Social chaos
THE contemporary society is in a terrible state of dilemma and we all are changing our roles swiftly to push it further into quagmire of social injustice, inequality, extremist aptitude of crime against women, children and fragile segments with unfounded but stronger assurances of getting scotch free.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark prevalent everywhere devoid of class, caste or creed; these centuries old dictum suits perfectly to our present social outlook.
Our socio-economic fabric that has been tarnished badly by frequent incidents of grievous concern in the last few months: from Zainab to Noor Mukkadam to Ayesha Akram to Choung Rape of both mother and daughter together by beasts; descending from jungle plot of Lord of the Rings of Golfing.
In the recent past, growing violence against feeble creatures has proved that we have descended deeper into Ravine of Abyss and social chaos as murder and rape seem a kind of crime more to be talked about than punished strictly under law.
It shows the might of powerful bourgeois and power mongers who twist the laws to their tunes to get Scotch free invariably.
A country, which was attained in the name of the Most Peaceful Religion guaranteed equal rights for all classes and segments, cannot afford such violations under any law, religion, social conduct and international disciplines.
A series of incidents in the recent past has exposed our weak criminal justice system along with meagre media sensibility to tackle such crimes which have rendered parents highly insecure as gradually extremist-cum-fanatic elements seem penetrating deeper into our social structure.
All victims in the recent past seem casualty of male chauvinist approach, leading towards victim blaming and shaming by a truncated social fabric.
There is no shadow under Red Rock for such victims as our system deals them as partners in crime.
We are living in a society fluxed with extremist predilections where successive governments have failed to ensure enlightened moderation.
Mushroom growth of media and especially unchecked social media exposure further enhanced the decay and decline as it got excessive freedom without echelons of responsibility; they need to realize what to propagate and what to surpass as by crossing the red lines it starts bringing a very bad name to the country.
We are dealt as a nation devoid of social justice and oblivious of equal rights for the downtrodden and minorities.
As very recently, Greater Iqbal Park incident has been condemned widely by our nation everywhere but an act of a few dozens has been portrayed as mindset of majority and propagated widely against our social outlook depicting us as an extremist nation.
Pakistan is a progressive and a moderate society with seeds of tolerance sown since ages cultivated with traditions and customs of respect for women, children and minorities. Till 1979, we witnessed a little bit of extremism, sectarianism or fanaticism then comes Zia era.
It was a time with many events in our neighbourhood, Iranian Revolution to pan-Islamism to the (former) Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan in search of hot waters and expansion of nefarious hegemonic designs as that was cold war era.
With Russian invasion we saw influx of three million Afghan refugees, and we guised ourselves as epic players in the theatre of war supporting Mujahideen backed by Saudi Riyals and American technology and weapons.
Zia needed legitimacy to his usurpation of power as he had usurped the reins of power by dethroning stronger Bhutto and hanging him later.
Ergo, to him it was a golden opportunity shaking hands with the Reagan Administration and getting dollars. Zia introduced and implemented strict Shariah and Hudood laws and exploited that very law to prosecute the rivals.
It was the time when extremist elements started cropping up in our rank and file; we saw rapid growth of Jihadi elements.
On the other hand, ethnic groups like the MQM were also founded, so on one hand sectarian and Jihadi elements and on the other hand, ethnic linguistic groups started holding the ground in our country.
Afghan exodus further de-shaped our social outlook by intoxication of Kalashnikov and drugs culture; they quickly and briskly got hold of major construction, transportation and business sectors of the country thus penetrating deeper into our society. Successive regimes seem to have succumbed to these refugees.
By the end of 20th Century, we saw a turbulent situation, especially in our region, in the wake of new world order and culmination of cold war.
The US emerged as sole super-power; since the dawn of 21th Century, we witnessed a series of uneven incidents and game plans in changing scenarios, balance of power in the sub-continent was equalled by both warring arch rivals by testing their arsenal and equipping it with atoms as deterrent for others too.
The world saw 9/11 and this region again became a hot bed for an upcoming longer battlefield as American came down in hot pursuit of Osama.
Pakistan again became part of others war as Musharraf like Zia wanted legitimacy. So, the remnants and vestiges were deeply visible in the reign of General Musharraf.
Our plunging into others’ war again saw next generation of Afghan treading into our social and economic corridors, and after 2005 a wave of suicide bombing started in our country and sectarianism turned into more fascist terrorism and a country based on progressive notions turned into a radicalized brat. Moreover, we saw frenzy elements in our Parliament.
Highly educated lot even got inspired by such elements which further imparted such ideologies to our feeble youths thus inculcating seeds of extremism everywhere.
This was the second coming of such elements after Musharraf. To cap it all, it is need of hour to disband these obnoxious and abominable elements who are instilling hatred and prejudice into our youths.
The cruel clutches of this antimony need to be broken or else nobody could gauge the ramifications of this scourge.
—The writer is an officer of Police Service.
