Heartless murder of Salmaan Taseer and beastly killing of Shahbaz Bhatti are not merely arbitrary but they speak of a horribly deep and widespread malaise that has gripped our nation. We have lost all regard for justice and civility. We are devouring ourselves and relishing it too. Our dark sectarian and uncompromising biases have replaced thousands of years old social values and teachings of the great religion. We are the preacher of our own deadly dogma, the prosecutor and the judge all in one. The wayward accused has no right to be heard and appeal. His fault whether actual or fabricated notwithstanding; he must be eliminated.
What a pity, how irreversibly we have degenerated. One regrets to have failed those who died struggling for Pakistan. We have lost all sense of balance in our society; and not only rubbished distinction between what is moral and what is not but a step further, morality has become irrelevant for us. Law, penal code and penitentiary don’t mean anything to those determined to flout them. We will be sorrier to have failed ourselves and there would be no one around to lament in the pitiless human desert that we would have created by then. A nation which is not at peace with itself is not at peace with anyone. Society begins to unravel before the state does.
BRIG(R) MEHBOOB QADIR
Rawalpindi
