THE critical 24 hours after Shahbaz Taseer’s kidnapping have passed. There has been plenty of nervous energy and rhetoric on display. The Punjab government has vowed it will spare no effort to recover the son of slain governor Salman Taseer. The federal government has put on its own exhibition of loyalty to the Taseer family. There are so far no clues about the abductors of Mr Taseer, who appears to have paid a price for being an heir to his father’s legacy without claiming his political mantle. Politically, he was quiet after his interview with the BBC 10 days after his father’s assassination. He showed no signs of harbouring the feelings of revenge that have sadly come to characterise this society. He spoke of religion as a means to ensure peace in life and promised to play his part in the development of his country. But the country is, unfortunately, haunted by all kinds of criminals working to push it in exactly the opposite direction. Tragically, the government is not doing enough to thwart their designs.

Mr Taseer’s kidnapping in broad daylight in Lahore on Friday is a serious crime that sends a grave message to the Punjab government that it cannot afford to continue with its favourite pass-the-buck game. The incident comes exactly a year after the high-profile kidnapping of a son-in-law of Gen Tariq Majeed on Aug 25, 2010, which fell on the 14th of Ramazan. This year American development worker Warren Weinstein was kidnapped from his house in Model Town on the 12th of Ramazan — perhaps offering a pattern for investigators to probe.

These abductions are used as examples of just how exposed less visible citizens are to crime. The people are tired of government explanations routinely shifting blame to targets accused of not taking sufficient security measures, and the cover used to hide government inefficiency has been blown away. Governor Latif Khosa could hardly be pulled up for exaggeration when he lambasted the Punjab administration for failing to effectively protect the people. This Ramazan has been particularly bad, and police officers admit that crime has crossed ‘tolerable’ levels. There have been violent robberies and murders, leading to an unprecedented sense of insecurity. One reason often cited by the police for this rising crime is the media’s focus on the Punjab police’s preferred method of disposing of ‘criminals’ through encounters. Then the upsurge is blamed on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s engagements in other areas. Mr Sharif cannot be present everywhere at one time. There is a basic flaw in his administration that needs to be corrected immediately.