KARACHI:
Reports about a 10-year-old girl working as a housemaid at a civil judge’s house in Islamabad and being allegedly beaten and subjected to severe torture by his wife are shocking. The least that was expected of the concerned civil judge was to act responsibly, as a custodian of law, instead of the role he has adopted. In the first instance, there was complete denial, followed by reports of offering money to settle the matter with a poor unfortunate family. The issue here is the mindset within our lower judiciary, which seems to have a tolerance for such acts of savagery, which no religion or state should allow.
Mere enactment of laws by the legislature is not the remedy. Instances of rape, sexual molestation, child abuse, and brutality are on the rise because of the lack of implementation of laws and the decadent mindset of those within the state institutions appointed as custodians of law. A thorough screening should be conducted of all those recruited by the state to serve in the lower judiciary, law enforcement, and civil bureaucracy to deter people from carrying out serious offences so casually. DNA tests and other scientifically based evidence, which have been established, must be accepted for prosecution and conviction.
It is in the civil courts, where the lower judiciary, allows evidence to be recorded and accepted, which decides the fate of millions of poor and underprivileged sections of this society. The concerned high court must act judiciously in this instance of public interest. The least that should be done is to suspend the concerned civil judge, followed by a departmental enquiry for in-house enforcement of discipline, apart from the criminal proceedings, which should go on simultaneously as per law.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2023.
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