DAWN - Features; July 7, 2002

Where’re the touts of East’s godliness

A WOMAN was gang-raped in a south Punjab village last week on a jury’s order, ostensibly to
punish her brother who was accused of having illicit relations with a woman of the prosecuting
Mastoi clan. The rapists included one of the jurors. Besides pleading for mercy, the family said,
they had offered land as compensation for the brother’s alleged crime. The brother said the

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charge against him was meant to obscure his sodomy complaint against three Mastoi men.

There has been understandable outrage since the report finally made it to the newspapers. The
president and the governor have dispatched ministers to the scene and the Supreme Court has
summoned the IG and sought weekly progress reports. Action has been initiated against the
local Nazim and policemen. Non-government organizations and journalists are emphasizing
their role.

Starting late on the case, the police have arrested some of the accused identified by the victim
and her family and expect to round up the remaining. Those are the facts.

Or are they? Well, as nearly as can be ascertained under the circumstances. With every passing
day since the disclosure, new details have been emerging. There also seem to have been efforts
by nearly everybody involved to ‘improve’ the story. The Mastois are in total retreat. Many,
particularly those involved in the incident have fled. (One of them was arrested in Lasbela,
Balochistan.) Media reports so far have failed, therefore, to tell their side of the story.

Some conclusions, however, are inescapable. One, the police were aware of the dispute and later
of its ‘resolution’ but chose not to act. Two, jury trial, the verdict and its execution enjoyed at
least tacit community support.

While the government, eager to build its credibility at home by evicting tenants from state land
and abroad by hunting Al-Qaeda and Taliban men and their sympathizers, needs to confront the
first problem, it is indeed the second fact that is a challenge to society at large. Yes, we need to
acknowledge, answering a crime by another is still considered justice by a significant part of the
population. And yes, we are all to blame for that. Yes, human beings are regarded as tools and
means of achieving objectives. Yes, racism is not just tolerated, it is respected.

Once we acknowledge the facts we can begin to understand what has happened and is
happening. Juries are vulnerable to manipulation but this is not the crux of the matter. Forget
that the process was abused by unscrupulous men trying to conceal their own crime. What if the
charge against the boy was proved beyond doubt? Forget also that one of the jurors might have
acted less than ‘honourably.’ The point is that being a ‘nobler’ race, the Mastois had to seek
‘exemplary’ and ‘deterrent’ punishment and the jury’s verdict represented that. Media reports
suggest that the Mastois are hardly the only people subscribing to the ‘honour’ code. Once they
had the complaint against a lower caste man, whose family could not match their firepower,
there was hardly another way. That alone explains why the community was not shocked, didn’t
even split up.

Why did the victim’s family surrender? Well, why does anybody surrender? As Timothy
McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, had said in his cryptic last statement, citizens learn from
the state. Have we not been witness to countless outrages on international level? And how many
individuals and national institutions have we seen converting to the doctrine of necessity?

Once we understand what is happening, what we need to do follows automatically. State

institutions need to stop forthwith the practices that constitute unacceptable behaviour for a
citizen.

And there is need for education. And not only in information technology and emerging sciences.

Like all great tragedies there is occasion here for individual and collective remorse, soul
searching and a great beginning. It seems lost in the rush for striking the perfect posture before
anybody else, but it’s there. Make no mistake, those of us not ignored by history will be judged
by how they took the opportunity. Those of us who expect to meet their Creator will be asked
about it.

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ZAHID SHAH was dragged from his home, beaten up in front of his terrified family until he
fainted and stoned to death by a lynch mob led allegedly by Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, the
village prayer leader.

Pleading for the victim, witnesses said, his brother promised that he would never set foot in the
village again if only the mob would spare his life. The pleas were ignored.

Accused of blasphemy by the Maulvi in 1994, Mr Shah had been arrested and jailed. He was
granted bail in 1997 and had been living in Faisalabad. Returning to the village only two days
ago, he was again reported for using irreverent words. The Maulvi reportedly convened a
panchayat and finally issued a death decree. The mosque loudspeaker was used to invite people
to join in the execution.

Arriving at the scene four hours after the incident, Chak Jhumra police handed the body to the
family for burial without an autopsy. Describing the killing as an accident, an official said there
was no question of prosecution in the absence of a complaint by the family.

So much for rule of law.

***********

FORMER president Rafiq Tarar spoke last week of how he was removed after he refused to
resign, arguing that it would be ingratitude towards the Almighty who had chosen to elevate him
to the high office. He also narrated his parable of the parrot to bring home the point that
injustice comes before catastrophe.

The sympathetic audience is reported to have been amused and at least one speaker, a
newspaper magnate, said he believed, technically speaking, Mr Tarar was still the president.

But what exactly does Mr Tarar mean? Did he really believe the general was such an ‘ingrate’ as
to refuse the opportunity he regarded a Godsend? How could he?

On a more serious note, what does Mr Tarar believe was his role? If he made a difference while
in office, let him please talk about that the next time he is invited to a book launching.

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LET those who have ears listen.

TV compere and former National Assembly member Tariq Aziz has proposed that a statue of the
National Reconstruction Bureau chairman Lt-Gen Tanvir Naqvi be cast in gold and erected in
front of Parliament House, in Islamabad.

Described by the late President Zia as a preacher, Mr Aziz clearly believes it is his business to tell
people who they should honour and how it should be done. As one of the more equal citizens, he
also has a more equal, though not absolute freedom of speech and action. The limit may not
have been worthy of mention had some unfortunate misunderstanding on this count not
resulted — twice in his case — in problems with law.

Mr Aziz obviously thinks very highly of the NRB’s efforts. What Gen Naqvi has done, or is trying
to do for the chief executive, in terms of making an elected legislature sustainable (it cannot be
sustained if it irks the chief), Mr Aziz had done (or so it was believed at that time) for another
chief executive and the judiciary. Shouldn’t he cast aside false modesty then and also propose
that a similar statue of his own be installed in front of the Supreme Court building, also on the
Constitution Avenue.

—- ONLOOKER