Over 50 Pakistani citizens have died in a coal mine accident in Balochistan recently. Compare this to the response and involvement of President of Chile and his whole government including the First Lady when miners were trapped in a copper mine. The problem with us as a nation is that we have stopped behaving as human beings, while there is a lot of rhetoric about our faith and belief system which is least reflected in our daily life and moral values.
Every day scores of our citizens are being killed in target killings in Karachi, but the government in utter disregard of its constitutional and moral obligations chooses to look the other way for the sake of political exigencies.
Out of the 194 police officers, who were ordered by former government to take action against criminals in Karachi, 190 have been killed in target killings in Karachi alone. Thousands of others have been killed in sectarian killings by fanatic religious extremists, who are brainwashed to commit suicide attacks.
In Punjab, Sindh and KP, fanatics have not spared the shrines of respected saints and religious scholars like Hazrat Data Ganj Bux, Abdullah Shah Ghazi and Hazrat Baba. This has been happening even under military rule while our intelligence cum security agencies, who consume a large chunk of our budget, have failed to make any arrests and restore rule of law.
Thousands of our citizens have been butchered in what are termed as collateral damage by drone attacks, which originate from airfields within our country. The failure of a state to protect the lives and properties of its citizens is an unpardonable act. There is no national interest more supreme than the security of life of its innocent law abiding citizens.
MALIK TARIQ
Lahore
