What a shame!

It’s the mindset that has made our educated youth so short on temper and egotistical

Wednesday, December 11, 2019, was perhaps the saddest day of our 72-year-old history. What happened that day made many of us bow our heads in utter shame. There seems to be no escape from national humiliation no matter how one tries to justify the shameless incident.

Indeed, perhaps for the first time ever in the history of the world, a hospital was attacked during peace time (even during war time such attacks take place by accident) by a horde of hooligans in an urbanised city — the capital of Pakistan’s most advanced province. It was a cardiac hospital full of heart patients, many recuperating in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). As the hospital was being violently ransacked, doctors and patients were seen running for their lives, many sustaining injuries. Black coats with black ties had virtually “conquered” the building destroying everything on which they laid their hands — equipment, hospital beds, drip trollies and, even forcibly removed oxygen masks from ICU patients. As a result, three patients are said to have lost their lives.

This happened in Lahore, a Pakistani city relatively better off economically, more educated and culturally richer. In fact, Lahore has been known as one of the major cities of learning in the Sub-continent for ages. And the hooligans were none other than young lawyers who blatantly took the law in their own hands feeling no remorse or qualms!

Some 46 lawyers suspected of being involved in the hooliganism were arrested and are being tried under the anti-terrorism law. But instead of feeling ashamed of having acted as a horde of uncouth insensitive thugs, the lawyers are contesting the incident. Their negotiations with the provincial officials have collapsed and they have declared a nationwide strike to protest against being put in the dock. They have even threatened the media by stopping reporters from entering the high court if it did not “balance” its stories with equal time and space for their version.

Altercations between doctors and attendants of patients are a routine affair as attendants upon losing patience react violently when their dear ones do not seem to be getting the right medical attention or die unexpectedly while under treatment. But things simmer down when eventually passions subside on both sides.

But what happened the other day in Lahore cannot be justified on any grounds. One hopes the officials investigating the event would identify the main culprits that let their tempers take hold of their sanity. It is still a puzzle why the police could not pre-empt the incident. There was ample time for the police to call for re-enforcement and put up both human and concrete barricades to prevent the violent march towards the hospital.

Meanwhile, we need to find out why our educated youth, especially young lawyers and doctors have become so trigger-happy. Youngsters from the two professions have made it a habit of reacting violently to the slightest provocation and more often than not go on strike to protest the slightest of incitement, causing immense suffering to patients and clients. They enter negotiations to settle disputes with the declared intention of winning the argument.

The question is what has made our educated youth so short on temper and egotistical? Why do they take to violence to settle their disputes — whether in groups or individually? Why do they think muscle power is more persuasive than brain power?

Perhaps, it’s the mindset they develop over time as they go through our educational institutions, the kind of education imparted to them, especially in government institutions, and the officially certified syllabus books they read. This aggressive disposition is not confined to just doctors and lawyers. This mindset has seeped into every one of us. It has become a well-entrenched national attitude. We don’t like to negotiate to settle a dispute. We take a position and stick to it come what may without bothering about its disastrous consequences. We don’t believe in give-and-take. We want to keep the entire cake to ourselves. We don’t believe in sharing, cooperating.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2019.

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