HAVE, libidinal compelling embarked on the berserk streak and all principles of decency, morality and sanity gone to dogs? To mobs of mad dogs? One feels submerged in anarchy, murder, mayhem, dangers, apprehensions and uncertainty. The national landscape presents a scene of total erosion of valued norms, on the one side and a sense of security on the other.
Incidents like the panchayat authorized gang-rape and lynching of a man of unsound mind for alleged blasphemy, are the latest addition to the storms of a variety, raging in the country. The authorities have handled things with a unique talent for crude ineptness and disregard for ground conditions. The most pathetic aspect of all developments is the state’s response by rote-route. This is not just as it was in the past but worse and immensely more unnerving.
What had been happening till a few days back, had brought things to near climax, to the tip of the iceberg; glaciers have now started melting. Floodgates of disaster look wide open. Through them, have been passing waves of disturbing events: developments smelling of scams, distrusted process of accountability, internal strife.
Terrorism against Pakistan in the form of killer blasts, in the wake of Pakistan’s participation in the “War Against Terror” delivering death and divisiveness with in the country.
A high profile end of a valued life through suicide or murder, stoning to death of a person suspected of blasphemy, preceded by the murder of an individual in jail on the same charge, people in beggar camps, a new wave of encounters, stand-off between Bugti tribesmen and the government which was resolved at the last moment to avert what threatened to become a bloody showdown. This is in addition to Pakistan-India relations and foreign pressure on Pakistan to pursue ends that undermine the national interest. The list can be endless.
Events are moving in one direction and the authorities are heading towards another, in a highly determined manner. Their prime target is a further mauling of the already trampled constitution. The philosopher of the regime, General (retd) Tanwir Naqvi, is on the prowl again. He is in the distinguished, weather-beaten company of the ageless constitutional wizard Sharif uddin Pirzada.
He accomplished the first job all by himself. Devolution of administration, however official circles refer to it as devaluation. But their reasons for dissatisfaction with the test tube system are said to be different from the rest of the populace. He has now stepped on the gas and gone into a different gear. A series of wide ranging amendments have been authored and proposed by the General, for incorporation in the constitution of 1973. As he is not a member of the cabinet, he can only be called the ‘Resident Intellectual of General Musharraf’s Islamabad’. The ‘Sword of Honour’, he won at Kakul, has been unleashed on the people of and democratic dispensation, in Pakistan.
Other priorities of the government have been made public through shrieking headlines in the press and prime coverage on public sector electronic media. The basic target of the administration seems to be the elimination of all such people who can be suspected of possessing popular support. That is the only explanation of the order restricting prime ministers to two terms. Blocking the movement of Nawabzada Nasrullah and the withdrawal of permission to ARD to hold a public meeting in Hyderabad, and restrictions on election campaigns, are a part of the same design. The government should be looking at what is happening instead of being concerned about who would manage the affairs of Pakistan after October 12. There is a Supreme Court decision and the holding of elections is binding on it. The pitch shouldn’t be dug up. That is against the spirit of the mandate, the court had awarded to the take-over team out of necessity. In any case, these decisions are to be made by the electorate.
What took place in Meerowala was unthinkable. Rapes and gang-rapes are a dime a dozen in feudal Pakistan; exploitation, of women, as also of other lesser mortals is managed in urban environments with sophistication. Neither, gets reported in routine. When some event flies over the cuckoo’s nest, all hell breaks loose. Indignation, amazement, disbelief, shame, a lowering of heads nationwide, suo moto action, pledges to remove injustice and what not. Every move reminds one of the urgency demonstrated after a bomb blast or a terrorist act, leading to the rounding up of usual suspects. In a few days, weeks, if it was major incident, investigations start accumulating dust-till the next blow falls.
A comparatively minor incident had occurred 17 years back near Multan. The place was Nawabpur. Area feudals were angry with a local family, comprising of, what they contemptuously considered former menials. A member of the family had gone West and made a small fortune. He set up a furniture shop and reportedly struck an intimate relationship with a woman of a leading local family.
The family’s males did not like the development and decided to punish the upstarts. They beat up their lowly women and paraded them through the main street of Nawabpur. However, while the villagers silently watched the ugly spectacle, the armed guard of a bank located on the street resented the treatment of the women and fired a shot from his superannuated rifle in the air. That ended the ignominious event. The courage of the mighty oppressors evaporated with that gunshot.
While a crowd, estimated at around one thousand, was present when the woman was mutilated in Meerowala, not a single person stood up to be counted. That is what has happened in the last 17 years. If the wronged in Nawabpur had received prompt and satisfactory justice in 1985, a crime like Meerowala would not have happened. And if the administration had not slept over the ghastly affair in Meerowala, a 15-year old girl would not have been gang-raped in a village near Hyderabad. Incidentally, Nawabpur dates to a period of Marshal Law in the country.
The state had then looked the other way and the situation does not look much different now. When the Punjab Law Minister visited the raped woman and her family, he was seated according to his status while victims sat on the floor. According to him the area looks like a place outside law; he should know. A federal minister handed a cheque for half a million rupees to the family: the price of sufferings.
It is difficult to say what is more shameful and perturbing, gang rapes at Meerowala and Hyderabad village or the lynching of a man at Chak Jhumra near Faisalabad. But they are all symptomatic of a diseased society. Add to it the general disaffection in the populace, the acts of suicide by the poor, the rising rate of crime, the spiralling cost of survival, the unrest among farmers in Okara and others tilling government owned lands in Punjab and you can feel the heat from the volcano. The glaciers have started melting and the volcanoes have reached the point of eruption. Things are moving to the point where you would not be able to tell when the next victim — man or woman, of a gang-rape, would be authorized by some panchayat or who would be lynched. The possibilities send a chill down the spine.
HAVE, libidinal compelling embarked on the berserk streak and all principles of decency, morality and sanity gone to dogs? To mobs of mad dogs? One feels submerged in anarchy, murder, mayhem, dangers, apprehensions and uncertainty. The national landscape presents a scene of total erosion of valued norms, on the one side and a sense of security on the other.
