This is with reference to the editorial ‘Barkhan outrage’ (Feb 23) and the report “Raid at minister’s home after bodies found in Barkhan well” (Feb 22). It can be said without any fear at all of contradiction that violation of funda-mental rights, as enshrined in the Constitution, is a chronic phenomenon right across Pakistan.
The misery of missing persons is known to one and all, and now the matter of so-called private prisons has started to surface in Balochistan where a provincial minister has been accused of illegally running one such ‘facility’. The question that is agitating the mind of countless people, especially of those living in Balochistan, relates to the safety of life and honour of the ordinary folks. How safe they are? Are they safe at all? Is there anybody doing anything to make life safe in the province? Indeed, is there anybody even interested in making life safe for the people of Balochistan? What is the purpose of running private jails? Are state-managed prisons not enough? Why are people in positions of power interested in spreading fear among the powerless? There is no end to such questions, and there is no answer to any such question. All that we get in response is silence; a screaming, deafening, intriguing silence. Is this what the people of Pakistan deserve? Silence. Is this what Pakistan was made for? More silence. Is this the way forward for Pakistan and Pakistanis? Even more silence. Nothing but silence.
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan guarantees safety and security of every citizen. And yet people with power and influence continue to prove themselves as being ‘more equal’ than the rest.
Despite all the progress that has been made in the last few years regarding the whereabouts of ‘missing persons’, there remain uncountable such cases where parents and relatives continue to hope against hope that their sons and brothers and husbands and fathers will one day return. The hope keeps fading with every passing day. And yet they keep hoping because that is all that they can do.
Making matters worse is the ongoing political instability in the country that has pushed back such issues into oblivion. The momentum has gone to waste, with the government and state institutions now focusing elsewhere.
Continuing political conflicts and the prevailing economic strife have only strengthened the hand of the feudals who now enjoy even more in their own respective fiefdoms. This is what has happened repeatedly in the past, and this is what is happening now. The state surely needs to wake up and take remedial measures, especially in the smaller provinces, so that lives could be saved and private prisons could be eliminated.
AHMAD KHAN
LARKANA
