State of disorder

The killing of two lawyers by SHO Shahzad Warraich in Daska on Monday has, for quite understandable reasons, triggered furious protests across Punjab. The incident took place when the two lawyers, Rana Khalid Abbas and his colleague Irfan Chauhan, were at the local municipality offices attempting to settle a scuffle between staff and a lawyer who had visited to get a nikahnama attested. What should have been a minor matter turned into a terrible affair, with the lawyers locked up in a room and police then arriving as they were rescued by other lawyers converging on the spot. The shooting incident took place during this completely unnecessary and still unexplained altercation. The SHO concerned has been arrested. But all that happened on that day has created a huge uproar amongst the powerful lawyers’ community. The Punjab government has ordered a judicial inquiry as lawyers took to the streets in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Sialkot and other cities. In Lahore, the Punjab Assembly was pelted and a vehicle bearing the PML-N emblem smashed with sticks.
There can be absolutely no justification for the shooting of the two lawyers at Daska. We, however, also need to look deeper. We are now a society that has essentially fallen into anarchy. In Daska, a policeman, apparently acting on his own, reacted with an extreme lack of professionalism and in violation of the law of the land. It is hard to see how a nation can continue to function smoothly if forces intended to help keep law and order themselves violate it. Indeed, it is quite obviously not functioning. The extent to which things have fallen apart is frightening. The chief justice of the LHC has taken note of the matter and condemned the deaths. The fact that this whole fiasco happened reflects the urgent need to reform our police force. We must hope that the joint investigation team looking into matter and the judicial inquiry will look beyond the immediate facts and at the broader issues that afflict a society where violence appears to have become the answer to everything. Such mayhem can only cause further damage. The protests have continued now for two days and as they go on the crumbling façade of law in our land loses a few bricks every hour as it threatens to come tumbling down to the ground.