Too much human blood has been spilled in Karachi and too little done to prevent it, except mere lip service. It seems blood of innocent poor has no value in this country. Nobody bothers as long as those killed are ordinary folks, not even the so called champions of human rights and western democracies that provide sanctuaries to them. This insatiable thirst for spilling human blood seems to be the acceptable cost of keeping numbers game intact. All that you witness is a federal minister attired in designer suit dash to Karachi and hold meetings while the killing goes on. If this doesn’t work, the President himself intervenes.
Hue and cry is raised only if it is a journalist who has been killed. We already top the list as most dangerous country for working journalists. Not a single person has been held for over 46 Pakistani journalists killed in this country in the past 17 years. There are usual messages of stereotype condemnation issued by all players and no concrete steps taken. Everybody knows from where these target killers come and retreat, but nothing happens. The only exceptions were the killers of Daniel Pearl, who were caught only because of international pressure. Their capture only proves it can be done, if there is the will to do it.
It seems as long as the members of Pakistan’s
ruling elite families, or the khaki top brass are safe,
the rest doesn’t matter. That unfortunately is
the crude reality which the people of Pakistan
have to contemplate, think and worry about.
MALIK TARIQ
Lahore
