Letter to the Editor (Dawn News )

Displaying irrational behaviour


EVERY civilised person condemns the deplorable maltreatment meted out to the former chief minister of Sindh, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, on April 7. We desperately expect Pervez Musharraf to reiterate the logic that he used after the tragic murder of Benazir Bhutto that she herself was responsible for the incident.

It would absolutely be correct in the case of Arbab Rahim to say that it was his own person and policies as chief minister that caused such resentment, frustration and anger among the people against him.

It was indeed a very regrettable incident but it, however, highlights the consequences of manipulating national institutions and thwarting all possible and lawful means of seeking redress of grievances and wrongs caused to the people either by the highhandedness of the partisan government or by the deliberate indifference of the people who wield power at their whim and in an arbitrary manner.

It is quite tragic that those were the norms during Mr Rahim’s tenure as chief minister of Sindh. The people of Pakistan, not only the citizens of Karachi, still remember the tragic massacre of innocent people on May 12, 2007 and the complete indifference of the administration at that time which was headed by Mr Rahim.

The administration even refused to investigate the matter which caused resentment and anger among the masses all over the country. It was quite sad and people still remember that the MQM never chose to boycott the Sindh government over the atrocities of May 12, and now they have rushed to boycott the assembly, which shows the priorities of the popular party of Karachi.

It was also observed, quite regrettably indeed, that even before any inquiry or investigation, the electronic media aired biased views of certain people who not only blamed rather gave their final verdict regarding the involvement of the PPP in the incident.

We expect much more responsibility from our media than any other institution because they have the greatest access to the masses, and responsibility demands that they must lay more emphasis on imparting awareness and importance of institutions instead of having resort to sensationalism. In order to avoid such incidents in future, it is the duty of every citizen, political party and institution to emphasise and ensure the proper working of institutions and neither become party nor allow anybody to thwart the working of institutions for ulterior purposes and petty gains, particularly of those institutions which redress the public grievances.

WAHEED MAZHAR
Lahore

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