The death of a child is something that would invoke a sympathy for the worst of your adversaries. Or for the politicians whom you oppose.
But Kamar Zaman Kaira isn’t exactly the sort of politician who would, even at his worst, elicit hatred amongst the opponents of his PPP. Polite to a fault, the erudite politician, with his master’s in philosophy, had been associated with the party since his student life. The biggest comment on his respectability is that Imran Khan, a man who is never given to express good graces towards political foes, took his name at a rally, when talking about whom within the PPP he would be willing to talk to.
Despite the great political engineering of 2018 – one that the history books will weigh in on, the way they did on the 1990 elections – the man stood with his political party and didn’t break rank. God knows that They tried.
There can be no good way of hearing news of one’s child’s death but the way that he did, halfway through a press conference, was particularly horrible. A reporter informed him of his son’s road accident. Kaira, unaware of the incident, excused himself from the press conference with the sort of grace few would have been able to muster. As he walked away from the presser, the reporter persisted, telling him that he had heard of his son’s demise.
Journalists, much like policemen and medical and paramedical personnel, might see some horrible stuff on a daily basis. That should not mean they should be jaded enough to stop caring about human emotions and the situation of those to whom they are delivering devastating news.
The reporter in question should be reprimanded for his crass behaviour. It was beyond unprofessional.
(May Mr Kaira, his family and the family and friends of the other young man who was killed in the same accident, have the courage to deal with this loss.)
