Case of torturing 11-year-old maid, extortioning rickshaw driver surfaced last week
ISLAMABAD: Two cases that came to light on Monday, October 22, have only highlighted the bleak picture of Pakistan’s growing inequality. The poor once again are at the brink of survival and suffering the injustices of the rich.
In the first incident a young little maid, Kinza, was brutally tortured by her employers. The 11-year-old had gone through what we can’t even imagine any child to go through — bruises, burns and a blackened eye. The child who worked at a government officer’s house mentioned that she was tortured by her ‘masters’.
In the second incident a helpless rickshaw driver burnt himself alive in front of a police station after he had enough of harassment and extortion by the traffic police.
The incidents, although separate in nature, have one commonality — the injustice faced by the poor in the country.
It is saddening to realise that while our state apparatus does little to bring people out of poverty, they also do almost nothing to ensure their safety.
Our justice system is broken and the only people at a loss are the ones who do not have the means to even fight for themselves.
Nighat Aslam
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2018.
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