DR IJAZ AHSAN
We do not know how to do anything right. According to the Balochistan governor the officer accused of gangrape of Dr Shazia at Sui has been arrested. If the news is correct, it will be a prime example of doing too little too late. If this same action had been taken a fortnight ago, soon after the commission of the crime, the attack on the Sui gas field that has displaced thousands of citizens and rendered them homeless might not have taken place.
The raging insurgency across Balochistan, with rocket and bomb attacks at Quetta and elsewhere, might also not have been sparked off. But we believe, as in the Punjabi proverb, in receiving a hundred shoe-beatings as well as eating as many onions. At that time the mere arrest of the accused would have sufficed; now even the chief executive of PPL and two other officers have been arrested.
In the meantime the protestors have blown up electricity pylons in Sibi, Dhadar and Barkhan. The situation has become so grim that the authorities have decided to clear an area 15 kilometers all round the gas fields of all inhabitants and dwellings.
The distress this will cause to thousands, who will be permanently uprooted from their homes, can be well imagined. It has been estimated that up till now damages to the tune of Rs 1.32 billion have been caused due to rocket attacks on the gas fields. This includes neither the damage done to the gas pipelines mentioned above, nor the harm done to national unity, which cannot be gauged in terms of money.
Witness that as a spreading escalation, a gas pipeline near Chunian in the Kasur district has also been blown up. A great deal of this violence and destruction could have been avoided if the accused had been arrested immediately and an FIR lodged against him. Even now one hears only of a judicial tribunal but not of any FIR. Is so much loss of national wealth and so much damage to national cohesion justified just to shield an accused officer from the law?
The present scribe is witness to the manner in which the peace of educational institutions was destroyed due to inaction by authorities in the face of major crimes committed by students. If an ordinary citizen committed a murder, an FIR was immediately registered and he faced the possibility of a life term or even execution. In contrast, if a college student murdered another, no FIR was lodged.
A judicial tribunal was set up whose terms of reference, as in the present gangrape case, were restricted to ensuring ?othat such an incident does not occur in the future?. The student went scot-free, and as a direct consequence, murders in educational institutions became a commonplace occurrence and converted universities into dens of warring mafias, destroying education and thus doing incalculable harm to the country.
In the same manner, in the present case a judicial tribunal has been set up. The authorities should understand that brushing the matter under the carpet will not work. Again, why was this particular accused person allowed to come on TV and proclaim his innocence? Which other accused is permitted such one-sided propaganda? Such tactics would have worked in Punjab, but not in Balochistan.
Mr. Sherbaz Mazari has counseled restraint on the part of the government. He said the patriotism of the Baloch sardars is above suspicion. They should not be pushed beyond the point of no return. He said the solution of Balochistan?Ts problems lies not in threats and irresponsible use of force but in seriously pursuing a solution.
He said Chaudhary Shujaat had promised he would talk to the president and a political solution of the problem would be found. However, the latter had not replied, and that he was still waiting for his reply. He said Chaudhary Shujaat and Mushahid Hussain sincerely desire a solution but it seems someone does not listen to them.
Mazari asked why the rulers were brushing the case of the gangrape of the lady doctor under the carpet. He said there is no separatist movement in Balochistan, and this route should not be shown to Balochis. In the meantime speakers at a round table conference on Balochistan demanded that issues concerning the province be solved by negotiation rather than by the use of force.
They demanded that complete provincial autonomy be given to Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP, an indirect way of saying that only Punjab enjoys autonomy.
As a gross perversion of the incident, a jirga has sought to make Dr Shazia a kari. If she had been raped by one person, there would at least have been some conceivable reason to suspect that she was party to the act. As she was gangraped by five persons, it may well be asked with whom she was a kari.
This scribe understands that giving a verdict of karo kari has been made a criminal offence. If so, here is a fit case for the government to pursue those who have pronounced such a sentence, and bring them to justice.
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