A grave failure of governance
When the leaders and the political elite start misleading their nation, when the state institutions only protect vested interests of few powerful elite and when thousands of atrocities and killings go unnoticed, it does not only shatter the trust of citizens in the rulers but also rattles the bases and uproots the social fabric of a society. Such is the scenario in Pakistan we wake up to every day.
The recent tragedy of Kasur has not only reiterated the existence of a flawed judicial system in Pakistan but has also revealed the nonchalant attitude of those entrusted with the task of ensuring law and order in the country. It appalled many of us when our politicians gave the statement that they were completely oblivious of the issue and it only got their attention when an FIR was registered. How conveniently they have absolved themselves of any responsibility in Kasur incident, even though these instances of rape and sexual abuse were not a new phenomenon and had been happening in Kasur for years.
How come the government never took notice of it? If a government is only bent on making roads and metros and turns a blind eye to human rights conditions, the society’s children and women are likely to get raped and sexually abused. This is a clear indication that the crises of governability have beset Pakistan. The current government must reflect on the fact that they cannot set an example of good governance by distributing laptops to students and constructing road and metros. A well governed nation has in place rule of law, political and civil freedoms, medical and healthcare, proper education system, roads, railways, the arteries of commerce, a robust financial and banking system, support for the civil society and transparent electoral system. But what about a society which is denied all these elements by its rulers? Yes, I am referring to Pakistan where rulers have abused their power, have taken law in their hands and have undermined the supremacy of judicial institutions entrusted with the responsibility of dispensing justice.
One of the main causes of child sexual abuse in Kasur was the lack of education and awareness about human rights. Only a proper education system would have given these children the confidence to raise their voices against injustice meted out to them. The education conundrum that the country is faced with continues to affect the lives of the people; the education sector is fraught with serious challenges, one of them being the state’s inability to provide access to free and quality education to its citizens. It is unfortunate but the ground reality reveals that the quality education is only being imparted by the schools run by private individuals or philanthropists and state is playing no role in safeguarding and upholding the citizens’ right to education as guaranteed in our constitution.
Amongst the numerous measures required to be undertaken to revamp the public education system in Pakistan, the most crucial is to identify why most children are not enrolled in schools. Is it because they are in the grips of abject poverty that they choose to do some menial work to support their livelihoods? In that case what steps has the government taken to get better at promoting the value of education to parents and children? Of all the news that I follow, I have hardly come across any instance where the government has expressed its intention to seriously improve and upgrade the standards of education across the country.
This adds to the sad state of affairs in the country. Gone are the days when leaders of Pakistan actually believed in the importance of the slogan “Educate a mother, educate the nation”. Today’s insecure leadership believes in keeping the masses illiterate. They fear that if the masses acquire education, they will become aware of their rights, will be empowered and could not be suppressed or intimidated. With such parochial thinking, how can an example of good governance be set in a society?
This parochial thinking prevalent at the top level has paved way for all the terrorist groups targeting education systems and schools of the country. Had the state taken steps to impart quality education to the children and given them awareness about their rights, the Kasur incident wouldn’t have lasted for such a long time. All the victims of the incident belonged to the families that could neither afford to acquire education themselves and nor could send their children to quality schools.
The crippling justice system of Pakistan also continues to haunt ordinary citizens. The courts where once justice was dispensed are now being run by the whims and orders of the power hungry politicians of Pakistan. The state of Pakistan nowadays is being governed on the premise of might is right. Who cares about the rule of law? If you have got money, you most probably are above the law and no court of law can summon you even if you go on killing innocent people in the country. Above all, these very people are also entrusted with the responsibility of running the government affairs.
Amidst all this, any citizen of Pakistan, including myself, is left with no trust in the state institutions. Pakistan is not about the rule of law but about the rule of the politicians. It is no more about the constitution, state institutions or values and principles but about individuals, their avarice for power and their personal interests. People are not being governed but are being oppressed, something that the ruling party fails to understand or believe.
We have yet to see if justice is dispensed to the victims of sexual abuse in Kasur, if the real miscreants are taught a lesson, if high-ups who allowed this to happen are asked to step down from their positions and dismissed from the politics of Pakistan.