Reasons for connivance in these reprehensible acts can be inferred from the low emphasis placed on morality
SUKKUR: This letter is with reference to the article by Zehra Abid, “No country for Kasur’s children” (August 12). It is very perceptive of her to identify what contributes to the failure of our society vis-a-vis morality. Our society has developed the habit of denying being in the wrong. And, unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the only despicable case of paedophilia in the country; there are many such instances presumed to have been happening in our society, with nobody having the decency to admit it. If anything, we see comments by the quarters concerned condemning the wrongdoers. However, in the maze of the whole saga, what remain unaddressed are the solutions; nobody admits the fact that something is seriously wrong with us and it must be addressed. How and why such vile deviants feel emboldened while committing crimes may be their motivation, but what goads them to perpetrate crimes with impunity is the refusal to admit criminality and wrongfulness by those capable of punishing them. Culprits know that loopholes exist in the legal system that will help them get exonerated from charges, as has been seen in many past incidents.
Reasons for connivance in these reprehensible acts can be inferred from the low emphasis placed on morality. Religious scholars seem too busy pontificating about religion and the religious context and the ‘educated’ civil society seems busy in only trying to multiply their resources, with the impoverished too mired in their own poverty to think about what is happening outside their poverty zone. As a result, moral values are ignored. Unless, instead of just penalising the culprits, we identify the sociocultural profile of those implicated in paedophilia and the source that drives them to resort to such shameful deviance, we cannot live in a society based on moral ideals. And, still, if we persist with the old ways of punishment, it would be like treating cancer with ordinary medication.
Riaz Mahar
Published in The Express Tribune, August 14th, 2015.
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