An unending cycle

The brutal act triggers a national outrage with a section of the public and some lawmakers calling for public hangings

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. Pakistan seems to be stuck in its own insanity loop as far as its rape problem is concerned. Here is how the cycle goes. A case of heinous rape is reported somewhere — like a mother dragged from her car and raped in front of her children or a minor girl or boy lured to a desolate spot where they are raped before being killed. This brutal act triggers a national outrage with a section of the public and some lawmakers calling for public hangings. Media maintains its focus on the issue, coming up with regular updates. The public anger grows. Subsequently, the power corridors make some noises, promising stringent action. The police are then forced into action to finally catch the culprits. The outrage dies down and things get back to normal until we are jolted back with another such heinous case which follows through the same cycle.

Kasur is one area, located in eastern Punjab, which is a fitting exponent of this cycle. It is the same place where the shocking child pornography scandal had been unearthed a few years ago where a group used to force young boys and girls into sexual acts while filming them. The brutal rape and killing of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari in January 2018 also happened in Kasur. The case did turn into a national issue and the culprit was finally caught, convicted and executed by the state, but all that could not serve to stop such crimes from happening — even in Kasur itself. In recent examples, at least three women — two of whom were in their own homes — and four children have fallen prey to the beastly men in and around Kasur within a short period of 48 hours.

This past week, the government launched a new alert application as part of a bill inspired by the national outrage over Zainab’s brutal murder. The app will allow swift registration of missing children and rape cases and allow the public and police to track them. But will this alone be sufficient to pull us out of this cycle of rapes?

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2020.

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