- Throwing money at the Sahiwal incident is not the answer
Prime Minister Imran Khan has apparently agreed to set up a judicial commission into the Sahiwal incident that took place on January 29 killing a couple, their daughter and their friend, while leaving three children badly injured. This was one of the demands which was made by the survivors when he gave them cheques totalling Rs 30 million at CM Secretariat in Lahore on Wednesday
It is somewhat of a surprise that a government formed by a party named the Justice Movement should be as casual as to wait almost three months to order a judicial enquiry. The failure of the government to take into custody the alleged murder weapons smacks not just of negligence, but of an intent to let the perpetrators go free. Throwing money at the survivors does not meet the demands for justice. The PTI would be merely following tradition in leaving the victims still anxious for justice, but it is tigerishly eager to follow up on the corruption cases against opposition leaders, whether Sharif family or the Zardaris. Is it because policemen in the Counter Terrorism Department are not political opponents, that no one blocks their efforts? The same standards should apply, neither the benign neglect of one, nor the blind nit-picking seen too often in the latter.
One dimension that a judicial enquiry will be useful not just in providing justice in this case but in the future operations of government will be in the mandate to make recommendations for the future. There is a need for counter-terrorism efforts, especially the departments charged with them, to have their operations streamlined and given proper guidelines. This will not only help justice, but improve governance. There are also substantive questions to be settled. For example, the exact status of the car’s driver, who was shot and whom the police has accused of being a terrorist, has not been established. Of course, his being a terrorist would not be an excuse for the killings of others, but even that had not been established. A judicial enquiry will not substitute for justice, and it should not have taken as long as it did, even if the governing party’s name did not claim justice. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf should see the ‘insaf’ part of its name as a commitment, not just a vote-catching slogan.
