- It was a disaster waiting to happen
The unrepentant so-called custodians of law consider themselves above any law. So, it seems from the manner in which various professional bodies of the legal fraternity have demanded that cases against those involved in the heinous attack on Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) last Wednesday be unconditionally withdrawn and the offending lawyers be immediately released.
It is indeed a matter of shame that the black sheep in black coats not only ransacked PIC and beat up doctors; they did not even spare the patients of their ire. A number of patients requiring immediate and uninterrupted treatment died in the milieu.
According to estimates ventilators, monitors, sophisticated medical equipment and vehicles worth 90 million rupees were destroyed during the mayhem. As a result, the largest cardiac institute of the country is still not fully functional.
The government from the prime minister downwards expressing outrage and assuring that the offenders will be strictly dealt with under the law, has conveniently blamed the PML-N for hatching another conspiracy.
But few will buy this lame excuse for the Punjab government, once again showing utter lack of competence and poor judgment in the matter. Unfortunately, it has become the hallmark of the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government to blame its unforced errors on the previous governments.
We already know that the current economic downturn, including Pakistan ranking the lowest in almost all social indicators in the region is the fault of the PML-N government.
The latest HDI (Human Development Index), Pakistan’s ranking further falling a few notches will be predictably blamed on the real or perceived malfeasance of previous governments.
Even if for the sake of argument, the PIC incident was a grand conspiracy hatched by the PML-N stalwarts while comfortably ensconced in London, why was the government unable to unearth it in real time? Why was the Punjab government with its vast administrative machinery rendered so helpless that the opposition and its goons can literally get away with murder under its very nose?
The attack on the PIC was no surprise. The lawyers accompanied by a contingent of a fairly large police force marched from the Lahore High Court all the way to the PIC on foot.
Throughout the almost seven kilometres route they were chanting hostile slogans against the doctors of the PIC. A high-ranking police officer accompanying the lawyers glibly claimed the next day that that the police was under the impression that a compromise had already been struck between the squabbling doctors and the lawyers.
The question that begs an answer is that if the lawyers had actually made up with the doctors, why were they marching to the PIC armed with sticks, stones and pistols chanting threatening slogans? The fact of the matter is that the Punjab administration owing to lack of clear direction from the very top is in a perennial state of inertia.
The Chief Minster Punjab Usman Buzdar (IK’s Wasim Akram plus) on the fateful day was in Islamabad on his not too infrequent forays to receive instructions from his bosses on how to run the province
The police being headed by the fifth IGP (inspector general police), in a little over a year, are in no position to take any initiative on its own. The Chief Minster Punjab Usman Buzdar (IK’s Wasim Akram plus) on the fateful day was in Islamabad on his not too infrequent forays to receive instructions from his bosses on how to run the province.
Notwithstanding the blame game, there are larger issues at hand that need to be carefully examined. True, the black coats behaved in a shameful manner and even after the event their conduct is far from exemplary.
But neither are the offending doctors of the PIC entirely above blame. The entire incident was triggered a few weeks back in which doctors ostensibly mistreated a patient accompanied by his close relative who happened to be a lawyer.
When the matter had already been resolved through negotiations, why did a doctor mock the particular lawyer in a video that went viral on the social media?
Of course, the reaction of the legal community was highly disproportionate and loathsome. But another video showing doctors hurling stones at the marauding lawyers is not a pretty sight either.
It’s a shame that the two professions, one custodians of rule of law and the other taking the oath of Hippocrates, were slugging it out in broad daylight under the live eyes of the news media. Is there a deeper malaise afflicting the society?
Some trace the lawyers’ militancy to the black coats movement in 2007-08 for the restoration of an independent judiciary in the form of CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Ironically the kingpin of that movement Aitzaz Ahsan has unequivocally condemned the attack on PIC terming it as unbecoming of lawyers.
Others have traced the origins of this culture of intolerance and violence to PTI’s own militant rhetoric. It was a strange twist of fate that Punjab’s information minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan who distinguishes himself through his highly acerbic and caustic narrative against the opposition got caught in the crossfire at the PIC.
In a way the information minister who was roughed up by lawyers got a dose of his own medicine. But Instead of drawing the right lessons from the incident and do course correction, Chohan immediately gave it the predictable spin of blaming it all on the PML-N.
This is not the first incident where the custodians of law have taken law into their own hands. In 2017 they ransacked a freshly built judicial complex in Multan that was not to their liking. There has been various incidents of judicial proceedings disrupted and even judges roughed up.
Similarly, members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) (who call themselves young perhaps to be absolved of responsible behaviour) have had no qualms engaging in disruptive actions in support of their demands. Frequently going on strike, they have on numerous occasions shut down even emergency treatment in hospitals for needy patients. But admittedly doctors have rarely been violent like the loutish black coats.
Instead of blaming one political party or profession perhaps the malaise lies much deeper. In the past decade, thanks to privatisation and deregulation of education, law colleges and medical colleges have mushroomed in the Province.
Unfortunately spread of education has not been accompanied with better standards. With economic opportunities not expanding at the same pace as the working population there is rampant unemployment, which has further complicated the matter.
Resultantly, Pakistan has a large swath of unemployed ostensibly educated population and with most of them young; it is a time bomb waiting to explode.
The PIC incident is perhaps one glimpse of it. Unfortunately, where most of our neighbours have fared better, we are dangerously lagging behind in human development.
The national security state is apparently incapable and unable to tackle endemic economic and social issues afflicting it. It is simply not the state’s priority. Unfortunately, the feudal political elite including the present rulers simply does not seem to care.
