Articles of the year 2014
Published on May 30th 2014
Pakistan has not lost its ability to shock. The latest being the stoning to death of an expectant woman, in the hallowed compound of the Punjab High Court. This news has reverberated around the world, and throughout Pakistan raising queries about ‘Shining Punjab’. A province being run by the brother of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The doubts thus created about the ability of both brothers to govern the country, and the Province, if a gruesome murder can be committed in the Capital city of the Punjab.
This has turned the stomachs of all Pakistanis, and all Punjabis, as being against the sensibilities of all who managed to read or hear about this crime. For once the religious right was not involved. Perhaps the Taliban should be asked to give their exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of this crime. The Father, and brother should be executed in a befitting manner –perhaps similar to their own measure of rage. Maybe the Medieval ‘Hung drawn and quarter’ could be brought out of the History books.
The Sharif Brothers have to reconsider their ability to Govern. For the crime, committed on the premises of the Punjab High Court, raises questions of the spectacle, witnessed by hundreds of litigants with petitions in hand seeking Justice from the same High Court. The effect of this behavior on the persons present on the premises must have been extraordinary. Perhaps we do need a Taliban administration whose punishments are very similar, but only ordered and executed by the Taliban themselves. No one else is allowed to strike this terror, it is for the exclusive domain of the Taliban themselves. It does give credence to the thought that the Sharif Brothers have turned and blind eye to the spread of the Taliban into the Punjab. The ‘stoning’ may just be the tip of the Talibanization, or existence of the thinking that lurks beneath the ‘happy’ Punjab, to reveal its ugliness, and depravity. We will have to see how many of the people on the premises of the High Court who saw the murder, or even the Judges who were busy dispensing justice at the time react . This was an insult to all of them. Let us see whether there is any outrage, or any action. The PTI would do well to have a Dharna at the spot, maybe a monument to commemorate the deed in this the 21st century.
The Sharif Brothers will have to prove whether they can perform at a level to justify the ‘mandate’ given them in the last election. We must see whether, and how many heads roll in the aftermath of this shocking crime. The Talkshow hosts are strangely silent, and even secular, modern Karachi is muted—a strange uncomfortable silence. Are the Chattering classes and bleeding hearts not awake to what has happened in the Cultural Capital city of Pakistan—Lahore. Strange, this silence. The owners of the TV stations must rethink their priorities, and pay heed to the enormity of these crimes, and fulfill their duty to expose this bestial behavior in our public. This cannot be condoned, not can the silence of the Media. Perhaps the Media is too concerned in the defense of one of their own. It does expose a Commercial bent of their collective agenda, for ,there is no ‘news’ value. And cannot be marketed abroad.
The shock to the Pakistani public is immense, and the people are waiting to see an appropriate response from the Government. The ability to Govern has now been questioned, and should be followed by a cacophony of voices to clamour for an appropriate punishment. For this silence seems to admit a priority by the Media, whose stifled outrage indicates an absence of marketable copy, not in keeping with the enormity of the crime. It has been carried by all the news papers from Houston to Singapore, yet the story has died of suffocation here in Pakistan. Surely something is rotten in the State –of the Media? Maybe the Media should examine their own selves, and question their own priorities. The foreign media has picked up the story, and played it for the horrific nature of the crime, and of course the Pakistan angle, which is always good copy. But for the Pakistani media, and the talk show hosts this is inexcusable. As a Pakistani, and a reader of most newspapers, this is reprehensible.