There is something seriously, seriously wrong with this system we have in Pakistan
That’s not really a secret. Never was. But every once in a while something so shocking – so disgusting – and so utterly sickening happens that it surprises even the most insensitive among us.
Something like what happened in Sahiwal.
Something like the police murdering a family in front of their little children – in front of their eyes
Something like the police pumping bullets from their submachine gun into a 13 year old girl – a 13 year old girl who must be in Class 8.
Something like the police stopping the car in broad daylight;
On a main highway;
In front of traffic;
Murdering four people at point blank range;
Whisking the three little kids away after the kids have witnessed dozens of bullets being pumped into their father, mother and sister
How mentally deranged do you have to be to commit such an act?
How morally dead do you have to be to murder an unarmed and innocent family in front of their three little children?
Oh, and there’s more…
There’s the cover-up of this massacre
Official cover up
By the bosses of those who executed the innocent family
These bosses issued a press release immediately after the massacre and claimed CTD had targeted terrorists
CTD - as in Counter Terrorism Department. Yes the same department that is supposed to cleanse Pakistan of terrorists…
Not cleanse Pakistan of its own innocent citizens..
And so the chain of official lies started.. and went on and on and on – till the Law Minister of Punjab, no less, parroted the same line..
This was official Pakistan going into official default – traditional – official - default mode
In this mode officials lie as a default position – they lie because they know they can…
They lie because they know they will get away with it…
They lie because they have seen and heard their bosses lie – and be rewarded for it..
Except this time there was video
And this time there was a little, traumatised child who had seen what these officials wanted to hide.
The little child said what he had seen… and the lies began to unravel.
Those who pumped bullets into an innocent family are being punished …
But those who allowed them to kill so brazenly – those who perhaps gave them permission to murder so heartlessly – those who tried to cover up this crime –
They are only getting a slap on the wrist
They are only getting transfer orders
Nothing will happen to them because they work for a system that hates to be held accountable
A system that hunkers down to protect its people, their lies and their murders
There is something seriously, seriously wrong with this system—
And the murder of an innocent family is not enough of a shock to set the wrongs of this system right.
