Arrival of anarchy

 By Tahir S. Attarwala (published 12 Sept. The NEWS)


In the wake of the water park gang rape case, how can parents send their young girls to schools and colleges? How can young women commute to and back from their work places?


Lack of accountability, injustice, corruption etc. for the vast majority of Karachiites, indeed Pakistanis in general, are part and parcel of everyday life. Living in our self-created cocoons of complacency, we continue our lives, taking the anarchy in our midst in stride, safe in the belief that it won't affect us.

However, every once in a while certain crimes occur, in circumstances so shocking that we are jarred awake from our collective slumber, and the veneer of self satisfied smugness dissipates as if it had never existed.


Such a crime occurred on Sunday evening, on August 17th this year. The facts of the case are that a young couple went to the city's premier water park hoping to have a fun-filled evening. Instead what they got was a nightmare that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. As they were returning from the park a little before sunset, they decided to stop a taxi and got into the back seat. The driver, however, stopped the cab a few kilometres ahead and two men, clad in shalwar kameez, approached the vehicle as if they were waiting for it. One of them took the passenger seat beside the driver and the other occupied the back seat besides the young man.

As the couple tried to raise a hue and cry, the strangers took out pistols and forced them to keep quiet. They then proceeded to blindfold them and made them bow down. They were made to travel in this manner for about half an hour to forty-five minutes. And then the car stopped outside a house-like place where another man was already present. Both the man and his fiancee were dragged into the place, where the man was bound to a chair.

As the strangers approached her, the girl struggled, but she was told that they would kill her fiance if she dared to resist. In front of the young man, they took turns at repeatedly and callously outraging his fiancee's modesty. After committing on the girl the worst indignity that a male can on a female, the perpetrators dragged them to the same cab and dumped them at an isolated spot in Buffer Zone. The couple then hired a rickshaw to reach home.

Devastated by the ordeal, the young man feels that he himself was responsible for what happened to his fiancee, as it was his idea to enjoy an evening with her in the water park in Gulshan. The young couple had initially decided not to disclose their torment to anybody as this would not only bring more miseries to them but render them social outcasts as well. They, along with the teeming millions of their counterparts, belong to the lower middle class and can scarcely afford prolonged litigation, since they have neither the muscle nor the resources to wage costly legal battles against ruthless and power full criminals.

The couple, later, decided to narrate their horrific ordeal requesting anonymity, only to forewarn other young couples and especially females who would visit the park that they must beware of the notorious gangs operating both inside and outside the park. It is evident that such persons and gangs roam freely in the city knowing full well that their victims have no choice but to keep silent and refrain from reporting their tribulations to the police. This is especially true in that particular vicinity since similar crimes have been reported there and even FIRs (First Information Reports) registered with the local police.

What makes this specific crime so horrifying is that a grown adult girl is kidnapped along with her male escort while there was still daylight in one of the most congested thoroughfares, regularly patrolled by the police, in the city on a crowded holiday evening.

Either the perpetrators of this dastardly act were monumentally careless or they were supremely confident. But when one looks at the whole criminal justice system, from the underpaid and unmotivated police force, to the hopelessly overworked and shorthanded judiciary; from the archaic Zina Ordinance laws (that do promise the death penalty for gang rape but at the same time demand four adult male witnesses to what is a uniquely private crime) to their near total lack of implementation, it is easy to understand why these criminals were so confident.

There is no doubt that this crime has sent a tremor of fear throughout the whole city. How can parents send their young girls to schools and colleges? How can young women commute to and back from their work places? These are questions that the beleaguered law enforcement apparatus has yet to answer.

While it is heartening to note that the Chief Minister himself has taken personal notice of this unfortunate incident, but care has to be taken so ensure that the ubiquitous promises of 'exemplary punishment' are actually carried out rather then being cast aside and relegated to the dustbin of history.



The denizens of this city can do this by keeping the issue alive. The various NGOs dedicated to the welfare and uplift of women can take up cudgels in this regard. The press can continue to highlight this case; the people can demand progress reports and press releases regarding daily updates from the government.

If this case, and all that it exposes of the fetid underbelly of Karachi, is allowed to seep out of our collective consciousness, if the perpetrators are not bought to justice, it would truly be a horrible tragedy for not only these criminals, but others of their ilk would be emboldened to other even more outrageous crimes.

The most basic of all priorities of the state is the protection of the lives, honour and property of the people. If it fails to fulfill this primary obligation then all its achievements in all other fields are rendered irrelevant. Because without the rule of law and order, anarchy inevitably ensues. And an anarchic state is a 'failed state'. Unwittingly, by the sheer brazen nature of their crime, these individuals have thrown the gauntlet at the administration. Today if the government fails to act, if it fails to provide protection to the victims, if it fails to bring the culprits to book, then tomorrow will simply be too late.