The Lawlessness in the country is touching the worst limits presently. Though law and order has been extremely unsatisfactory in Pakistan for the last many years but it appears that now it is crossing all limits.

The state of crime is a perception and now necessarily a solid reality. I am afraid having been a career police officer I will not try to beguile the reason with statistics but you cannot avoid the Public Perception about the state of affairs. You pick up any good newspaper and you will find the narration of grow some murders, dare devil decoitees, hair splitting rapes and target killings of some very noble souls. This phenomenon is not confined to any particular area. You see Karachi busing in blood, interior Sindh bedeviled by decoitees. Secretarial killings and ethnic clashes are rampents through out the country. Kidnapping and abduction for ransom has became the order of the day through out the country. Even the President of Pakistan is not safe from attempts on his life. The security of important personalities has became a nightmare for the police. What is happening in Wana and other tribal areas is still an enigma. You see blood everywhere. The life and lim of the citizens is not safe. The property and the owner of the people is threatened every moment and by now you are loosing faith in the civilized society of Pakistan.

Why?

It’s a difficult question to answer. It will take volumes if I try to analyze this in the briefest possible manners. I will not discuss the population increase, shifting of population from rural areas to cities or even other unplanned phenomenal growth of mega cities. I will also avoid to discuss the social injustice in our society where in the rich have become more rich and the poor of the country have became poorer. I will only aver to the inputs of lawlessness like clashankov and heroin culture as a outfall of the Afghan war. This factor has no doubt changed the very nature of crime in Pakistan and the country witnessing a basic change in patterns of crime while the crime has become organized and violent in Pakistan. The crime fighting machinery has remain stagnant. Its growth in every respect particularly the Police that appears to be moving on foot while the criminal has moved into the space times.

Some of the factor that I have referred above are present these days every where throughout the world. But in Pakistan this is a very basic and different reason for lawlessness and that is the repeated military rules that is the mother reason for the worsening law and order situation. Infact it is the military rule that has mothered the military among the masses.

Let us now try to analyze the phenomenon of military rule very briefly from the point of view of lawlessness. You will realize that it is the verdict of the history that civilized societies are always regulated by laws. The more law abiding society is, the more beautiful and organized it becomes. In case of Pakistan this universal truth has not only be light but even turned topsy-turvy when General Ayub Khan imposed the martial law by aborting the basic law of Pakistan in 1958. He, infact, had committed the greatest crime. He was not punished for his crime because nobody could muster up the courage to do that. Instead he rewarded himself and selected himself the President of Pakistan to justify his crime he invented many an excuses and accuse then great political leadership falsely and blatantly with all kinds of dirty allegations. If you tolerate a crime, the crime grows. But here the crime was not only tolerated but even eulogized by the hoard of worthless and saleable intellectuals of Pakistan. Thus the dastardly crime starting being glorifying. This atmosphere encouraged the ordinary text book criminal. Unfortunately the highest court of Pakistan also justified this crime on the doctrine of necessity. In this atmosphere every thief and murderer started justifying his own act by referring to his own Law of necessity.

This matter did not stop only with General Ayub Khan but this criminal activity was followed up by General Yahya Khan, General Zia-ul-Haq and now by General Pervez Musharraf. In these climate of Sin and crime new generations have grown up in Pakistan who think as if this kind of criminal dispensation conveniently called militant rule is perhaps a political alternate. The thinking and wishes of the people of Pakistan are mercilessly crushed and even their right to vote and replace their ruler has been usurp mercilessly. In my view this is the main reason that crime has become a way of life with the otherwise decent people of Pakistan. The respect for law is totally erudite because General Ayub Khan and his chorots through official propaganda machine has glorified crime to a point of no return. As a result the people are suffering and our society is breaking down to a point of civil war. I am afraid if proper remedial measure are not taken the Pakistan society appears to be destined to evaporate in thin air.

There have been many commission on the subject but nothing worthwhile have been come out. The other day the leaders of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly has proposed a parliamentary commission to diagnose the reasons for collapse of the law and order. I am afraid this will not delivered because the parliament himself is still a big institution under the evil shadow of the military ruler. There is need for a very powerful national commission to study the reasons for the breakdown of the law and order, diagnose real causes and then suggest strong remedial measure. The commission should consists of very highly placed eminent citizens of Pakistan like Justice (R) Javed Iqbal, Justice (R) Shafi-ur-Rehman, Justice (R) Saad Saud Jaan, Justice (R) Mian Mehboob Ahmad, eminent social scientists, lawyers, civil servants, police officers and ulemas. Such a commission has to be such a prestigious body that their word should became a national guide. I expect a commission like this that they work courageously with a deep sense of patriotism declare the martial law or any other form of military rule as “HARAM”. This should carry so much of a wait that it should result in a determined resolve of the entire nation. Of course other measures will also be suggested by this commission. I think if such strong measures are not taken the Pakistan society is likely to disintegrate God forbid. I hope that you take my sincere submissions as a make up call please don’t get alarmed. I have the vision in the expansion to see into the coming future because of my professional background as well as my personal commitment to my mother land.

05-06-2004