AN otherwise sacred place, having centrality in the Pakistan Movement and history of the country, is, these days, related to an incident that brought shame to the entire nation.
As masses were celebrating Independence Day, about 400 goons assaulted a female TikToker at Greater Iqbal Park near Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore and the worst aspect of the entire episode is that the trauma of the victim continued for three hours without any intervention or response from the authorities concerned or thousands of other citizens that were there to mark the day.
The incident was shocking and sparked nationwide outrage but it was in continuation of the unfortunate trends that the country witnessed in recent months/years, which triggered national debate but neither the Government nor the society took any worthwhile measures to check them or punish those involved in loathsome crimes.
Apart from the despicable motorway incident, only a week back, the corpse of a freshly buried teenage girl was dug up and raped in Thatta district of Sindh.
The two incidents are a sign how depraved the society has become and that mere issuance of statements would not help improve the situation.
Pakistan was supposed to be an abode of peace and security for all segments of the population but ironically some segments of the society are as vulnerable as before even after 75 years of independence.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and other concerned officials have vowed not to spare the culprits but our track record of tracing such culprits and bringing them to book is not encouraging just because scions of influential families are often found to be involved in heinous crimes.
Police failure is classic as it did not act despite lodging of the complaint at the beginning of three-hour saga and now it is unable to identify and apprehend any culprit from amongst a fairly large crowd of four hundred and that too when videos and CCTV footage are available.
There should be thorough but neutral inquiry of the incident and the culprits must be meted out exemplary punishment, otherwise there would be no stop to moral degradation and criminality.
