Justice forever delayed
The May12 tragedy, from the so called lawyers’ revolution of ’07, has all but become a faded memory – yet there’s still little chance of justice being served anytime soon. And lawyers can observe “Black Day” year after year if they like, but all that will achieve is one less working day per year, and more piling up of the backlog. Not much good is going to come from continuing to wonder what became of the judicial commission either which, like all other commissions of its kind, never saw the light of day; nor will it.
This is a matter of political will. And that is why PPP’s posturing, particularly, has been difficult to understand, or explain, for close to two election cycles now. Things have changed considerably since the PPP, along with the ANP, tried to escort the then ousted CJ Ch Iftikhar to Jinnah’s mausoleum for a thunderous speech when MQM – allegedly – spoiled the show. But then the party oversaw the country’s landmark return to democracy, formed the federal government for five years, and managed the first ever democratic transition in our history. It still holds the government in Sindh. And yet, it has not pushed too vigorously for a clear investigation.
Sadly, though, a number of victims of the tragedy are still awaiting justice, and nobody in any official capacity seems much bothered. And that, at the end of the day, is what stands out most from the tragedy. It’s not just that the country’s financial hub transmutated into an ugly battleground between proxy militias and that around 50 people were killed and hundreds injured. It’s that the politicians at the head of the clash have gone their merry ways since, but the average man on the street that suffered unnecessarily still begs endlessly for justice. On its ninth anniversary, May12 is a blatant reminder of the inefficiency of our political machinery and the cheap price placed on justice in this Islamic Republic.