IT has become a norm in society that a man from the affluent class gets bail before arrest, and a man who belongs to the lower class suffers arrest and unbearable torture. This has led to the creation of two classes in society; one that can be tortured, and the other one that cannot be touched.

Our history is replete with examples where rich people escaped on the basis of some little loophole in the law by greasing the right palms. One such incident happened in Dadu where two boys, blinded by their craze for recording a video for a social media platform, ran over a poor bystander who was the sole bread-earner of his seven little children.

It has been reported that the culprits are roaming freely, and pressure is being applied on the family of the victim to forget about taking any legal action against them. To stop the victim’s family from pursuing the case, the culprits are using political influence.

The mother of the victim has died in the meanwhile as she was unable to bear the loss of her son, and the pressure from the culprit’s family did not allow her to even mourn the death in peace.

When a poor man is forced to face such an unbearable and heart-wrenching situation, where should he go except to the law-enforcement agencies? But given the situation in the interior of Sindh, where the feudal and their wealthy partners rule supreme, the poor man seems hapless.

Will the guardians of justice take notice?

Waseem
Dadu

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2023