"The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don’t understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it"--Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) from Laws and the Law

"A strong person makes the law and custom null before his own will"-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Every society, no matter how primitive, tends to regularise its inhabitants by laying down certain rules and laws. This is done essentially to prevent chaos, to better organise day to day affairs and to check disorderly behaviour in an attempt to facilitate people in leading a comfortable life. These laws can be laid down by the elders of a tribe, a monarch, a parliament, a government or any other body that is responsible to manage a society.

Societies where there is mayhem, disregard for law of the land, violation of rules, ‘might is right’ policy and anarchy, soon crumble down. Such has been the history of mankind since ancient times. Social scientists view the disruption of a society from a cultural stand point.

In his book, The Chaotic Society: Product of the Social Morphological Revolution, Philip M. Hauser has attributed societal disorder to dissonance and discord among the various cultural strata, each of which tends to persist beyond the set of conditions, physical and social, which generated it. A political scientist would have a more fundamental approach regarding progress of and degeneration of societies, placing more emphasis on methods of governance and economic systems that are considered vital components for endurance. No matter what, the underlying cause remains defiance of the rule of law that eventually leads to destruction. 

On a small scale or at the lowest stratum of society, such defiance may not have that great an impact compared to non-compliance at the highest level -- where law-makers themselves become law-violators. In such circumstances where legislators, governors and enforcers set precedence of rebelling against their own formulated rules, it would be unjust in asking the citizens to observe the same with religious zeal. This means that in order to secure allegiance to law from others it is important for administrators to strictly abide by regulations, setting example for the rest to follow.

As in Pakistan, where they deliberately wriggle out of legalities or bypass rules on account of their authority status -- a simple example would be breaking a queue at a public place -- observers naturally tend to either find connections (nepotism) or go onto show disrespect by playing havoc with the law and order.

The most burning issue of non-compliance of tax obligations in Pakistan confirms how our lawmakers violate law of the land with impunity. They either do not file tax returns or grossly understate their incomes. Another glaring example is that of the traffic police who shamelessly defy one-ways and other traffic rules when on normal patrol. No doubt that those providing essential services like ambulances, fire engines or traffic-sergeants-in-pursuit are allowed to ignore rules but certainly not under normal conditions wherein they are supposed to show the same standard of care as expected from other commuters. After all, they are the ones whose acts are being closely scrutinised by those who follow in their footsteps to break laws creating life-threatening situations for themselves as well as their fellow travelers.

Frankly speaking, the real culprits remain unpunished because of which lawlessness prevails in the streets of our country. The ones in authority conveniently implicate the weaker segments who are unable to exert either money power or a suitable recommendation (sifarish) from a higher-up. Amid this confusion, perpetrators go scot free.

Traffic wardens are just executors i.e. they are responsible for enforcing the law made by the legislators sitting in the Parliaments. However, the real problem arises where defiance for the law of the land sprouts from the parliamentarians themselves. The public closely views such blatancy and is right to discern that rules are made for the sole purpose of subjugating the common man while the ruling elite considers itself above all laws. Such high-handedness is termed dictatorship if demonstrated by one man but what name, other than anarchy, can be given in a case where sitting parliaments, the entire bureaucratic structure and every henchman connected to those in power is bent upon infringing regulations for own vested-interest.

To make matters worse, the courts are too over-worked to provide prompt justice. The occasional episodes of resurrection appear only when the electronic media creates a hype whereby judges feel obliged to take immediate action to save their faces otherwise there are an infinite number of people who have reached their graves in search of justice and fair play.

Stringent efforts of law enforcers are perished on the precipice of shameless defiance by their chiefs. When they show lack of respect for their subordinates and for rules, the people too do not abstain from the same behaviour. Thus if the chief minister of a province publically humiliates a civil servant (only to gain cheap popularity), the man on the road gets the cue to slap a warden; when roads leading to own home and homes of the many in-laws of the head of a province are blocked in utter disregard for inconvenience caused to the neighbours and other commuters, the common man also learns to abuse public space for receptions, making sub-standard speed breakers or even mixing mortar for construction work.

All over the world, blocking thoroughfares (unless for emergencies/untoward circumstances) is considered a major blow to the civic sense and commuting rights of the citizen. In Lahore, public roads fall within the ambit of "controlled area" under the jurisdiction of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Act, 1975. Unless prohibited by the government through some notification, no public road or passage can be blocked by anyone.

Unfortunately, despite the existence of this provision, a number of areas suffer from unauthorised blockade forcing citizens to veer around or travel a longer distance to reach their destinations. Strangely, the movement of these so-called public servants is accompanied with much fanfare and high security, yet they need many meters of road blocks to secure their entrances from innocent passers-by. Following in the footsteps of their leaders, even lower ranked ministers and parliamentarians also insist on creating obstructions around their homes causing inexplicable inconvenience to those living in their vicinity -- on many occasions their guests are subjected to embarrassment at the hands of quizzical sentries posted at these check posts.

Surprisingly, these tactics have failed to protect the lives of so many politicians and officers who fell victims to acts of terrorism. On the one hand, we claim as Muslims to believe that every living being will face death on its appointed time and on the other we do our best to surround ourselves with human shields as if we can keep the angel of death away. In the words of Mirza Ghalib:

Maut ka aik din moayyan hai

Neend kyun raat bhar nahi aati?

[When death is destined for a particular day, why suffer from insomnia every night?]

The dilemma of Pakistani society in general is that we keep on grumbling about various issues but fail to appreciate that in reality, we ourselves are responsible for the deteriorating state of affairs. Non-observance of laws has become our national character for which we seem to take immense pride setting bad precedence, both for the public and our younger generation. We derive tremendous pleasure from infringing other people’s rights to satisfy our egocentric desires, not realising that such behaviour and attitude can invoke rebellious germs within human beings leading to extremely destructive ends.

As conscious citizens of this country, our dream is to see a better Pakistan and a more responsible society, catering to the needs of its people, setting good examples for its future generations, securing for its people their rights and enforcing rule of law. Such a scenario might remain an unrealised dream, if the present state of legal rapaciousness continues unabated.