WHAT can be more hypocritical than tolerance for sexual predators in an Islamic republic? They are to be found everywhere; the workplace, schools, seminaries, hospitals and cities, towns and villages. The Kasur tragedy is a case in point. When a country’s laws are held hostage by criminals, and the greed of state officials takes precedence over the country’s interests, the people lose faith in the government, which leads to chaos.

If the Punjab government had brought to justice the criminals accused of molesting young boys and girls in 2014, or the first rape and murder of a minor girl of Kasur in 2017 had not gone unpunished, the lives of the other children could have been saved.

The other provinces are no better. In Sindh, the provincial machinery worked overtime to save a tycoon’s son who murdered a youth for protecting his sister’s honour.

These sexual predators are present in government departments as well as public and private sector institutions. Stringent punishment is the only deterrence to check the base animal instincts of criminals.

Aneela Chandio

Sukkur

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2018