Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad
THE attack on a state-of-the-art government cardiac hospital by none other than those said to be lawyers has a shamed all Pakistanis. It is sad that we hear deafening noises about endemic corruption all around the country. Unfortunately, there is no mention of the most important aspect of corruption, the root cause of all evils prevalent in the social environment. It is moral corruption which has eroded all our ethical and religious values for we have lost all sense of direction and sight of our national goals. To understand how deep a hole this nation has dug itself into, ponder what happened at PIC Lahore. The ‘warring factions’ in this sorry saga belong to the most educated elite of society — doctors and lawyers. The victims were hapless innocent citizens of this unfortunate country who don’t have access to justice or resources. When will the sensitive and conscientious sections of society stand up for these helpless people? Who will redress their plight?
Who in their right mind would attack a hospital no matter what was the provocation, torture the sick and destroy very expensive hospital equipment, which is public property? What happened at PIC Lahore is a blot on the nation. Some serious soul-searching needs to be done if the country is to progress and prosper. Hundreds of lawyers stormed the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore after videos emerged on social media showing certain doctors from the hospital mocking the black coats over an ongoing dispute between the two sides. And this was no spontaneous violence, condemnable as even that would have been. This was a pre-planned assault, with the mob — some of its members carrying sticks and guns — descending upon the hospital en masse, determined to wreak havoc.
The outcome will forever remain a blot on the legal community. Rampaging through the country’s largest cardiac facility, the attackers destroyed furniture and equipment — including ventilators — smashed window panes, and damaged cars. They also forced their way into the emergency department, terrorising and manhandling the medical staff and patients’ attendants who were forced to flee leaving the critically ill behind. At least three patients died during the mayhem. The police finally managed to control the situation after a prolonged face-off during which they baton-charged the mob and fired tear gas shells. There have been numerous incidents in recent years where the legal community has displayed utter contempt for the law.
Ironically enough, it may have been the lawyers’ movement from 2007 to 2009 — considered a prime example of effective civil resistance — that sowed the seeds for the out-and-out thuggery increasingly on display by the black coats. For it seems that the movement’s success in achieving its objective — the restoration of then Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry — instilled in some lawyers a taste for confrontation coupled with a certain hubris in which there is no room for dissent. Vicious brawls have broken out on court premises between opposing advocates; courtrooms have been ransacked; and in late 2017, a crowd of lawyers vandalised a new judicial complex. The bench, too, is often a direct target of the black coats’ ire. Members of the judiciary have been held hostage inside their courtrooms, intimidated during proceedings and threatened with physical violence. Wednesday’s rampage, however, plumbs new lows in its complete disregard for the basic norms of humanity.
Of course, the majority of lawyers are not cut from the same cloth, and many of them have roundly condemned their compatriots for their abhorrent actions. Nevertheless, there are among them sufficient numbers of such disorderly individuals as to bring the entire fraternity into disrepute. So far, FIRs have been filed against over 250 advocates involved in the episode. Not only should they be proceeded against under the law that they have so shamefully trampled on, but the Pakistan Bar Council must strip them of their licences. Such lawyers do not belong in any courtroom
It is humanity and civil society that perished in the attack on PIC. Obedience to the law is a mandatory and not an option, or else the law of the jungle will prevail. If politics are devoid of ethics then an unjust society follows. What is tragic is that our ruling elite still feels no red line has been crossed. When power flows from the barrel of the gun, unruly mobs resort to force as a show of power. We have failed to understand the fact that the Quaid-i-Azam’s struggle was to create a nation-state for “we the people”, their welfare, human rights and dignity. Unfortunately the intrigues by the elite in the 1950s and thereafter, started the reversal of Jinnah’s legacy and vision.
It seems as if Imran Khan has made it a matter of ego to retain Usman Buzdar as Punjab Chief Minister, although a good number of MPAs and his party members are of the opinion that Buzdar is not fit for this position. During one and a half year as chief executive of the province, Buzdar has done nothing to bring positive changes in the administrative structure of Punjab. Instead, he is reported to have installed his close relatives and friends in various Punjab departments on high positions. Buzdar did nothing to revamp Punjab police as their highhandedness continues, while there is no decline in crime rate. After every crime he just takes ‘notice’ and asks for an inquiry and a report but the fate of all such cases remains unknown. However, people are at a loss to understand as to what the Prime Minister finds in Buzdar which compels him to retain him as Chief Minister.
—The writer is former Federal Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan and currently Chairman National Democratic Foundation.
