Just when you think this wretched nation that calls itself Pakistan couldn’t sink any lower, it surprises you; even when you know you should stop being surprised. If there was any justice in this damned place, fourteen rapists would have been hanged for the crimes they committed, but there is no justice; especially not for women. For a start eight rapists were simply let go, and that left the six who even Blind Freddy could have convicted in what in most countries, (or any country where they had a half decent sense of right and wrong plus a semi-functional judicial system), would have been an open and shut case. Not here though. Not in Pakistan.

 

The freeing of five of Mukhtaran Mai’s attackers, (bar one, the ring leader Abdul Khaliq who also sodomised her younger brother – but has seen his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment despite rape being a capital offence probably on no more grounds than he is a feudal landlord), sets a new, but not unexpected low for Pakistan. The victims were illiterate peasants, the perpetrators powerful feudal landlords. In a nation where the party that currently forms the government was formed to protect the interests of the feudal landowning ‘elite’, we shouldn’t have expected anything else. In a country where the police (who didn’t even record Mukhtaran’s statement properly) are corrupt, poorly trained, poorly equipped, unprofessional, politicised and a reflection of a warped society, we shouldn’t expect anything else. In a nation where the judiciary and legal service are corrupt, unprofessional, politicised, unfeasibly inept, and due to this a danger to the stability and security of the country (as can be seen in the appeal of the Taliban dispensing ‘justice’ – because they at least give you a result before you die of old age without having to be bribed), we shouldn’t expect anything else. In a nation of ignorant and illiterate savages who are warped enough to believe a victim should commit suicide to erase the ‘shame’ brought by the crime, we shouldn’t expect anything else. In Pakistan the powerful are not only above the law, they’ve elevated themselves above God Himself. There can be no justice here under these circumstances. So we shouldn’t expect anything else.

 

You can already see some news and media outlets claiming the judiciary has bowed to Islamic extremists. That definitely is true in the case of Asia Bibi, but in this case they’re bowing to pressure from the feudal ‘elite’. The pseudo-religious nutcases in this damned place are responsible for a legion of crimes, but this isn’t one of them. That’s not to say they’re not displaying their usual hypocrisy. Had Mukhtaran Mai been assaulted in a non-Muslim country, say America for example (the country they love to hate – even though Pakistanis will gladly take US Dollars in aid), these clowns would have been leaping about all over the place in their usual fashion running riot, razing the place to the ground, and accompanied by burning the relevant flags (who sells them these flags in the first place – they must be rich). However, seeing as it happened in Pakistan…not a peep. Not that I’m saying they should be razing the place to the ground of course, but they could at least come on the record and condemn it and voice support for Mai. They won’t do that of course. Not even if you consider the Sharia law they always harp on about would have seen all fourteen of Mai’s attackers executed years ago.

 

So Islam isn’t to blame here. In fact, having lived here for a number of years, these people are some of the least religious people I’ve ever met. You see mosques everywhere, you see the ‘trappings’ of faith, but that’s all superficial. The mosques are mainly empty because the majority of these people can’t even be bothered to pray once at home let alone five times in a mosque, and they’re some of the most fundamentally untrustworthy and dishonest people you’ll ever meet anywhere. Why else would the place be in such a state? If the leadership of a country is a reflection of society, then society must be a reflection of the leadership. So you get a good idea about just how low these people are. They think nothing of trying to rob or cheat you. In fact they think it’s their ‘right’ to do so. Their crimes, seemingly regardless of how serious they are, are all somewhat ‘casual’ to them. They have become ‘normal’ and are committed without a second thought. They commit them as if on autopilot, just like the nation’s politicians. That’s why Pakistanis keep voting in the same set of incompetent and venal thieves, because they’re voting for people who are like themselves, but have the added hypocrisy to complain about it afterwards. They don’t accept this though. They don’t lie looking in a mirror and seeing who they really are, and when they look at the likes of Zardari/Gardari, or Nodding Ass Gillani, or Mr Potatohead/Nawaz Sharif, or rabble rousing philandering bum Imran Khan, or that odious toad Altaf Hussein, or any of the others, they don’t like what they see, because it’s themselves they really see. They are sick, and they are twisted. I don’t know what it would take for Pakistanis to mend their ways. In recent years there has been a massive earthquake, a flood of biblical proportions, death and destruction on an almost daily basis by brainwashed pseudo-religious nutcases, but they’re obviously waiting for a fireball from heaven to burn the place to a cinder before they even contemplate changing. Even then, I doubt they’d change.

 

For outsiders who have experience of living in another country, especially somewhere like the UK or the US, Pakistan has become a repulsive caricature. You get the sense of hopelessness here. Anybody who can leave is leaving. There’s a considerable brain drain because talented and honest people don’t see a future for themselves here even without the government hell bent on killing off the Higher Education Commission for questioning fake degrees held by politicians. There’s no justice (as Mai has learnt to her cost and she may yet pay for it with her life, as may her family), the economy has tanked, a self inflicted energy crisis is sapping the life out of the country, the law and order situation worsening by the minute, and above it all the lunatics are running the asylum. There’s no hope left.

 

When it comes to Pakistan, like Mai, you can only put your faith in God, because to put your faith in Pakistanis is futile.