MEN and women are designed differently to perform some specific functions that the opposite gender cannot. But, sadly, men exploit their physical strength and social status for taking over women physically as well as mentally. In the ‘modern’ jargon, men are robots corrupted by a lethal virus that is making our society a miserable place to live in. After each gory incident, some protest marches and candlelight vigils are held until some new victim replaces the previous one. And the vicious cycle goes on and on. Shamefully, we are letting these robots upgrade their software to a dangerous level where they will get totally out of control. Such vultures need to get punished timely and adequately to reduce the increasing number of such crimes.

Raising voice against the spike in brutal acts in society does not demand one to be a feminist; all it takes is to be a human. We have no idea about how many of the young girls taking part in protest marches and candlelight vigils today are actually the victims of tomorrow. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Maheen Asif
Islamabad

(2)

HAVING seen the use of privilege in some of the heinous murder cases that otherwise received massive media coverage, one hopes there will be no out-of-court settlement in the ongoing case related to the murder of Noor Mukadam by the accused, Zahir Jaffer.

History reveals that in high-profile murder cases, money offered by the accused to the victim’s family matters more than the evidence and the verdict. In the present case, the lawyer of the complainant has observed that police invoked Section 302 of the penal code, which is compoundable and may compel the victim’s family for an out-of-court settlement. Section 311, which eliminates the provision of family settlement, has not been invoked.

Both the families are giants on the social scale. Reports have quoted the father of the victim as having ruled out the possibility of any compromise. One hopes that the accused, if convicted by a court of law, would not be set free as a result of any out-of-court settlement.

Sayed G.B. Shah Bokhari
Peshawar

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2021