Dawn: RECENTLY, civil society activists gathered in several towns to shed their tears for their brutally cut down heroes — Perween Rahman, Rashid Rehman and Sabeen Mahmud prominent among them. Was their wail heard in the halls of power?
For years and years, the people of Pakistan have been treated to a parody of responsible governance. Whenever a popular human rights defender is killed those responsible for ensuring his/her security rush to issue pro forma statements. The so-called law-enforcement agencies are told to catch the culprits within three or seven days — depending on the deceased’s rating in the protocol office.
The media blares out a stock headline — ‘the sarkar has taken notice of the horrible incident’. Then both the rulers and the ruled revert to their favourite pastime — sleeping. Now and then, friends of the dear departed get together to hold memorial functions or to light candles (if vigilante brigades are not around). The file is closed when the crime is attributed to somebody killed in an encounter. The dead cannot take the tale any further and the quest for justice, never carried out in earnest, finally ends.
Each time a good Pakistani is felled, the wounds caused by the killing of others are reopened.
But times are changing — even if those in authority are not aware of it. Each time a good Pakistani is felled, the wounds caused by the killing of others over the past many years are reopened. The list of victims is getting longer and longer — and more and more strident becomes the call: Who killed Sabeen? Who killed Rashid Rehman? Who killed Perween Rahman?
Categories: Anti Islam act by Muslims, Asia, Human Rights, Human values, Pakistan