The embedded ‘elite protection system’

Pakistan may have voluntarily become the only nation in the world to legislate a bill that could enable a scoundrel, criminal, plunderer, thief or money launderer to serve as an office-bearer of a political party if he is either not qualified to be, or disqualified from being elected as a member of parliament under Article 63 of the Constitution. This could include individuals of unsound mind, dual nationals, those convicted by courts of either being against the sovereignty, integrity or security of Pakistan or of moral turpitude.

What makes Pakistan bend itself backwards to seek such despicable measures to please and pamper its already contemptible lawless ruling elite? In any situation of conflict between an ordinary citizen and a privileged brat, the entire state machinery invariably converges to protect and facilitate the rich and the powerful. Cronyism for these parasites appears to have become embedded in the structure of the Pakistani state.

Consider the recent tragic incident in which Tania Khaskheli, the daughter of a poor villager, was brutally gunned down in front of her parents, by an influential landlord for refusing a marriage proposal. Although the killer was well known for his crimes and possessing an arsenal of weapons, Pakistan’s ‘elite protection system’ (EPS) immediately swung into action in his support offering at least five different safety nets.

Firstly, the police failed to arrest the culprit. Next, they allowed him to disappear from the scene and the city. Then they refused to register an FIR against him. When finally coerced to do so, they conveniently omitted the important sections 6 and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the FIR. An influential political leader allegedly abetted the crime by providing shelter to the murderer. As per the unwritten constitution of ‘EPS’, all ‘EPS’ elements must close ranks and come to the aid of a fellow ‘EPS’ in trouble.

Consider yet another recent case of a young maidservant Fatima, who was murdered in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority. Her lifeless body was found hanging from a fan in the house of a rich person under mysterious circumstances — that pointed more towards the possibility of rape and murder and less towards a suicide.

As expected the embedded ‘elite protection system’ came to the rescue of the rich in many subtle ways. An FIR was not registered. A medical autopsy was conducted at the city’s largest government hospital which concluded that it was a case of suicide. Lab tests for possible rape were not conducted. The theory that the ‘poor love to commit suicide’ finds ready acceptance in the corridors of the ‘EPS’.

Under normal circumstances that would have been the end of these two cases. The rich and the poor would have moved on with their respective lives of pleasure and misery. But the grief-stricken families chose a different path. They assembled friends and relatives to protest outside police stations. They wailed and pleaded in front of the TV cameras and reporters at the press club. They were joined by NGOs, ‘tehreeks’ and individuals who demanded action against the culprits.

The ice began to melt only when the Sindh CM, the inspector general of police and the Sindh High Court entered the scene. Things began to happen rapidly. The FIRs were registered, murderers were arrested, a second autopsy was ordered and samples were sent to the lab to ascertain the possibility of rape.

The ‘EPS’ has managed to placate the aggrieved. There has however been no attempt at reforming the reluctant FIR or the fake autopsy system. Fatima’s second autopsy found visible torture marks and concluded that it was a case of murder and not suicide.

Those who refused to register FIRs, those who enabled escape, those who produced fake autopsy results, those who did not seek lab tests and those who abetted the crime by protecting the culprits have not been held accountable. So the ‘EPS’ remains firmly intact, ever ready to support yet another influential murderer or rapist.

A murder is a crime against the state and the state must come to the aid of all citizens and not just the rich and the powerful. A country where the poor have to hold protests, sit-ins and hunger strikes to obtain their fundamental right to life is not a desirable place to live. Pakistan needs to dismantle its ‘EPS’ forthwith.

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

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