‘By the pricking of my thumbs

…something wicked this way comes.’ It is Shakespeare in Macbeth Act 4 scene 1 that has the character called ‘Second Witch’ utter these words, and they are as chilling today as when they were penned. The dictionary defines ‘wickedness’ as being a synonym for evil or sinfulness, and among philosophers and some theologians it has the more specific, and more telling, meaning of an evil that is committed consciously and of free will. Pakistan sees more than its fair share of wickedness on any given day but occasionally there rises an act of such profound evil that it transcends the darkest of our normative Stygian values. The murder of Mashal Khan is that act and it is going to serve as the benchmark for institutionalised evil for times to come.

This entirely innocent man was the victim of a conspiracy hatched by student leaders and university employees who falsified allegations of blasphemy against Mashal Khan knowing full well what the likely consequences of such a move would be. A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has compiled a 308-page report complete with confessions and admissions of corruption. There was not a shred of evidence that Khan had posted anything sacrilegious online, but he had used the internet to criticise the faculty and management of the AWKU — and a decision was collectively taken by dozens of individuals to ‘get rid of him.’

There have been 57 arrests and at least three of those under investigation are ‘absconders’ but the chances of a successful prosecution of this supremely wicked act are remote. The case will take months or years to get to court; and despite the JIT coming up with a range of damning evidence, including confessional statements this piece of wickedness will get diluted over time, diffused, and eventually disappear in the slow tide of inertia and indifference that accompanies the majority of such events. Something wicked came this way a long time ago and it settled in. We expect no early change.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2017.

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