WE expect justice from the courts and a beyond reproach behaviour from our political leadership, but as citizens we don’t think twice before committing several acts of injustice every day. A few examples are given below and this is just a sample.

We thoughtlessly jump queues; are impatient with and rude to people. Every individual in society occupies more than needed space, hence this impatience and rudeness affects society.

We steal electricity; violate traffic rules; bribe others for our comfort and convenience, lie to protect our interests; and worse, lie to bring misery upon others of whom we are jealous, and resort to use of foul language to hurt others. Our courts are dealing with hundreds of thousands of cases that are caused by bruised egos and arrogance.

The list of transgressions can go on. The objective, however, is to find a solution. These are remediable injustices which we can fix quickly like an ‘on and off’ switch. It doesn’t incur any cost, just the realisation that one day we will have to answer for our sins of omission and commission.

The Almighty has answered our prayers and blessed us with a leader who is a rationale person who has his heart in the right place and his hands out of the public till. The pillars of the state have also stepped forward to do their bit.

It is now for the Pakistani citizen to step forward and do his bit. The people have to become conscious about injustice and mend their ways. This is the first step towards an egalitarian society.

Farooq Ahmed
Cape Town, South Africa

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2019