| 12 January 2005 | Wednesday | 01 Zilhaj 1425 |
Lyari's plight
Silent rape victims
It's a relief to learn from President Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan is facing no external threat; we have enough internal threats to keep us worried. The law and order problems being witnessed in parts of Balochistan and in the Northern Areas, terrorist activities in North Waziristan, Karachi and Punjab and sectarian strife across the country constitute some of the major domestic crises.
Growing religious intolerance, with Islamic parties and militants holding the majority hostage to their obscurantist agenda, points to yet another problem. These multi-dimensional issues have hampered development, kept foreign investment at bay and damaged the country's social fabric.
The way the army-led government continues to manipulate and control the political process has only led to more confusion. The resultant confrontation with opposition parties has put matters of national importance, such as the National Finance Commission award and the Indus River System Authority's agreement on water sharing among the provinces, on the back burner.
The federal government's unilateral approach to the proposed water reservoirs, dams and canals upstream of the Indus river has alienated the lower riparians like Sindh. There seems to be no inter-provincial dialogue to address these pressing issues that have been the cause of much misunderstanding and heartburn.
The government's so-called economic turnaround, with officials citing a six-plus per cent growth rate, has shown little signs of having a trickle-down effect. Rising inflation to the tune of nine per cent and sporadic increases in petrol prices have taken a severe toll of the average citizen's purchasing power.
Little else is being done in terms of poverty alleviation and employment generation, with the result that a bigger percentage of Pakistanis today live below the poverty line than, say, 10 years ago.
The government has failed to come up with a housing policy, with the land and builder mafia left alone to buy into the market and speculate, putting housing units well beyond the reach of the urban middle class.
The government has all but washed hands of its responsibilities in healthcare and education. These two vital sectors have been left at the mercy of the commercial private sector, or to charitable organizations, with many of the latter doubling as nurseries for religious extremists.
The government's devolution plan has also failed to take off in terms of beginning to make a difference in people's lives. Instead, it has given birth to a new conflict between the provinces and the local governments, especially where political adversaries are at the helm of the two tiers of government.
The local body system in its current form, where elections are again to be held on non-party basis, has militated against democratic institution building from the grassroots upward.
Similar has been the case with mega-development projects such as those connected with the Gwadar port, where the local population feels largely left out in terms of gainful employment.
Such anomalies in institutional as well as infrastructural development plans have ensured that local governments are kept out of the national political mainstream. It is internal contradictions like these that pose the gravest challenge to societies everywhere, and unless a major problem-solving initiative is undertaken by us, the danger to our security and peace will remain a potent one.
Lyari's plight
Going by the picture of a Lyari street in this newspaper's Tuesday issue, one would think that there was little difference between Karachi and the Bugti area. There is no raging gun battle, but what the picture depicts is a battle-scarred street full of protesting people and littered with stones.
This was two days after the founder of the Baloch Ittehad Tehrik, Anwar, was murdered in the Kalakot locality. He was a popular figure and was working for the welfare of the people of Lyari - the sprawling slum that is remarkable for peace and tranquillity despite its ethnic diversity.
His murder must be seen against the backdrop of the gang warfare that has been raging in Lyari for some time. The year 2004 was especially bad, for it saw mafiosi killing and shooting in the open and terrorizing the populace.
Regrettably, the police have not been able to eradicate the well-armed gangs which thrive on drugs and extortion. There are night-time robberies and hold-ups, targeted killings, and passers-by are killed in cross-firing.
Primarily, two well-known gangs are responsible for Lyari's plight, and it is hard to believe that the police do not know who they are. Yet a crackdown planned for long was never launched because of differences within the police department. More mysteriously, a few days before Anwar's murder, the police were abruptly withdrawn.
The gangland bosses may be powerful, and the law enforcement agencies may perhaps be hesitating to lay their hands on them. Yet the LEAs never hesitate to arrest even the most powerful of politicians and tycoons if it suits the establishment to do so.
The impression created is that the provincial government itself does not seem too keen to rid Lyari of criminals. Unless the government acts quickly and firmly, Lyari may become what Harlem in New York once was - out of bounds for law-abiding citizens.
Silent rape victims
While one welcomes the Balochistan cabinet's decision to initiate a judicial probe into the gang rape of a doctor working at a field hospital in Sui, the incident needs to be debated from a far broader angle that goes well beyond the scope of the inquiry.
There is an urgent need for such a discussion as rape is an issue that society, with its antiquated notions of a woman's chastity being central to family honour, is reluctant to bring up in the open.
If a woman is sexually assaulted, the affair is either hushed up or the victim is blamed for deliberately provoking her assailant into committing the crime. Worse, even the law is not on her side.
Burdened with General Ziaul Haq's legacy of mediaeval legal tenets that can actually hinder access to justice, the rape victim may well find herself behind bars on adultery charges if she is unable to prove the crime against her.
Also, in many cases, owing to rampant corruption in their ranks, the police often refuse to lodge an FIR against the perpetrators. There are, then, very few avenues left open to rape victims, many of whom must resort to the good offices of an NGO if they are to obtain even a modicum of justice.
What remedial action can be expected when the state itself is reluctant to take steps to root out the scourge in a country where women are gang-raped on the orders of local jirgas? Perhaps the answer lies partly in encouraging greater openness in society, so that people can raise their voices against the crime, and women receive instructions in educational institutes and public forums on how to protect themselves against rape and on what immediate steps to take if assaulted.
Obviously, the government cannot continue to be apathetic and greater sensitization of parliament is needed to enable it to repeal existing laws and pass more humane legislation, as it has shown itself capable of doing in the case of honour killing. This is absolutely necessary in a country where, according to one report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a women is raped every two hours.