Moeed Pirzada was invited to speak on the nexus of Pakistani Media and politics at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Washington on 24th June, 2016. Roundtable was attended by members of academia and think tank community. Pirzada explained what Pakistani media has achieved in the last 14 years and how it has changed the Pakistani political landscape and power dynamics and how its ‘sensationalism’ is actually related to its revenue model that relies exclusively on commercial advertisements. He also explained that how the position of electronic media that looked supreme till 2010 has been gradually replaced by the rise of social media. He explained that in today’s Pakistan Facebook and Twitter along with You Tube and WhatsApp shape the narrative and that explains why the government in Islamabad is trying to curtail the freedoms available to internet users through several means including use of traditional state apparatus, excuse of anti terrorism and now cyber laws. Talk was followed by a robust question answer session and participants evinced keen interest in the dynamics of Pakistani media and its relationship to political dynamics.
A Shining India’s Twilight: The Yoke of Radical Hinduism
CDA Institute Security & Defence Blogger Adnan Qaiser, a political and defence analyst with a distinguished career in the armed forces and international diplomacy, examines factors hindering India’s rise to global prominence.
James Feibleman had stated, “A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.” Just a few weeks before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the US Congress (8 June 2016) – bragging-about India’s success story, á-la Hollywood’s epic “Slumdog Millionaire – a student leader out on bail from made-up sedition charges struck-a-chord with many Indians: “We don’t want freedom from India, we want freedom in India.”
Never mind Mr. Modi was denied an American visa in 2005 for his controversial role as chief minister of Gujarat during anti-Muslim riots in 2002. However, while India has skillfully branded itself as “Shining” and “Modified” – an allusion to Mr. Modi and his Bharatia Janata Party’s (BJP) landslide victory in May 2014 elections – the country’s inherent discrepancies impede its rise to global stature. Despite impressive economic growth in recent years, its ‘hegemonic mindset’ not only keeps India embroiled in communal violence, political manipulations and insurgencies internally; it also keeps India entrapped in territorial disputes regionally.
India’s problem is its radical Hinduism – the extreme ideologies of “Hidutva” (Hindu nationalism) and “Akhand Bharat” (greater Hindustan). These dogmas, espoused by the BJP and its associated right-wing Sangh Parivar, consisting of groups like the extremist and cult-like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – are so well-entrenched in Indian psyche that even the (secular) Congress party could not stamp out Hindu-Muslim pogroms, age-old caste-system, discrimination against ethnic groups, and continuous interference in the domestic affairs of neighbouring countries.
With BJP coming into power, Mr. Modi’s mother-organization – the RSS – took centre-stage and started spreading a climate of intolerance. It began with lynching a man for allegedly eating beef and threatened Muslims against slaughtering cows (due to the animal’s sacredness in Hindu religion). RSS’s Hindu deification campaigns through ‘Ghar Wapsi’ (return to mother faith by inciting minority Christians and Muslims to convert to Hinduism) as well as ‘Love Jihad’ (discouraging Hindu girls from marrying Muslim boys), stigmatized the Indian society to such an extent that dozens of prominent artists, scientists, and writers returned their national awards as a mark of protest.
RSS carries notoriety not only in the persecution of minorities but also in Hindu-cleansing. A Hindu mob first demolished Babri Masjid – a sixteenth-century mosque in Ayodhya – on 6 December 1992, and the ensuing violence resulted in the death of some 2,000 people. The Gujarat massacre of some 1,000 Muslims under Mr. Modi’s watch is another blot on secular India. On 17 January 2016, a 26-year-old PhD student, Rohith Vermula – belonging to the (lowest) Dalit caste – had to commit suicide by hanging himself at the University of Hyderabad after BJP stalwarts, including two ministers, labeled him “anti-national” and “castiest.” Furthermore, a student leader at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kanhaiya Kumar (mentioned-above), was arrested by police in February 2016 on fabricated sedition charges by another BJP minister.
In an excellent dissection of Mr. Modi and his supporters, Siddhartha Debb notes: They admire “a kind of unmoored nihilism that dresses itself in religious colors and acts through violence, that is ruthlessly authoritarian in the face of diversity and dissent, and that imprints the brute force of its majoritarianism wherever it is in power.” Debb continues, “They assail the ‘anti-nationals’ who stand in their way, beating and molesting people while shouting, ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ [Long-live mother India].” In its scathing criticism, Human Rights Watch noted “India’s abusive laws are the hallmark of a repressive society, not a vibrant democracy.”
While India’s democratic credentials are lauded, one must be mindful of the ills of its multi-party system. First, in cobbling together alliances to form governments, bribery, corruption, and foul-play become rampant. Secondly, political-party machinations often lead to a government’s fall, sometimes forcing fresh elections – demonstrating political volatility and causing a heavy toll on the exchequer. From 1989 to 1999, India saw no less than five elections with seven prime ministers. The possibility of enjoying only a short time in power can generate rash decisions. In Inside Nuclear South Asia, Kanti Bajpai points out the motive behind the BJP government (a coalition of 20-odd parties) carrying-out nuclear tests within just three-months of coming into power in 1998 – Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “fear that his second stint as prime minister might not be very long;” a trepidation brought home by Mr. Vajpayee’s previous time in office in 1996, which only lasted 13 days.
Repression, social injustice, and economic deprivation further make India home to a number of insurgencies. The struggle in Jammu and Kashmir led India to deploy nearly 700,000 troops in the valley, granting unrestrained powers through the much-abused and condemned Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Meanwhile, the Sikh community’s Khalistan movement has been reincarnated after it was brutally crushed in 1984. The president of the Sikh-centric political party Shiromani Akali Dal, Simranjit Singh Mann, demanded (in June 2015) a state of Khalistan to act as a buffer between India, China and Pakistan. Meanwhile, an overseas Khalistan-2020 referendum-drive for Sikh homeland has gained momentum and demands have been made for a UN inquiry to probe Golden Temple massacre 32 years ago. Finally, India is occupied in a full-blown Naxalite-Maoist insurgency since 1967 in its eastern “red corridor” and “seven-sister-states.” Castigating India, famed writer and social activist Arundhati Roy noted there has not been a day since 1947 when the Indian army has not been deployed against its own people.
Furthermore, India’s hegemonic mindset – or its Greater Hindustan notion – has often contributed to tense relations with neighbouring countries. Following the 1962 Sino-Indian War, India remains mired in territorial disputes over Aksai Chin and Ladakh regions in the west (claimed by India) as well as south of the McMahon Line at Arunachal Pradesh in the east (claimed by China). Nepal, on the other hand, claims Kalapani, which India forcibly took in 1962. In fact, on allegations that India was trying to topple his government, Prime Minister K.P. Oli cancelled the Nepalese president’s visit to India and recalled his ambassador in May 2016.
India’s dubious role in Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long civil war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – where initially the Indian army (as peacekeepers) supported the LTTE only to change tack in the end – demonstrates the country’s expansionist proclivities. The assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the hands of LTTE in May 1991 reveals the group’s rancour about this about-face. Moreover, it took India 68 years to settle its dispute over 162 enclaves in the Bay of Bengal with Bangladesh; yet Bangladesh continues to lament reduction of water in the River Ganges – and floods during Monsoon – due to India’s Farakka Barrage on Ganges. Wary of India’s interference, Bangladesh denies India trans-country access to India’s northeastern seven-sister-states.
India-Pakistan rivalry, meanwhile, remains deep-rooted and intense (for some perspective see here and here). The arrest of a serving Indian naval commander spying for Indian intelligence in March 2016 provides a good reminder of India’s meddling in Pakistan. Despite having fought three wars (plus five close-calls in 1986–87, 1990–91, 1999, 2001–02, and 2008), the major dispute over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir continues to afflict their relations since subcontinent’s partition. Another dispute over a 60-mile-long tidal estuary, called Sir-Creek, also remains unresolved – largely due to India’s political obduracy rather than any legal hindrance. Furthermore, India clandestinely occupied Siachen glacier in April 1984. Said to be the highest battlefield on earth, the harsh weather conditions have led to a steady number of fatalities for this otherwise nonsensical troop presence.
Stephen Cohen, an authority on South-Asia, notes in his book Shooting for a Century: “Normalization [in relations] is as much in India’s interest as in Pakistan’s. New Delhi will have difficulty ‘rising,’ ‘emerging,’ or becoming one of the major powers of Asia if it has to haul a wounded Pakistan around.”
In order to join global elite, India needs to change its outlook and address its internal inconsistencies. India’s “geospatial information regulation bill” proposing heavy penalties for representing India’s geographical boundaries against its wishes is absurd, to say the least. India’s domineering approach has already put it at odds with the very purpose of the South-Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. India must also stop acting like an American Sheriff in the region, following its signing of a few nuclear and defence deals with the US. Having hurt its non-aligned credentials by courting the former Soviet Union during Cold War, India’s ‘Bollywood style offerings’ to the US – presenting itself as a countervailing force against China – only diminishes its international standing. But then its the India’s charm that speaks when US Admiral Harry Harris admits his Pacific Command stretches “from Hollywood to Bollywood.”
However, as Hollywood’s Spiderman said, “With great power comes great responsibility;” India’s time to fame is yet to arrive.
Adnan Qaiser is a political and defence analyst having had a distinguished career in the armed forces as well as in international diplomacy and public and social sector development. He can be reached at: a.qaiser1@yahoo.com
Conference of Defence Associations Institute – The Forum
Do we feel answerable to God & our Conscience?
I have spent several sleepless nights in the last few days. Yes! the burning of, 19 year old, Maria was gruesome, was shocking and hard to digest. One shudders to imagine the pain, the fear the stink of burning skin of a person surrounded by flames. And all that, not an accident but on purpose. That should have been enough to keep any sensitive person sleepless, but what followed since then was even more shocking, more tragic and this is what keeps me sleepless. Not for Maria, but for all of us, for Pakistan.
We all know Punjab Police is politicized, dysfunctional as an institution. We know how it is used, exploited and pushed to do things it should not be doing. Things that demean police officers and force as an institution. We know ‘Model Town Tragedy’ was created from the top, in the end Punjab Police was made to take the blame. We know how an upright officer like Mohammad Ali Nekokara, former SSP Islamabad, was treated, for taking a principled position; we know what happened to Shariq Kamal, DPO, Bahawalnagar recently when he was summarily surrendered from Punjab for doing the right thing.
But what happened to 19 year old Maria in Dewal Sharif, near Murree is not ‘Model Town fiasco’ its not Panama Files, its not Election Rigging or Dharnas; it has nothing to do with high stake politics of survival; Maria has not been killed because of the high and mighty planning something in Lahore or Islamabad; Maria’s soul is not being denied justice because Shahbaz Sharif or Zardari are influencing police; if anything I am sure Shahbaz Sharif will like justice to be done, he will like culprits to be punished, in this case, but yet it looks that nothing will happen; And this, precisely this aspect, that nothing will happen despite the ‘interest of the Chief Minister and the Govt of Punjab, makes it all the more frightening. This is the ‘system’s failure, system’s collapse, real nightmare’, if you care to understand.
And that process, of ‘Kuch Nahin Hona’ has already started. Maria was burnt on Sunday, 29th May. Girl’s family took her to a police station; she recorded her statement, identifying two out of the five persons who attacked her, who kicked her like a football and then doused her with petrol and burnt her alive and left her for dead. Her statement became ‘dying declaration’ when on Wed, 1st June she died in PIMS, Islamabad succumbing to 85% burns. Earth between Islamabad and Murree should have been shaken. But as they say, ‘Kuch Nahin hona’!
Gradually we start to hear, we find out the truth of our society, our values, we discover ourselves in the magical mirror of the ‘beauty and the beast’ only this time it is held by a dying girl, in a burns unit, and held right in front of our faces. In that magical mirror we find out: police never showed much initiative in arresting the principal accused. He was in the area, and has, as per his own admission, in his own video, surrendered voluntarily, apparently after getting good legal advice. And his 90 second long ‘ablution’ of washing himself for a sacred duty and holding Quran in his hands must have been the legal advice; his defense is ‘known piety’ and a ‘telephone set’ which may show him somewhere else.
In the magical mirror we then see: Crowds appearing outside a mosque, chanting in the favor of the accused. Some police officials, the local strong men of the area, convey their displeasure to the reporters, for making it such a big issue. A local bodies official, who has recently been elected, and who we hear is affiliated with the ruling party, thunders in front of the public: “I will see who arrests Master Shaukat?” And then people start talking of a minister who is trying to mediate, trying to reconcile both families, lets settle, lets do a ‘muk-mukka’. Elders of the villages warn the father of Maria that his daughter is dead, gone and now people will talk ill of her, she is dead, but now she will be dishonored. Many of these things start to happen, even before Maria’s death, while she was struggling with 85% burns in PIMS, writhing with pain, searching her last breaths in Islamabad.
But then Maria is dead. Police whisks away her body for a post-mortem, away from Islamabad, to civil hospital in Murree. We still don’t know what has been written in the post-mortem report. But now suddenly we hear that villagers believe that Maria had committed suicide. She was having an affair with Master Shaukat’s son; she may have been pregnant, Master reprimanded her father and once father insulted her, she committed suicide. Then we hear that may be her father had burnt her, and then blamed the pious man, Master Shaukat; Why? Because he owed him money.
More than two years ago, we were having a tv discussion. A woman had been gang raped somewhere in Punjab. A prominent, bold, important politician of Punjab, was with us. During the break, he turned towards me and the other participants and said: ‘Dr Saab, she was never raped, we have checked, she was their friend, she went out of her free will’. Surprised, I asked him: “She could be a friend to one; she could not be a friend to two or three of them? And rape is about aggression; what about the tears, abrasions, the medical examination? “Oh! Dr Saab, you are too educated; you have spent too much time outside, in the foreign, she was a friend to all of them, and such abrasions do happen in excitement; she is just blaming them for some money”
With attitudes like these, with such audacious unafraid expressions of primitive misogyny, you cannot talk about facts; it is about a culture and place of woman in it. And crowds in Ausia and men in Dewal Sharif, minions of police, local politicians, local media wallas, local clerics, heads of local bodies and local patriarchal old ladies may all be part of the same mind set. This needs an intervention from the outside; this asks for a trained, autonomous modern police; a police with a conscience, a police with a mind bigger than Dewal Sharif and Ausia; something which we don’t have in Punjab.
Let’s look at this mindset one by one. So the crowds appeared in the village of Ausia. Local cleric declared that Master Shaukat is a pious man, who prays five times a day. Cleric and later the politico both blame and warn media for playing a larger game, veiled references towards the west, a mere death of a girl, though unfortunate, but a mere death, amongst many many problems of the country, has been turned into a global issue. “Ausia” has been made infamous around the world.
I had heard of German and French and Japanese nationalism, but never before had I seen the ‘nationalism of village’. Crowds were carrying painted banners declaring that ‘FIR is not Acceptable’; as someone pointed out on twitter, this was first public demonstration in human history against a woman who was burnt alive. Why? Because it was no one else but Maria, who had recorded her statement in police station before dying. Do we not know that ‘dying declaration’ has a certain legal strength behind it and for good reasons? Do we not know that such a congregation of men – as appeared in Ausia – is never spontaneous? Do we not know that for such demonstrations people are always collected and persuaded by some one influential? Do we not know that painting banners needs money, time and planning?
Maria committed suicide? She was 19, full of life and health, looking eagerly towards a future, towards doing a BA and a renewed career; suicide is a well studied phenomenon; Maria’s profile simply does not fit into the story of a suicide. And suicide, if it takes place, has certain kind of emotions, sentiments behind it; suicide has its own logic, its own perverted rationale; what kind of suicide is that in which a 19-year-old girl decides to finish herself off, in the most painful fashion, by burning herself when she is alone with her little epileptic sister, and then as a dying person lands in hospital, in agony, giving graphic details of ‘five men who kicked her like football and doused her with petrol and burnt her alive’. Did we not hear of countless women, daughter-in-laws, who died of burns due to cylinder bursts?
Wait! Her father burnt her alive and blamed ‘Master Shaukat’ as Master hints, without saying, in his video. And as so many other misogynists are saying openly in Ausia. Really? And her father, after burning her took her to police for a statement? And then to the hospital to save her life so that she can indict him at some stage? To those who took her to hospital on 29th May, her death was not certain by any means.
By now Maria’s burning alive and death has assumed a societal and political situation which surrounds every gang rape, most murders and every crime where a stronger party, even a marginally stronger party is involved. None of such cases ever sees a logical end.
What could have made the difference was a professional police; a depoliticized, autonomous police headed in the area by a young fearless, independent DPO/CPO. What could he and his men have done? Everything. They would have provided the connect between the medieval mind set of the villages and the world to which we belong. I was talking to one such professional policemen. And he was clear: Police should have immediately done ‘Geo-Fencing’ which can still be done within a time period of 45 days. Challenge was to determine the ‘time line of events’ and its relationship to various persons, those who were under accusation and those who were accusing. All accused should have been immediately arrested, without giving them the opportunity of creating alibis, fake witnesses and interactions. All accused detained – and even Maria’s family members – should have been isolated from each other, questioned and their descriptions and timelines of events of 29th May, should have been contrasted with each other and with others in the area and then checked against the ‘Call Data Records’ (CDR’s) which could identify the locations of all under scrutiny on 29th May. We have not seen or heard of any such police activity. Many will wonder why?
And every time we sack a SSP like ‘Mohammad Ali Nekokara’ or a DPO like Shariq Kamal, for doing what they ought to have done, for standing up for principles, for integrity, for the right institutional ethos and pride, we further weaken the institution of police.
Every time a crime hits us in the face and then buries itself somewhere in our consciousness without logical explanation, without the due process of law, without a believable outcome, we become even more disappointed from ourselves. We loathe ourselves, feel even more helpless. In the end, its not about Maria Sadaqat; its not about death or pain, or the shock of being burnt. Accidents happen, literally every day, every minute. Its about tyranny of one man against anther; its about ‘power of one man over the other – the weak. ’Its about control and being controlled. Whatever happened since 29th May is about ‘Power and Weakness’. When you study cancer, when you do a biopsy, you take a tiny microscopic tissue and examine it; it tells you about the tumor, the extent of growth, of malignancy and prognosis of the whole body. I am not sleepless about 19 year old Maria Sadaqat; I am sleepless about myself, all of us and about Pakistan. Tissue sample of Dewal Sharif and Ausia, of its politicos, police, clerics and its crowds does not offer a good prognosis for any of us.
[Moeed Pirzada is TV Anchor & Editor Strategic Affairs, Dunya News; he studied International Relations at Columbia University New York, Medicine from Punjab Univ, and Law at London School of Economics and Political Science. He tweets at MoeedNj]
Maria’s Last Words: The Master and his Son? Mian Arshad?
Most professionals in the media and many users of social media have already seen this gruesome video – almost Maria Sadaqat’s dying declaration. We had received this video, early last week. Maria Sadaqat was burnt on Sunday 29th, and this video statement was available the same day or next day with most media outlets, we only showed the blurred glimpses in our programs because its gruesome and would have violated PEMRA’s code, since TV is an open mass media without any barriers to entry/viewerships for any age. Internet is a different medium, restricted by the possession of computer, or handheld device, broadband access and then barriers of knowledge and languages in many cases. Its a medium of choice.
But that is not the only reason, we are making this available here. It is now important to view this gruesome video for all aware citizens. Because the man, ‘Master Shaukat’ who was accused by Maria in her statement in the police station on 29th May, of beating and burning her, has also issued his own video. That video is also available on Facebook and other social media outlets. We will also make that available on this website. There is another longer video, recorded on a handheld device by someone, at the Police Station. We will also upload that video. So a total of three video: Two of Maria and one of Master Shaukat. All three are must to be watched by all aware responsible and God fearing citizens of Pakistan and the whole world. Ultimately citizen’s consciousness and it will determine the fate of any system.
It is important to mention and to note, as you watch these videos that Maria – who died on Wed 1st June 2016, at Pakistani Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, out of her 85% burns – is laboring to speak under great pain, words are difficult to utter, her skin, her arms, face, all muscles are burnt and even a millimeter of movement is a herculean act. Master Shaukat’s video starts with him, doing an ablution (wuzu) in his rather posh bathroom; he then holds on a Quran in his hands and testifies that he has been wrongly accused; he has nothing to do with the case, and Maria’s father had some financial problems with him so Maria was instructed to name him before dying. How credible is that? Let educated people of Pakistan be a jury on this question.
But Jury of Pakistani people must keep in mind few facts: Maria’s statement captured on video is a running happening event, happening in what you call in media language ‘real time’; Master Shaukat’s video is a planned act; has many retakes, has been made professionally and it appears that it has been made under legal advice to create excuses and evidences. Police help cannot be ruled out as well. You will find more analysis in my blog.
Master Shoukat’s Video Denial?
‘Master Shaukat’ who was accused by Maria Sadaqat, in her statement in the Pagodi Police station, near Murree, (Tehsil, District Pindi) on 29th May, of beating and burning her, has also issued his own video. This video is also available on Facebook and other social media outlets. Someone, a supporter of Master Shaukat, referred this video to us with the taunt that if you believe ‘girl’s video’ then you must also watch this ‘pious man’s video’. We are therefore making available on this website, without any editing or change. Apart from Maria’s brief statement in great pain in which she accuses Master Shaukat (not clearly audible) and Mian Arshad, there is another longer video, recorded on a handheld device by someone, at the Police Station. We will also upload that video. So a total of three videos are now in circulation on social media: Two of Maria and one of Master Shaukat. All three are must to be watched by all aware responsible and God fearing citizens of Pakistan and the whole world. Ultimately citizen’s consciousness will determine the fate of any system of justice.
It is important to mention and to note, as you watch these videos that Maria – who died on Wed 1st June 2016, at Pakistani Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, out of her 85% burns – is laboring to speak under great pain, words are difficult to utter, her skin, her arms, face, neck, every part of her body, all muscles are burnt and even a millimeter of movement is a herculean act. Master Shaukat’s video starts with him, doing an ablution (wuzu) in his rather posh bathroom; this goes on for more than 60 seconds; he then holds on a Quran in his hands and testifies that he has been wrongly accused; he has nothing to do with the case, and Maria’s father had some financial problems with him so Maria was instructed to name him before dying. How credible is that? Let educated people of Pakistan be a jury on this question.
But Jury of Pakistani people must keep in mind few facts: Maria’s statement captured on video is a running happening event, happening in what you call in media language ‘real time’; Master Shaukat’s video is a planned act; has many retakes, has been made professionally and it appears that it has been made under legal advice to create excuses and evidences. Police help cannot be ruled out as well. You will find more analysis in my blog.
Girl Burnt Alive: Evidence of unimaginable tyranny! (Longer Video)
Most professionals in the media and many users of social media have already seen this gruesome video or its shorter version – almost Maria Sadaqat’s dying declaration. We had received this video, early last week. Maria Sadaqat was burnt on Sunday 29th, and this video statement was available the same day or next day with most media outlets, we only showed briefly the blurred glimpses in our programs because its gruesome and would have violated PEMRA’s code, since TV is an open mass media without any barriers to entry/viewerships for any age. Internet is a different medium, restricted by the possession of computer, or handheld device, broadband access and then barriers of knowledge and languages in many cases. Its a medium of choice.
But that is not the only reason, we are making this available here. It is now important to view this gruesome video for all aware citizens. Because the man, ‘Master Shaukat’ who was accused by Maria in her statement in the police station on 29th May, of beating and burning her, has also issued his own video. That video is also available on Facebook and other social media outlets. We will also make that available on this website. This video which you are watching here is a longer video, recorded on a handheld device by someone, at the Police Station. We have also uploaded the shorter video; so a total of three video: Two of Maria and one of Master Shaukat. All three are must to be watched by all aware responsible and God fearing citizens of Pakistan and the whole world. Ultimately citizen’s consciousness and moral judgement will determine the fate of any system.
It is important to mention and to note, as you watch these videos that Maria – who died on Wed 1st June 2016, at Pakistani Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, out of her 85% burns – is laboring to speak under great pain, words are difficult to utter, her skin, her arms, face, all muscles are burnt and even a millimeter of movement is a herculean act. Master Shaukat’s video starts with him, doing an ablution (wuzu) in his rather posh bathroom; he then holds on a Quran in his hands and testifies that he has been wrongly accused; he has nothing to do with the case, and Maria’s father had some financial problems with him so Maria was instructed to name him before dying. How credible is that? Let educated people of Pakistan be a jury on this question.
But Jury of Pakistani people must keep in mind few facts: Maria’s statement captured on video is a running happening event, happening in what you call in media language ‘real time’; Master Shaukat’s video is a planned act; has many retakes, has been made professionally and it appears that it has been made under legal advice to create excuses and evidences and an appeal to the Chief Minister of Punjab. Police help cannot be ruled out as well. You will find more analysis in my blog.
Tonight With Moeed Pirzada: Cyber Crime Bill !!!
How open to scrutiny the okaying of the proposed legislation was, and perhaps how interested lawmakers are in this piece of legal drafting, can be gauged from the fact that of the 342 members of the house, only 30 members were present. Now that it has been passed by the lower house of parliament, it is still not free from controversy.While Talking to Dr Moeed Pirzada Asad Jamal is an advocate of high courts human rights activists argued against Section 34 on the power to manage information systems, which He said gives the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority the power to block any website it deems is carrying objectionable or offensive content. He criticized the legislative structures that are in his opinion not working in the right direction. He said that there are no legislative bodies around the world that function or pass bills without appropriate relevant research on the matter.
Tonight With Moeed Pirzada: Khalistan Movement for Sikh State Still alive… !!!
Manmohan Singh Khalsa from Southall, UK joins Dr Pirzada via phone. Khalsa was a founding member of the Dal Khalsa UK that was the first unit of Dal Khalsa (International) established outside of Punjab. Dal Khalsa was the name of the Sikh army that operated in the 17th and 18th centuries (1660–1780) in the Punjab region. The primary aim of Dal Khalsa is to achieve the independence of the Sikh majority region of North West India through peaceful and democratic means in order to establish a sovereign Sikh state, Khalistan. Manmohan Khalsa has been in exile since 12 February 1984 till the present day. Under his leadership, Dal Khalsa UK led protests against the 1984 Sikh Massacres in India and the military attack on the (the Golden Temple), the Sikhs’ holiest shrine. In 1984 from 3rd July to 8th July, then Indian Prime Minister Indra Gandhi ordered an army operation to get the occupation of Sikh Pilgrims from Golden Temple in Amritsar Punjab. Golden temple has a religious value to the Sikhs as one of their thrones Akal Takht is located in premises of Golden Temple. As result of army operation thousands of Sikh pilgrims got killed. Only after four months of the operation PM Indra Gandhi was killed by two of her Sikh body guards. Riots erupted after her killing that resulted in murder of almost 3000 Sikhs in New Delhi. On 32nd anniversary of Operation Blue star Sikhs will observe June 6 as ‘Khalistan Day not only in India but in United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan and USA as well. Protests were staged by Sikhs not only inside India but in UK and other countries as well in remembrance of genocide during operation blue star.
Tonight With Moeed Pirzada: PM Modi’s Active Foreign Strategy !!!
Dr Pirzada explains how PM Narendra Modi is on a strategic tour to conquer the world. Modi’s whirlwind trip is taking him to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, United States and Mexico. Two principal goals stand out: One, to create support for Indian admission into Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and Secondly, to isolate Pakistan in the region. Trips to Switzerland, Mexico and the United States are to build Indian case for NSG; in the US Modi will address the joint session of US Congress and will expect Obama administration to send a strong signal to the NSG Meeting in Vienna set for 9th and 10th June. India filed its application on 12th May this year, one week before Pakistan. Both countries have filed applications under the ‘Criteria based Admission to NSG’ being advocated by China that had objected to the exclusive treatment being given specifically to India. China is trying for simultaneous entry of both India and Pakistan, however the US may not help Pakistan at all, as it is obvious from recent comments of State Department; US interests are totally wedded to those of India thought US keeps creating obfuscations about its policy in the region, but surely actions speak louder than words.
This segment also discusses Indian strategy of Chahbahar Port with Iran and Afghanistan. Perhaps Indian economic strategy makes it automatically a rival of China Pakistan Economic Corridor. (CPEC); What will then be the implications for Pakistan?
Tonight With Moeed Pirzada: Deadlock over the Terms of References !!!
Deadlock over the Terms of References (TORs) that cater the investigation of the Panama Leaks issue persists between the government and the Opposition as no important breakthrough could be achieved in yet another meeting of the parliamentary committee.
While Talking to Dr Moeed Pirzada, Tariq Bashir Cheema member pml q said that the government does not want the Sharif family to be held accountable,adding that situation within the parliamentary committee has not been changed. He also said that only reaching agreement over the TORs would be insignificant as legislation needs to be done to deal with the issue.
Tonight With Moeed Pirzada: Girl Burnt Alive in Murree !!!
Ayesha Khan, Dunya News Reporter joined Dr Pirzada to explain what she found out in Dewal Sharif, where Maria Sadqat, 19 year old school teacher was burnt alive this week. Ayesha Khan had also covered the tragedy in Abottabad, when Ambareen was burnt alive in April this year and Ayesha explained the difference between two tragedies. In case of Abottabad, whole village remained silent, they all knew what had happened but all remained silent in front of police but in Dewal Sharif, near Murree the whole village was telling Ayesha and her team as to what happened. The difference was in the Police reaction. In Abottabad, the young DPO, Khurram Rasheed launched a massive investigation and analyzed Call Data Records (CDRs) to identity the killers. In case of Murree, the Rawalpindi Police (Punjab Police) response left much to be desired. Police in Murree was slow to react, and despite a three member committee formed by the CM Punjab, it looks like that local politics was at play to save the killers. Ayesha explains and Dr. Pirzada points out that this is a test for the CM Punjab and its IGP to prove how serious they are to punish the perpetrators of violence against women.
On a different note this is also a test for all the Human Right and Women Organizations who keep on blaming men for violence against women. Mere condemning is not enough; its time to act; all such organizations and political parties need to take an active interest to campaign on this issue. Without public and political pressure, local political influences will water down the case and killers of Maria will use influence to escape punishment.
Tonight With Moeed Pirzada: PTI’s point of view on Budget 2016-17 !!!
Mr Asad Umar, senior Tehreek e Insaf leader and former CEO of Engro, expressed his views on the 2016-17 budget presented on 3rd June 2016.
Mr Umar said that the basic issue with the budget and the finance situation is that the direct tax collection is declining while we are continuously relying on indirect tax collections, which have increased upto 60 percent.
Mr Umar also commented that this indirect tax levying is a means for the government to earn money, rather than documentation of collections.
When he was questioned about the adjustment of the withholding tax, he replied that the federal board of revenue had failed to provide the actual statistics on that regard.
He said that in the three years of the Nawaz tenure, the average Gross Domestic Product growth has been 4.3%, which is less than the average growth of the past four decades, which was 4.6%, since the 70’s.
The PTI leader said that with the current financial policies and domains, the poor of the country are getting poorer by the minute, and the rich and the powerful and benefitting.
Another Girl burnt alive! Whose daughter was she?
“They were five men, they dragged me out of the house, they kicked me like a football, and then they poured gasoline on me and set me on fire; I recognized ‘Master Shaukat’ and yes, Arshad….” These were more or less the words recorded by 19 year old Maria Sadaqat, uttered in a police station but also recorded, gasping in agony, on a video, which I have seen today; this is now her ‘dying declaration’ acceptable in law, but will she get justice? Will her tormentors and killers ever be punished? Will an example be set? Is this only about her poor father and mother and four sisters or is it about all of us? These are some of the questions I was trying to find answers for the past 2 days, and these are the questions all of us, all of you need to wrestle with.
Maria Sadaqat was only 19. One of my daughters is five, other is eleven. Maria was the eldest of five sisters and one son, children of a poor mechanic. My daughters are being raised by a father, who is saving all his pennies so that his daughters can run away from this land of savage dishonorable men, of lawless society and impotent criminal justice system. After her FA, Maria started to work as a teacher in a private school, established by a certain ‘Master Shaukat’. Master Shaukat owned this school and his son, Haroon, was also a teacher in the same school. This is close to a village, Dewal Sharif, not far from Pakistan’s summer resort of Murree.
These wooded, haunted hills used to be the epicenter of Pakistan’s amorous love. In 1960’s when Pakistan brimmed with hope and confidence, Murree – fashioned by British on Shimla- used to be a Mecca for lovers who flocked here from as far away as Karachi. My parents spent their honey moon here, in the wooded British era Cecil and Bright land hotels. I grew up listening from my mother about Kashmir point, Pindi Point, her horse rides, Ayubia chairlift and cherries. In one of my school trips here, with my class, I held and straightened the gun while ‘she’, one of my class fellows, took shots and burst the balloons. We giggled, we had strange sensations running down our spines, I clapped for her, we thought we were in love – at least till the next few days, then came the exams; Physics and Chemistry drained all hormones. But I still have her pictures. Murree used to be full of all kinds of vendors; horse wallas, snake charmers, balloon shooters, magic card wallas, and those who offered you all kinds of tricks including the kaleidoscopes full of strange scenes from the world. None of those scenes was as horrible, as grotesque as that happened to Maria Sadaqat in Dewal Sharif, dragged from her house, snatched away from her little sister of six, kicked like a football by several men, doused by petrol and then set on fire. Murree hills of 2016. What is happening to this country?
Master Shaukat, has been arrested by the police. He is a man in his sixties. He has taken an oath on Quran that he is innocent. He says, he has not done what Maria has recorded in her dying declaration. Maria’s relatives have told media and police and the whole village knows it and many have privately told our reporters that Shaukat’s son, Haroon, wanted to marry Maria. But Maria rejected him. Her relatives hasten to add that Haroon was around 40, he was married before and had children. So does that mean that a woman can not refuse to marry a man, her suitor? A woman has no free choice? She has to have a good reason to refuse, to reject a proposal? She can not just refuse to marry because she does not like you? She is not interested? She has other ideas?
I wish I could narrate to Haroon and his father, ‘Master Shaukat’ that I have lost count of the girls and the women who refused, rebuffed and rejected me in school, in college, in university, and later in the marriage market. Some of them are good friends, and some of them I came across, many years later and I thanked my stars, ‘God! I am so lucky; I did not get married to her’. I would have stopped growing. But I am being unfair, cruel, dishonest and hypocrite. There is no comparison here; life and circumstances allowed me to become a post-modern man; Haroon and Shaukat are stuck in a medieval era of fragile egos and primitive sense of honor.
Pakistan Human Rights Commission has called it yet another crime against woman. Yes! It is. But this is not all. Father of Maria, who is psychologically drenched by his agony, who threatened self-immolation if police did not arrest the killers and her uncles who were protesting on roads are men too. Men who are abused, men who are crying and men who are weak and helpless. Describing it in binary terms of men and women won’t ever take us to the solutions. There is a bigger problem here. And this relates to issues of power in defining social order. This also relates to a failure of criminal justice system that has not established, not internalized a ‘deterrence’ for the ‘aggressor’. Master Shaukat is not a typical school master, working in a government school for salary. He was the owner of the school in which Maria worked as a teacher. In that poor village of Dewal Sharif, he is somewhat rich, he is powerful in that local context. And Maria is the poor daughter of a mechanic. Maria was weak; Its about power. There are women in Islamabad, in Lahore, in Karachi, all over Pakistan who we all are afraid of; because they are powerful. It is about power.
Many years ago, I watched ‘Disclosure’. Hollywood blockbuster, based on the novel by Dr. Michael Crichton. Harvard educated MD, who turned into a writer, a tv producer, a film maker. A post-modern man; some one who should inspire all of us. Dr. Crichton created ‘Jurrasic Park’ – first movie I watched with my first daughter – and he created the unforgettable ‘ER’ for American TV; and he wrote, ‘Disclosure’ that was turned into a powerful film in 1994. Michel Douglas, an IT executive, finds himself becoming subordinate to his old flame, ex-girl friend, beautiful Demi Moore. An angry Demi Moore has a plot; she drugs Michel and assaults him, and then blames him, next morning for sexual assault. Its an interesting drama and you can watch the movie to know what happened. But there was one sentence which riveted in my memory; one sentence that suddenly opened up the whole world of meaning in front of me. One sentence that was the gist of whole novel, something Harvard trained doctor, Dr. Michel Crichton wanted his readers to understand. Michel Douglas (the actor; not the character) is confronted by his wife who believes he has raped Demi Moore. He retorts: ‘Rape is an act of power; where did I ever have power in that equation’. Michael Crichton was severely criticized by the American feminists for showing a woman raping a man. He defended his ‘reversal of roles’ by pointing out that without this, his message about ‘role of power’ would not be understood. I don’t know if the often repeated psychiatric expression, ‘Rape is not about sex, its about power’ was a common phrase in literature before that or nor. I suspect, Dr. Crichton played a role in making us understand this.
If anyone of you absorbs it then I will feel I have not failed in writing these lines, sleepless in Islamabad at 6am in the morning. I bring this understanding as someone who studied medicine, someone who was deeply interested in psychiatry, was raised by a doctor, someone who joined Civil Services of Pakistan to become powerful and realized the sheer impotency of Pakistan’s failing administrative structure and someone who found ‘nirvana’ in simplicity of honest expression and writing. Power to post-modern man is meaningless if cannot be used for the larger good of society. There has to be a purpose bigger than you. Expressions of power to satisfy primitive ego – as we have seen in Dewal Sharif – are symptoms of a pre-modern social order.
Master Shaukat of Dewal Sharif is not powerful for us; he is not powerful to girls and women in Lahore and Islamabad, he is not powerful to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan but there in that small village in the hills, he was all powerful to Maria Sadaqat. Maria’s refusal to marry his son, his Haroon, his progeny, his respect, his offspring, his creation, infuriates and insults him because he is powerful. And he is powerful in a social order, in a system which has no other value except ‘power’. Is this not generally true about Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, about whole of Pakistan. Most people respect me because they see me with powerful men, grilling politicians and leaders and challenging the government and they fallaciously internalize that I am powerful. They don’t respect me because of my knowledge. Pakistan’s social and political order is all about power. All underdeveloped polities are like that. But Pakistan has another problem.
Religions, all religions – Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism list is endless – have one central point, one central idea around which they stand: protection of the weak from the wrath, the aggression of the powerful. Religions are ideas for justice, religions degenerate to ritualism, but all religions are bigger, much bigger than their rituals. And all law, all basic law, whether its is Lex Caesarea or modern Common law is originally derived from principles of religion: protection of the weak from the aggression of the powerful. Any system of law that fails to protect weak from the wrath and aggression of the powerful is not a system of law and justice; it is something else. Its tyranny.
Pakistan’s criminal justice system has degenerated to become a tool, an instrument of control in the hands of rich and powerful; it has lost all its ability, all its capacity to provide a check on the ambitions of the powerful. Criminal Justice System, can never hold, prosecute and punish all criminals and aggressors, it is not possible for any system of law enforcement to do that; objective of law enforcement is to create a ‘deterrence’ and ‘internalization of law’ to send a general message, ‘thou shall be punished, thou can be punished’ by creating a credible fear in the people that their actions will bear consequence. Pakistan has lost it, lost that ‘deterrence’ it has lost that long ago.
A country in which elections can be manipulated in broad day light, in which Commissions of Enquiry headed by honorable men are set up to cover murder and mayhem, a country in which ‘Model Town Massacre’ can be blamed on few police officers, a country in which ‘Panama Files Scandal’ can be brushed aside without any logical explanation, a country in which all democratic opposition is part of the government in one way or the other, a country in which innocent can be endlessly blamed, prosecuted or scandalized, demonized for diversion purposes, a country in which paupers have become billionaires while holding public office and no explanation is ever due or can be demanded, a country in which unelected ‘powerful children’ of the dynasts can command the top public officials is a country and society built around one simple principle: Crude Exercise of Power.
Without addressing the issue of exercise of power, without holding powerful accountable in Islamabad, in Lahore, in Karachi, in Peshawar, in Quetta or Muzaffarabad, without creating a sense of ‘deterrence’ from the top, all around, overall in the system, you cannot expect ‘Master Shaukat’ to behave, in Dewal Sharif, and you cannot expect ‘Maria’ to be safe. Pakistan Human Right Commission will keep on telling you that this is Man versus Woman, but this is about power. And trust me this system can not get justice for this Maria or that Maria. Yes! The culprits have been arrested, but the police action looks less than credible.
Unlike the DPO in Abbottabad, a month ago, (who was taking calls past midnight) Punjab Police have not shared any details, they are hesitant in taking calls or just insensitive, it looks like a repeat of so many, dozens of previous cases, in which no convictions are obtained in the end. DPO, Khurram Rasheed, and his IGP, Nasir Durrani, in KP, in case of Ambareen, registered the case on behalf of the state; in Murree case has been registered by family of Maria; in Abottabad, Police investigated through ‘Call Data Record’ (CDR) and apprehended culprits through its own investigations, in case of Maria, CM Punjab has appointed a three member committee to investigate, and in this case in Murree it is all dependent upon the complaint and ‘Dying Declaration’ and local people allied with the killers have already started harassing media and started insisting that Maria has committed suicide. Usual process of watering down the nature of a crime has already started. Remember the Ayesha (or was that Amna) in Muzaffargarh, who was gang raped and who, almost two years ago, burnt herself to death, outside a police station? CM Shahbaz Sharif had personally gone there- descending from a helicopter from the skies dressed in white as an Avatar – to reprimand and suspend police officers, what happened? Google and find for yourself. It was not Shahbaz Sharif’s personal failure; he is more sensitive in such matters than anyone else in Punjab, but his system, the system under him, does not work.
[Moeed Pirzada is TV Anchor & Editor Strategic Affairs, Dunya News; he studied International Relations at Columbia University New York, Medicine from Punjab Univ, and Law at London School of Economics and Political Science. He tweets at MoeedNj]
Another Girl burnt alive! Whose daughter was she?
Moeed Pirzada |
“They were five men, they dragged me out of the house, they kicked me like a football, and then they poured gasoline on me and set me on fire; I recognized ‘Master Shaukat’ and yes, Arshad….” These were more or less the words recorded by 19 year old Maria Sadaqat, uttered in a police station but also recorded, gasping in agony, on a video, which I have seen today; this is now her ‘dying declaration’ acceptable in law, but will she get justice? Will her tormentors and killers ever be punished? Will an example be set? Is this only about her poor father and mother and four sisters or is it about all of us? These are some of the questions I was trying to find answers for the past 2 days, and these are the questions all of us, all of you need to wrestle with.
Maria Sadaqat was only 19. One of my daughters is five, other is eleven. Maria was the eldest of five sisters and one son, children of a poor mechanic. My daughters are being raised by a father, who is saving all his pennies so that his daughters can run away from this land of savage dishonorable men, of lawless society and the impotent criminal justice system. After her FA, Maria started to work as a teacher in a private school, established by a certain ‘Master Shaukat’. Master Shaukat owned this school and his son, Haroon, was also a teacher in the same school. This is close to a village, Dewal Sharif, not far from Pakistan’s summer resort of Murree.
Pakistan’s criminal justice system has degenerated to become a tool, an instrument of control in the hands of rich and powerful; it has lost all its ability, all its capacity to provide a check on the ambitions of the powerful.
These wooded, haunted hills used to be the epicenter of Pakistan’s amorous love. In 1960’s when Pakistan brimmed with hope and confidence, Murree – fashioned by British on Shimla- used to be a Mecca for lovers who flocked here from as far away as Karachi. My parents spent their honeymoon here, in the wooded British era Cecil and Bright land hotels. I grew up listening from my mother about Kashmir point, Pindi Point, her horse rides, Ayubia chairlift, and cherries.
In one of my school trips here, with my class, I held and straightened the gun while ‘she’, one of my class fellows, took shots and burst the balloons. We giggled, we had strange sensations running down our spines, I clapped for her, we thought we were in love – at least till the next few days, then came the exams; Physics and Chemistry drained all hormones. But I still have her pictures.
Murree used to be full of all kinds of vendors; horse wallas, snake charmers, balloon shooters, magic card wallas, and those who offered you all kinds of tricks including the kaleidoscopes full of strange scenes from the world. None of those scenes was as horrible, as grotesque as that happened to Maria Sadaqat in Dewal Sharif, dragged from her house, snatched away from her little sister of six, kicked like a football by several men, doused by petrol and then set on fire. Murree hills of 2016. What is happening to this country?
Master Shaukat, has been arrested by the police. He is a man in his sixties. He has taken an oath on Quran that he is innocent. He says, he has not done what Maria has recorded in her dying declaration. Maria’s relatives have told media and police and the whole village knows it and many have privately told our reporters that Shaukat’s son, Haroon, wanted to marry Maria. But Maria rejected him.
Her relatives hasten to add that Haroon was around 40, he was married before and had children. So does that mean that a woman can not refuse to marry a man, her suitor? A woman has no free choice? She has to have a good reason to refuse, to reject a proposal? She can not just refuse to marry because she does not like you? She is not interested? She has other ideas?
Read more: Honor killings: Pakistan’s continuing shame
I wish I could narrate to Haroon and his father, ‘Master Shaukat’ that I have lost count of the girls and the women who refused, rebuffed and rejected me in school, in college, in university, and later in the marriage market. Some of them are good friends, and some of them I came across, many years later and I thanked my stars, ‘God! I am so lucky; I did not get married to her’. I would have stopped growing. But I am being unfair, cruel, dishonest and hypocrite. There is no comparison here; life and circumstances allowed me to become a post-modern man; Haroon and Shaukat are stuck in a medieval era of fragile egos and primitive sense of honor.
Pakistan Human Rights Commission has called it yet another crime against woman. Yes! It is. But this is not all. Father of Maria, who is psychologically drenched by his agony, who threatened self-immolation if police did not arrest the killers and her uncles who were protesting on roads are men too. Men who are abused, men who are crying and men who are weak and helpless. Describing it in binary terms of men and women won’t ever take us to the solutions. There is a bigger problem here. And this relates to issues of power in defining social order.
Master Shaukat, has been arrested by the police. He is a man in his sixties. He has taken an oath on Quran that he is innocent. He says, he has not done what Maria has recorded in her dying declaration.
This also relates to a failure of criminal justice system that has not established, not internalized a ‘deterrence’ for the ‘aggressor’. Master Shaukat is not a typical school master, working in a government school for salary. He was the owner of the school in which Maria worked as a teacher. In that poor village of Dewal Sharif, he is somewhat rich, he is powerful in that local context. And Maria is the poor daughter of a mechanic. Maria was weak; Its about power. There are women in Islamabad, in Lahore, in Karachi, all over Pakistan who we all are afraid of; because they are powerful. It is about power.
Many years ago, I watched ‘Disclosure’. Hollywood blockbuster, based on the novel by Dr. Michael Crichton. Harvard educated MD, who turned into a writer, a tv producer, a film maker. A post-modern man; some one who should inspire all of us. Dr. Crichton created ‘Jurrasic Park’ – first movie I watched with my first daughter – and he created the unforgettable ‘ER’ for American TV; and he wrote, ‘Disclosure’ that was turned into a powerful film in 1994.
Michel Douglas, an IT executive, finds himself becoming subordinate to his old flame, ex-girl friend, beautiful Demi Moore. An angry Demi Moore has a plot; she drugs Michel and assaults him, and then blames him, next morning for sexual assault. Its an interesting drama and you can watch the movie to know what happened. But there was one sentence which riveted in my memory; one sentence that suddenly opened up the whole world of meaning in front of me. One sentence that was the gist of whole novel, something Harvard trained doctor, Dr. Michel Crichton wanted his readers to understand. Michel Douglas (the actor; not the character) is confronted by his wife who believes he has raped Demi Moore. He retorts: ‘Rape is an act of power; where did I ever have power in that equation’.
Michael Crichton was severely criticized by the American feminists for showing a woman raping a man. He defended his ‘reversal of roles’ by pointing out that without this, his message about ‘role of power’ would not be understood. I don’t know if the often repeated psychiatric expression, ‘Rape is not about sex, its about power’ was a common phrase in literature before that or nor. I suspect, Dr. Crichton played a role in making us understand this.
Murree used to be full of all kinds of vendors; horse wallas, snake charmers, balloon shooters, magic card wallas, and those who offered you all kinds of tricks including the kaleidoscopes full of strange scenes from the world. None of those scenes was as horrible, as grotesque as that happened to Maria Sadaqat in Dewal Sharif, dragged from her house, snatched away from her little sister of six, kicked like a football by several men, doused by petrol and then set on fire. Murree hills of 2016.
If anyone of you absorbs it then I will feel I have not failed in writing these lines, sleepless in Islamabad at 6am in the morning. I bring this understanding as someone who studied medicine, someone who was deeply interested in psychiatry, was raised by a doctor, someone who joined Civil Services of Pakistan to become powerful and realized the sheer impotency of Pakistan’s failing administrative structure and someone who found ‘nirvana’ in simplicity of honest expression and writing. Power to post-modern man is meaningless if cannot be used for the larger good of society. There has to be a purpose bigger than you. Expressions of power to satisfy primitive ego – as we have seen in Dewal Sharif – are symptoms of a pre-modern social order.
Master Shaukat of Dewal Sharif is not powerful for us; he is not powerful to girls and women in Lahore and Islamabad, he is not powerful to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan but there in that small village in the hills, he was all powerful to Maria Sadaqat. Maria’s refusal to marry his son, his Haroon, his progeny, his respect, his offspring, his creation, infuriates and insults him because he is powerful. And he is powerful in a social order, in a system which has no other value except ‘power’. Is this not generally true about Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, about whole of Pakistan. Most people respect me because they see me with powerful men, grilling politicians and leaders and challenging the government and they fallaciously internalize that I am powerful. They don’t respect me because of my knowledge. Pakistan’s social and political order is all about power. All underdeveloped polities are like that. But Pakistan has another problem.
Religions, all religions – Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism list is endless – have one central point, one central idea around which they stand: protection of the weak from the wrath, the aggression of the powerful. Religions are ideas for justice, religions degenerate to ritualism, but all religions are bigger, much bigger than their rituals. And all law, all basic law, whether its is Lex Caesarea or modern Common law is originally derived from principles of religion: protection of the weak from the aggression of the powerful. Any system of law that fails to protect weak from the wrath and aggression of the powerful is not a system of law and justice; it is something else. Its tyranny.
Read more: Punjab Police: Do we feel answerable to God & our Conscience?
Pakistan’s criminal justice system has degenerated to become a tool, an instrument of control in the hands of rich and powerful; it has lost all its ability, all its capacity to provide a check on the ambitions of the powerful. Criminal Justice System, can never hold, prosecute and punish all criminals and aggressors, it is not possible for any system of law enforcement to do that; objective of law enforcement is to create a ‘deterrence’ and ‘internalization of law’ to send a general message, ‘thou shall be punished, thou can be punished’ by creating a credible fear in the people that their actions will bear consequence. Pakistan has lost it, lost that ‘deterrence’ it has lost that long ago.
A country in which elections can be manipulated in broad day light, in which Commissions of Enquiry headed by honorable men are set up to cover murder and mayhem, a country in which ‘Model Town Massacre’ can be blamed on few police officers, a country in which ‘Panama Files Scandal’ can be brushed aside without any logical explanation, a country in which all democratic opposition is part of the government in one way or the other, a country in which innocent can be endlessly blamed, prosecuted or scandalized, demonized for diversion purposes, a country in which paupers have become billionaires while holding public office and no explanation is ever due or can be demanded, a country in which unelected ‘powerful children’ of the dynasts can command the top public officials is a country and society built around one simple principle: Crude Exercise of Power.
Religions, all religions – Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism list is endless – have one central point, one central idea around which they stand: protection of the weak from the wrath, the aggression of the powerful.
Without addressing the issue of exercise of power, without holding powerful accountable in Islamabad, in Lahore, in Karachi, in Peshawar, in Quetta or Muzaffarabad, without creating a sense of ‘deterrence’ from the top, all around, overall in the system, you cannot expect ‘Master Shaukat’ to behave, in Dewal Sharif, and you cannot expect ‘Maria’ to be safe. Pakistan Human Right Commission will keep on telling you that this is Man versus Woman, but this is about power. And trust me this system can not get justice for this Maria or that Maria. Yes! The culprits have been arrested, but the police action looks less than credible.
Unlike the DPO in Abbottabad, a month ago, (who was taking calls past midnight) Punjab Police have not shared any details, they are hesitant in taking calls or just insensitive, it looks like a repeat of so many, dozens of previous cases, in which no convictions are obtained in the end. DPO, Khurram Rasheed, and his IGP, Nasir Durrani, in KP, in case of Ambareen, registered the case on behalf of the state; in Murree case has been registered by family of Maria; in Abottabad, Police investigated through ‘Call Data Record’ (CDR) and apprehended culprits through its own investigations, in case of Maria, CM Punjab has appointed a three member committee to investigate, and in this case in Murree it is all dependent upon the complaint and ‘Dying Declaration’ and local people allied with the killers have already started harassing media and started insisting that Maria has committed suicide. Usual process of watering down the nature of a crime has already started. Remember the Ayesha (or was that Amna) in Muzaffargarh, who was gang raped and who, almost two years ago, burnt herself to death, outside a police station? CM Shahbaz Sharif had personally gone there- descending from a helicopter from the skies dressed in white as an Avatar – to reprimand and suspend police officers, what happened? Google and find for yourself. It was not Shahbaz Sharif’s personal failure; he is more sensitive in such matters than anyone else in Punjab, but his system, the system under him, does not work.
Moeed Pirzada is prominent TV Anchor & commentator; he studied international relations at Columbia Univ, New York and law at London School of Economics. Twitter: MoeedNj. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy. This piece was first published in Moeed Pirzada’s official page. It has been reproduced with permission.