Dealing drugs or death?

One of the disadvantages of removing the PTI government has only now been felt, with the continuing campaign against drug dealers in Punjab. There have been at least 45 killed, and most likely many more.

It seems that the Punjab police is engaged in a major campaign against drug dealers, and the encounters have led to policemen being wounded. One was hit by a dealer, but was saved because of the Kevlar jacket he was wearing. Still, that does leave a nasty bruise. Other policemen were shot, presumably in the leg, and that too the fleshy part. The usual story is that the Crime Control Department had set up a police barricade, and the dealers began firing on the police when they were stopped.

I am probably calumniating a fine body of men when I say this, but I don’t believe the stories. The cops know what they are trying to do. The case of an SHO is instructive, in whose area two dealers escaped. He was arrested not just for helping them but also for allowing drugs to be sold in his area. Look, the CCD is composed of dyed-in-the-wool cops. So they know a lot of drug dealers.

Previously, drug dealers were not allowed to operate for free. And to know who had to pay a fee, one had to know who was dealing. Now, it seems, dealers are not even allowed to live, let alone sell drugs.

That would not have happened under a PTI government. Prime Minister Imran Khan would have looked after all the coke dealers. A lot of them would have tried to get out of the fee to the local SHO by saying the PM was a client, but they would reply that they worked for the CM, not the PM. And the CM was Usman Buzdar, who had more interest in the liquor business, as witness his having to explain the granting of a liquor licence to a new hotel in Lahore.

Of course, the Punjab alone is affected, and though there are no cokeheads in the other provinces, Sharjeel Memon in Sind and ex-CM Ali Amin Gandapur are rivals for the honour of liver of the century and could be expected to give an ear to appeals for mercy from drug dealers.

There are disturbing reports of large seizures of drugs at sea, thus giving a clear impression that

There is a concerted effort to undo the PTI’s legacy. No, the PTI itself did not make selling drugs compulsory for its legislators, but there was a definite increase in the number of people wearing dark glasses, even at night. One of the side effects of cocaine use, it seems, is one develops a sensitivity to light, and you need the dark glasses to keep the light away. Even at night.

I’m not sure Ali Amin could do anything. Not because the new CM has issued strict orders that the ex-CM is to be totally ignored, but because he has not had a sober moment since leaving the Chief Ministership, being found mostly under the dining table when sleeping off his potations (making them at the table and just slipping under when he had imbibed enough).

Drug dealers might be being offed by coppers they had once thought of as friends, or at least business partners, but they have been laying off the cops. Instinct, I suppose. No one takes down a policeman. It’s too much trouble. And there’s nothing your average crook stays away so much from as much as from trouble.

So the best person to take on a cop is a cop. It thus wasn’t as much of a surprise to find out that a cop committed suicide in Lahore last week. Not because of the encounters of drug dealers, or because of any other pressures of the job, but because his marriage proposal had been rejected.

Was it rejected because he was a cop, or despite this, because the girl’s family knew he wasn’t a worthy suitor? Suicide, according to police lore, is committed because of one of three failures: in love, in exams or economic. Come to think of it, they are successive. If you fail an exam, you can’t get a job and earn. If you can’t earn enough, you can’t marry the girl you want or get your marriage proposal rejected. I would suspect that being a cop didn’t help.

One person who isn’t dead but is definitely thinking about it is Hollywood actor Bruce Willis, who retired because of aphasia (problems formulating language) in 2022 but who has since been diagnosed with dementia. He has announced that after he dies, he is donating his brain for study. As he is going to be 71 in March, the coffins may not have a very long wait. He’s not a cop, though he’s played many, so he’s toughing it out.

There are those who don’t, though. The founder of the assisted-suicide movement offed himself in Switzerland the other day. That might well be a fourth reason for suicide. Growing too old.