Bittia naa keejo

There seems to be no relief for the poor oppressed women of Pakistan, that continue to suffer irrespective of change in regime. If the Chief Minister of Sindh, belonging to the party founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, cannot provide justice to the residents of his constituency, what moral right does he have to occupy office of the custodian of people's constitutional rights in the province? The inhuman killing of a 17-years-old girl in Khairpur district, reminds us of the life in Stone Ages. We seem to be frozen in time when this kind of repressive and shameful acts were the norm of savages. Heavens must have shaken in fury when Gulsher Solangi, the unfortunate father of 17 years old Tasleem, was made to witness hungry dogs, let loose by monsters in the garb of men, feed upon his daughter.

Yet the Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, an MPA from Khairpur, considers it appropriate to sit cozily in the comfort of his palatial mansion in Karachi doing nothing because traditions of the waderas of Sindh are more sanctimonious than the laws of Pakistan or the injunctions of Islam. The feudals like him know that the people so enraged today will forget about this all in due course of time and so will the presently virulent print and electronic media. After all hundreds of murderers of this ilk have gotten away scot-free after serving a brief spell in jail. Life goes on, as it has, for those that buried alive five women in Balochistan or those who raped Dr Shazia Khalid and thousands of others. Dr Shazia Khalid, if you remember, had to flee from Pakistan while his rapist was safely ensconced in the sanctuary provided by Musharraf himself. For Musharraf, the 'emancipation' of women was served only by holding fashion shows and mujras in the Presidency. -T. MALLICK, Lahore, via e-mail, October 28.