Raping justice
The Multan ‘revenge rape’ incident, once again, highlights so much that is criminally wrong with our society. The first rape, individuals and families unaware of their rights, panchayats taking the law into their own hands, the counter-rape and, especially, dishonoured families forced to keep their shame to themselves unless, as in this case, the media takes the lid off of the odd incident. The chief minister would have looked good sprinting to Multan, along with all those TV cameras, if this were not just another of a long list of near-exact tragedies.
Everybody, especially the government, knows that these panchayats survive because of the twin paralysis and chronic corruption of the judicial and police machinery. Influential members of society – the kind that order rapes, murder, etc, as justice – function openly because they know the law will not touch them. And there’s little chance of anybody’s complaints at the police station causing much trouble since, often enough, they hold key officers in their pockets. When the CM’s personal visit pushes the odd case to the courts, there’s no end to incidents of witness harassment and intimidation; not to mention efforts to buy them off along with those that decide cases.
Yet, despite numerous such tragedies, there’s no record of the government making any visible moves to assert its writ and implement the law. The only time it talked about the panchayats was when it was mulling legal cover and official oversight for them, till it was reminded how fast it was drifting from reality. And complex procedures like witness protection do not even find mention, save from concerned human rights workers whenever such stories make the news. Now, though, times are changing and, for all its faults, the all-seeing media will keep dragging such crime out in the open, and put the spotlight on government inaction, till those in charge are forced to pull their socks up. As things stand, the government itself must bear the biggest responsibility of justice itself being raped so openly in this Islamic Republic.
