Justice for everyone

By Ahtsham Ijaz Bhalli

Photo of seven year old Zainab

 

Due to the rape and ruthless murder of seven year old Zainab, protests have started in some parts of Punjab, especially in Kasur city.  The brutal rape and murder of seven year old Zainab in Kasur Pakistan is not the only  incident. According to data collected by non-governmental organisation Sahil, as many as 11 cases of child sexual abuse are reported from across Pakistan every day. This is a terrible situation indeed. Even in Kasur, which became the centre of a massive child abuse case in 2014-15, the rape and brutal murder of nearly 12 minor girls, aged between 5 to 8 years, have been reported in the past twelve months. This situation is not limited to girls only younger boys are also victimized.

In the last year, the total number of reported child abuse cases were 4139, bringing the total number of children being abused in Pakistan per day to 11. Amongst all cases of child abuse from January to June 2017, 62 percent were reported in Punjab and 27 percent in Sindh Province of Pakistan. This is the data of those cases which were reported and are on the record while still there are a lot of incidents of same nature which are not reported just to avoid any insult of family and sometimes due to pressure from criminals.

With the memories of that sad incident in Kasur in which hundreds of children were abused, filmed and later, blackmailed by local mafia about two years ago is still fresh in the minds of the public. Now famous personalities and the general public have raised their voice on media and demanded justice for Zainab’s family.  Unfortunately, the role of law enforcement agencies especially police is not satisfactory in this matter and in previous cases all culprits are not arrested yet. It is not only the fault of police everytime as our politicians are also responsible for that.

After gaining media attention this matter is highlighted and Chief Justice of Pakistan, Army Chief and Chief Minister Punjab took notice of it. Some of the political parties are also trying to polish their politics which is not a good tradition. The CM of Punjab made a JIT  to further investigate this matter but Zainab’s father rejects head of the probe team by saying that, “JIT head is from Ahmadiyya Community so he will not accept this enquiry”.  It is really a shocking and surprising thing that without checking capability standard of anyone just due to his religious beliefs, he is not accepted as a head of JIT.

At the end, I would like to say that religious issues or differences should not be brought forward if anyone is capable of doing something, he must be given a chance to do it. All culprits in these type of cases should be arrested immediately and severe punishment like death penalty should be awarded to them. In this way, justice can be provided to everyone. I do not consider them human beings, they are bloody beasts in the disguise of humans. It is also the duty of everyone living in society to keep an eye on such beasts to avoid any further incidents.