake to what has happened in the ‘cultural capital’ of Pakistan? This silence is strange. The owners of the television channels must rethink their priorities, pay heed to the enormity of these crimes, and fulfil their duty to expose this bestial behaviour in our public. This cannot be condoned, nor can the silence of the media. Perhaps the media is too concerned about the defence of one of its own. It does expose a commercial bent to their collective agenda for there is no ‘news value’ to it and it cannot be marketed abroad.
The shock to the Pakistani public is immense, and the people are waiting to see an appropriate response from the government. Its ability to govern has now been questioned, and should be followed by a cacophony of voices to clamour for an appropriate punishment. For this silence seems to admit a priority by the media, whose stifled outrage indicates an absence of marketable copy, not in keeping with the enormity of the crime. It has been carried by newspapers from Houston to Singapore, yet the story has died of suffocation here in Pakistan. Surely something is rotten in the state of the media? Maybe the media should examine their own selves and question their own priorities. The foreign media has picked up the story and played it for the horrific nature of the crime, and of course the Pakistan angle, which is always good copy. But for the Pakistani media and the talk show hosts this is inexcusable. As a Pakistani, and a reader of most newspapers, this is reprehensible.
The writer is a freelance columnist