The chronic and constant yet amazing expressions of infidelities between knowledge, practices, behaviours, intentions in different combinations are found in all societies. The breach of rules, regulations and systems everywhere no longer appears either embarrassing or unacceptable. Strangely enough even the legal systems regarding issues/crimes of violence against anyone including trans, women and children (that are currently on the top of all agenda items) are cloaked by such tapestry of cataclysms. Simon Armitage, the poet , also a professor of poetry once wrote that ;…as a probation officer in a magistrates’ court in the north of England – the high street supermarket of the legal system – I got to the point where I felt I was enforcing… not some gold standard of justice every day, but actually a series of moral values. And there would be… students of history who would say that many laws are designed to keep the wealth and power with a certain proportion of the population and stop the others from getting it.”
Access to justice and attempts to promote gender-responsive policing, building the numerical strength of women in law and related departments and promoting the concept of male gender champions have become familiar agenda items on many power tables. Whether allWhether all accused, and alleged arealleged are treated equally by the law and is there any specific socio-economic attributes of the perpetrators especially in the gender-specific crimes? .I attempted to get some answers by engaging with prominent platforms in the civil society and academia. It was almost impossible to find authentic statistics and supporting data. There is no Pakistan-centric study that looks into legal and social structures and dimensions of the afore-mentioned queries. A recognized international law expert, Jamal Aziz, was of the view that socio-economic conditions and marginalization contribute to a lack of awareness of the rights of prisoners in our country. Pakistan’s prison population is alarmingly high with a large number of detainees awaiting trial (62.1%).
It has been evidenced that desensitized inequalities have a decaying effect on well-being and mental health and lead to spiking up further health issues
This coupled with the culture of bribery within prisons becomes even more problematic for prisoners belonging to the low-income strata as they are denied access to a judge without giving bribes (as per the International Crisis Group). For this reason, many prisoners fall within the cracks in the system and do not have access to bail and are denied basic facilities within a prison – which they are otherwise legally entitled to. “Theoretically speaking law is equal, lawequal, law is uniform. And there would be uniform application as well throughout the country but practically this is a multidimensional phenomenon to be looked in to as there are so many factors which influence the uniform application of law e.g., class system, literacy level, corruption, economic conditions etc. etc. So, what I mean is until and unless there is no education there would be no equality in law and we have no education at all that is why there is no uniform application of law’’, was the joint response of young advocate Adeeba Nosheen and Yasir Raja. The International Relations expert and academic, Dr.Musarat Amin, was also of the opinion that it can be established that all alleged criminals are not accused before law. “I have witnessed that the law favours the rich and the powerful.” observed, a Human Rights Defender and journalist Ms. Saadia Bukhari. The head of a non-profit, Ms.Anbreen Ajaib, shared that for being an abuser, economic status has not much to do. Being a man is enough power for him to abuse a woman in any role. For example, we have seen security guards and office peons harassing the women in their offices, even the women bosses. However, when it comes to justice, the situation vary for economically strong and weak persons.
While striving to understand Gender Based Violence (GBV) that is often loosely used interchangeably with violence against women and children (VAWGC) for the last two decades or so I have travelled through the terrains of politics, political economy, conflicts, terrorism and allied disciplines. While working with the survivors I have often becomeoften become curious about the perpetrators. What compels a professionala professional soldier in the battlefield to use rape of helpless women as an instrument of war? Is it an impulsive and or individual act or well-taught tactics of warfare? What excites aexcites a perceived pious man in a seminary to rape an underage disciple?
How a father, uUncle , brother, grandfather is successful in raping and or molesting or sexually abusing little girls and indulge in incest? These inconvenient queries are too often sidelined in any discussion about and around issues of GBV and more specifically VAWGC. The liberal and non-liberal divide on this issue too creates more chaos than any cohesion.
It has been evidencedbeen evidenced that desensitized inequalities have a decaying effect on well-being and mental health and lead to spiking up further health issues. This not so visible challenge of unequal equality in legal systems necessities its addressal on war footings. Otherwise, our shameless surrender before all acts of injustices and abuses when committed by the mighty will lead to achieving alarming rate of mental disorders in a country that is too gifted but too unfairly governed. Let us try to welcome 2021 with the resolve to say good byes to the mindset of slaveryof slavery and servitude.
The writer is a free thinker.