Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Protecting criminals
There is a perception based on ground realities that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan the State is often seen protecting those criminals who are influential and wealthy, irrespective of the gruesome charges they face or the gravity of crimes committed by them.
In Georgia, USA, while there is a trial in progress by a jury of three white men for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year old unarmed Black man, who was suspected by them for a series of break-ins in their neighborhood.
The video showing the gruesome slaying of Mr Arbery was captured on a CCTV videotape and was widely telecast by all TV channels and viewed by the public.
Neither the State Prosecutor nor the regulators have objected, nor any complaints by the defendant’s lawyers entertained to stop the media from showing it.
In Pakistan, PEMRA has prohibited on 14 November TV channels from airing the CCTV video of Noor Muqaddam murder accused Zahir Jaffer. The CCTV footage reveals the ordeal suffered by Noor hours before her brutal murder.
Why should PEMRA be seen protecting this criminal? It is an unfortunate reality that influential and rich criminals involved in gruesome deeds have often got away because of friendly prosecution.
It was public outcry and resentment which enabled the murderer and rapist of Zainab to get punished.
Thereafter numerous other pedophiles who have murdered innocent victims in their teens after raping them have got away with lighter sentences.
Crime has flourished and increased in Pakistan because laws are selectively applied and the State is often seen not performing its constitutional role in protecting life and property of citizens.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
Football match
Let’s suppose that in a football match — with the score being 0-0 and just a few seconds to go for the final whistle — a striker scores a goal to ensure the win of his team.
Immediately he would be rendered a “superstar” as if he had single-handedly won the match ! But the fact remains that without the contribution of the goalkeeper and the defenders who have not conceded any goal, without the brilliant pass by the concerned midfielder who forwarded the ball exactly at the right spot for the striker to go for the kill; the match would certainly not have won.
Actually in a team game, irrespective of the hero of the match; at the end of the day, the fact remains that victory gets ensured only through joint effort.
Similarly during a loss, never can an individual be singled out for failure if at the final stages of the match, the goalkeeper lets in a goal or a fielder misses a catch.
We should ask why the frontline players couldn’t score goals or were the defenders “sleeping”! We must ask why couldn’t the batting line-up put more runs on the scoreboard, why have the bowlers failed to rein in the batsmen of the opposition or why didn’t the slip fielder take a simple catch in an earlier stage of the innings! By which logic can any individual be treated as a “villain” of sorts just because he has misjudged at the concluding phase ! This is certainly not cricket.
Instead of expressing ire exclusively towards Hasan Ali for dropping the catch of Matthew Wade during T20 World Cup semi-final against Australia, it needs to be acknowledged that Pakistan team had a rare bad day or the Aussies fared better. Let all traits of sanity prevail in the sporting arena.
KAJAL CHATTERJEE
Kolkata, India
Corruption
in NADRA
I am writing this letter to draw the attention of the concerned authorities to the increasing corruption in NADRA.
A few months back, I had a chance to visit the NADRA Office to get the National Identity Card and I had a very bad experience.
Some agents took money from people to get their work done quickly without any hassle on the behalf of staff sitting inside the office.
I and other people who didn’t fill the pockets of those agents had to go through long queues and wait for hours.
In the beginning, I thought those staff members are doing the work of those agents just as a favour, but afterwards, I discovered that they were getting the share from those agents.
If this attitude continues to grow, there will come a time when it will become impossible to get your work done without bribing the government servants sitting in the offices. We need to stop this evil as early as possible; otherwise it’ll be too late to act.
ABDULLAH RAMZAN
Chishtian
