My house is located in the jurisdiction of Bahadurabad police station in Karachi. A few nights ago, the watchman at my residence called me up past midnight, telling me that his cousin was being held by the area police who were demanding Rs10,000 to release him.
I spoke to the police official on the watchman’s cellphone to find out what was happening. He told me that the man had been found doing something illegal. I asked him why, then, was he asking for Rs10,000. “This is rishwat (bribe),” the police official replied. Yes, this is what he precisely said, telling me: “This is how the whole country functions; on rishwat. Don’t you know that?”
When I pleaded with him to let the poor man go, as a special favour to me, a person old enough to be his mother, he reduced his demand to Rs5,000. He said this was how he paid for the diesel for his official vehicle, and that his colleagues were waiting for their share of the booty.
To make things even clearer, he told me I could call whomsoever I wanted, including the chief minister, but he would not budge from his demand. He also asked me to raise the demand on his behalf that Sindh police should get the same pay and allowances that are enjoyed by their counterparts in Punjab. Finally, I gave up and left the matter to the discretion of the watchman who, as it turned out, settled with the police official for a payment of Rs2,000. This was one more instance of how people are harassed by officials at police stations, traffic intersections, driving licence centres, and several other public facilities.
DR MASUMA HASAN
KARACHI
