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Shameful criminal act
What happened at Minar-e-Pakistan on 14 August when over 400 unruly men attacked a Tik-Tok woman is shameful and reflects on the moral degradation and erosion of morals and ethics that has beset our society.
This same mob would never have dared to act like vultures, had they been at Dubai’s Jumeirah beach, because of the fear of law and police, who would have moved in to arrest them. Crime flourishes in a society when law enforcement fails to enforce the writ of law.
This degeneration that has set in our society is an outcome of years of lawlessness, compromises and failure to implement laws in existence.
This decline from Quaid’s concept of a modern democratic welfare state to a country where individual’s whims and greed for power, override rule of laws and the constitution, was bound to have its toll on our morals and ethics. Merely calling ourselves an Islamic state does not make us one.
This moral erosion started when Yahya Khan, a debauch, took over and thereafter it is on steady decline.
Have we forgotten the Dr Shazia rape incident in Balochistan, or the dictator’s comments in America, in response to a Pakistani lady who questioned him about Mukhtara Mai rape case, that women in Pakistan plan their rape to get visas and immigration?
In a country where the mindset of police and few within the political elite is to ignore these incidents and blame victims, rather than arresting and punishing criminals, such crimes are bound to rise, rather than decline. The sexual harassment and abuse of this Tik Tok lady continued for almost three hours.
The police who must have been deputed there, given the expected rush on 14 August and the security guards who are normally visible at Minar-e-Pakistan, chose to ignore this gory incident.
It did not seem to bother law enforcement, who would have moved in immediately, had the victim been a family member of an elite. Moral erosion trickles down from the top and destroys a country.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
Afghanistan Post-Taliban victory
Afghanistan has witnessed the defeat and expulsion of Soviet and American forces in the last fifty years.
The announcement of the final US troop’s withdrawal from May 2021 has once again brought Afghanistan into global limelight.
Despite a trillion dollar investment, Kabul’s fall only days after the US withdrawal, is as significant as the fall of Vietnam in 1975.
Both defeats involved the same superpower. Neither President Biden nor the US intelligence or think-tanks could’ve predicted Kabul’s fall. Afghan Taliban took over Kabul with hardly any bloodshed.
Formation of the new Afghan government is in process with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as its potential leader and unlike a western democracy, it will be the Islamic Emirate with a Council of Advisors.
The new Afghan Taliban are different from the Taliban twenty years prior. They have declared amnesty for all with a promise to include all parties in the new government.
The US, Western and Indian embassies have closed but Russia, China and Pakistan are retaining their embassies.
Ex-President Ashraf Ghani has escaped Kabul with millions in cash and is seeking political asylum in the UAE.
These events have huge implications for Pakistan in terms of security and an expected further influx of Afghan refugees (on top of three million already settled). PM Imran’s government is expected to recognise the new regime.
SAAD MAQBOOL
Islamabad
Woman victimised
14 August reminds us of our independence. It reminds us of broken chains of slavery and new promises of freedom without discrimination.
The shameful Minar-e-Pakistan incident brought mixing into mire, which was standing with its head up with dignity before.
400 men demoralised and devastated a woman’s piousness by blowing their own trumpet of independence.
The whole nation was ashamed when those flesh-monger men ripped her and stripped her off in order to scratch her flesh, they seemingly turned into beasts.
It was not just that one woman who was humiliated and traumatised, but the essence of independence.
Men have become so merciless and ignominious that they humiliated the nation’s sovereignty.
How miserable is this visualizing that on the proud day when we promised safety to our sisters and daughters from the western tyrants, our own ‘men’ bruised their piety.
Minar-e-Pakistan won’t stand with dignity unless those bastards are put behind bars and severely punished.
SAJJAD HUSSAIN
Agra, Sindh
AIDS too not only Corona
World AIDS Vaccine Day is also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD). It is an annual event observed on 18th May to spread awareness about the continued need for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and AIDS.
AIDS is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome that is acquired when someone becomes infected with a virus.
AIDS was first reported in the US in 1981 and became a worldwide epidemic since then.
AIDS can be called the most advanced stage of infection caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The names HIV and AIDS may sound confusing as both terms describe the same disease.
But it is not necessary for an HIV positive person to have AIDS because one can only get HIV by coming into direct contact with certain body fluids from another HIV positive person having a detectable viral load.
SHIZA IMDAD
Karachi
