The Punjab Assembly does it yet again

The Punjab Assembly has passed a resolution banningconcerts in institutions. During the debate they added the word ‘objectionable’ to the resolution. However, no one was bothered to define the term objectionable. So with a lot of crazy things going around in our country, the PA has given one more front to the nut cases (& we have a lot of them) to use as an excuse for doing as they please. 

Suffocating the people is what seems to be the objective of this assembly & the irony is that they are paid for it by the tax payers’ money. No matter how much we want to forget the horrors of the Zia era, they keep coming back in one form or the other. Like always, they used religion to back their mindless ideas. I wonder why they don’t find anything mentioned in Islam, about liars, hoarders, hierocracy, rapist, poverty etc, real issues of the people, so that they can pass laws for them too. Not that these issues are not mentioned in the religion, they are but they choose to ignore them as they will be at the receiving end then.

This is the same assembly that was discussing polygamy & trying to justify it. The same day I met a school kid whose tuition fee was due & he was out on the road trying to sell stationary to be able to raise the money. Another gem that is credited to the PA, is the lota foot ballmatch that the members performed in the grounds of the premises.

The fact that the issues of the people are never discussed in the assembly, drain out hope for democracy. Institutions need time to establish themselves, but when people responsible for them don’t show that they mean serious business, their survival is at stake. This is especially true for a country like Pakistan, where a large majority is deprived of the basic needs of their lives.

p.s Zoo & the Punjab Assembly are located in the same area, merging them won't be that bad an idea, keeping in mind the direction in which the PA is headed.

Descending into a state of chaos

Holding on to optimism is getting tough by the day. The absence of justice is the major factor that we are descending into a state of chaos. The combination of lack of justice & the blunt abuse of power by the institutions that are supposed to protect the citizens is deepening the rift between the state & its people. The most recent incident in the long list of similar events is the extrajudicial murder of a 19 year old boy at the hands of the Karachi Rangers. The video footage showing the unarmed boy begging for mercy & then dying of bleeding is heart wrenching.

The bitter reality is that this is not the first time that such an incident has taken place; and the worst part is that like all the previous cases the culprits of this horrifying incident will go free. This way the cycle will continue. There will be an incident, followed by some noise where people will express their horror, fruitless inquiry committees will be formed and then there will be silence.

Nothing can heal the wounds of those who have lost their loved ones to this violence. My personal view on those stating that time heals is that they haven’t been there themselves, & analysing situations from a distance is just too easy. What hurts more is that you know that the culprits will go free & yet more innocent people will undergo similar sufferings.

The absence of a justice system is surly the main culprit here, but we as a society need to share some of the blame as well. Our attention span is short lived, & after that limit expires we get bored of that issue. We need to get rid of our short term memory system because keeping this form of memory only aids this vicious cycle & the perpetrators of injustice.