by Dr. Khalil Ahmad
The title looks like the name of a blockbuster film. But, it’s no film. It actually happened at the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Without going into the details of the incident, just the reported facts are sufficient to serve the purpose of the article which is to highlight its symbolic importance.
Country: Pakistan
City: Karachi
Location: Mausoleum of the Father of the Nation
Day: March 15
Time: Late in the evening
Lighting conditions: Darkness as the area was under electricity load-shedding
Subject: 18 year old girl of an ordinary family from District Lodhran
Details of the incident as reported in the press: The subject with her family came to visit the Mazar. She was alone in the vicinity of the mazar waiting for her husband who had gone outside to bring the remaining family in, when the electricity load-shedding started at the mazar. Under darkness she was grabbed by some men who took her into the storeroom of the mazar where she was assaulted by them. In the early hours of March 17, she was found in an unstable condition outside the mazar.
Alleged rapists: Security staff posted at the mazar out of which some are being investigated while others are absconding
Safety measures adopted after the incident: The mausoleum management has decided that only families will be allowed to visit the museum at the Quaid-e-Azam’s Mausoleum after 4.00 p.m. It was also decided by the management that a standby electricity generator would be installed on the premises
As we follow the day to day developments, it appears that various spiders have come out to weave their cobwebs around the case, all in the name of winning justice for the victim. These spiders include police, social, moral, religious, political, NGOs, media and administration groups. They have different motives to seek and churn this or that capital out of it.
For instance, police want to show how efficiently it acted in the case and brought the culprits to book, no matter they are innocent commoners who fall victim to a brutal and unintelligent force’s inhuman and unlawful method of investigation.
The social activists want to make their mark and try to prove that how apathetic and insensitive the Pakistani society has become that such heinous acts are committed at such sanctified places and how this brings a bad name to the already discredited government.
The moral watch-dogs find an exceptional opportunity to further their agenda of moral persecution of the common people to redeem their lives in line with their own personal wishes.
The religious affinities flex their muscles to assert their domineering position over society, politics and government to run the state and manage people’s lives according to their politico-religious philosophy.
The political interests from both right and left play their own trumpets to show how alive they are to the needs of common people; if they are in the government they pressurize police for quick results and make relief announcements to sooth the victims; and if in opposition they take up this cause as if they are going to win the next elections on the basis of their role especially in this case.
The NGOs pickets try to take lead to show that how all of the state institutions are dismally incapable of responding to the urgent call of the people.
The media have their own business of news-making in the name of providing people with information and awareness.
Finally, it is the administration that sets itself with the foremost task of taking all such measures that help save its face, and resorts to such measures that again restrict the free movement of the peaceful citizens while the criminals or potential criminals are never targeted.
They all may be right, and sure it is their right to act in this way and seek their motives provided this activity of theirs is not violative of fundamental constitutional rights of an individual and interference in due process of law. But this does not preclude the impression that something is wrong somewhere, and very seriously. We should ask: Why can’t this be treated simply as a case of law? Why police and the concerned court of law are just left alone to do their job? Why so many outside players have to jump into it?
The gut answer may be worded like this: it’s the absence of rule of law in the country that creates the vacuum which a number of such interventional entities rush to fill out. It is this vacuum that justifies so many other attempts at justifying these interventions, right or wrong. More importantly, and it’s the argument of this article, it is this vacuum that creates an environment in which possibilities of criminal activity become opportunities for c rimes.
A country where there is no respect for the basic law; where the mighty generals suspend, subvert, change, amend, abrogate and blatantly violate the constitution; where no general was ever tried for such acts of high treason; where independent minded judges are victimized and deposed; where higher courts judges are hand-picked by the top ruler of the country to have verdicts of his choice; where political parties and leaders are just power hungry and are always ready to coalesce even with those who have least respect for the constitution of the country, who have no moral and social values to guide their public behavior; where any usurper have no fear that he may be held responsible and tried.
A country where only a low-level constable bears the brunt of an anti-corruption campaign and the top cop lives scot-free; where police protects criminals, acts like criminals, and promotes crimes; where courts are turned into markets of justice; where if any judge comes forward to protect fundamental rights of the wretchedly ordinary people, whole government machinery is put against him and his removal comes on top of its agenda; where no one is ever held accountable for his crimes; where the criminals of all ilk are rewarded with respect, reward and riches; where never ever was committed such a crime that did not pay; where an ordinary citizen is just like an autumn leaf without any hope of a springtime to come in his pale and dried.
In such a country what people practically learn is that here no law or value rules. Here men rule. Here might rules. Here crime rules. Here rules all that is unconstitutional and unlawful. Here rules all that tramples all moral and social values. This learning makes up their minds and fashions their daily lives. It is this learning that partly justifies the interventions. The interventionists make an aim of it to win justice for the victim because they know there will be no justice.
We know crimes cannot be uprooted. Absolutist moralists are wrong. Crimes will always be there in some neighborhood. But we know it by experience, and history also tells us, that their number can drop to a minimum level. Of the two categories of criminals, leave the hardened criminals aside; they will always make room for their crimes even if there exists no possibility for the crime. It is always possible to work with the second category. It is they, like the rapers at the mausoleum, who have to see whether abduction and rape of a lonely girl, wherever she happens to be, at a sanctified or an ordinary place, is a possibility or an opportunity. It is what is at the back of their minds that tells them it’s a possibility or an opportunity. If they know they will never be spared and law in any case will take its course, the possibility of crime, which always exists everywhere, will most probably not transform into an opportunity for crime.
In order to have it to take place in Pakistan, first thing we need is rule of law. Second a government that strictly adheres to the constitution and protects fundamental rights of the citizens. But along with all this, what we need urgently is an independent judiciary. In addition to all these things, we need an efficient system of justice which is aided by a smart and intelligent police independent of the whims of the executive. And, another most important factor is a will on the part of the judiciary and police to pursue every case from a minor offence to high treason to its logical conclusion.
This is how the vacuum created by the absence of rule of law could be filled gradually; but if none is spared and every case is concluded expeditiously with due punishment prescribed under law and with due relief to the victim deemed fit by the court, surely there will be coming in a very short period of time a qualitative change in the country. The society is ripe for this transformation. Whether the newly sworn in government is prepared to play its due role is not clear.
However, if the new government does not bring itself up to the task, and continues with the previous government’s policy of complicity with and backing of such unlawful elements which for instance like an organized mafia let loose the rein of terror in the city of Karachi on May 12 last year and that too under the very nose of federal and provincial governments and tried to terrorize the Sindh High Court which was conducting an inquiry into the causes of those incidents. We know how shamelessly both federal and provincial governments refused such an inquiry. In that case, crimes like this rape at the mausoleum and May 12 rein of terror in the same city are not likely to stop or diminish since those causes will remain in force which help the possibility of crimes transform into opportunities for crimes. Not only rapes at the mausoleum, but rape of the constitution of the country will also continue.
This article appeared in The Post on April 7, 2008.
