Pakistan may be the only country in the world where the ruling elite has the right to kill the children of the poor. The Kanjoos, the Jatois, the Abros and now the Bhuttos, represent the powerful ruling elite of Pakistan. They all have exercised their right to kill and they all will get away with suitable negotiations.
Contrary to the cliché-ridden Article 25 of the Constitution that grants the right to all citizens of ‘being equal before law and entitled to equal protection’, the Pakistani state has formalised and institutionalised special perks, privileges, rights and facilities to its elite. The right to kill being one of them.
The ruling class has the right to move in large motorcades of obscene vehicles loaded with prohibited bore weapons, accompanied by scores of government vehicles and protected by hundreds of policemen. They have the right to push and trample those who come in their way. At the airports they are granted the right to special handling through ‘parliamentarian counters’, where members of this class can check in without being touched by the untouchables. The spoiled brats of this class have the right to receive weapon licenses to facilitate their favourite hobby of hunting the poor. This reprehensible class also has the right to shut down the roads so that the Bismas of the poor can never make it to hospitals in time.
The price of Bisma’s life has been affixed at Rs100,000 and rebuilding the house where she once lived, before Bilawal decided to invade the trauma centre at the Civil Hospital. These demeaning compensations will neither reduce the trauma nor rebuild the hearts of Bisma’s family. Are the people of Pakistan willing to force their government to take steps so that never again will a father run the last lap with the body of a dead child because the roads were closed for a ‘very important person’.
NAEEM SADIQ
Lahore