“Justice and power must be brought together so that whatever is just maybe powerful and whatever is power may be just”
~Blaise Pascal
This quote undermines the significance of the topic. Power and justice are two terms that are directly proportional to each other. Unfortunately, around us, the agents of the structure have completely forgotten that justice and accountability fall more for those who have more power. The concept of social separation has widened around the globe. It really feels like the words of Lord Acton have provided the perfect allegory of the psyche of those single souls who attain power. He says:
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
Recently, there was an incident on Karsaz Road, Karachi. On the evening of Monday, a hasty Toyota Land Cruiser collapsed before overturning with three motorcycles in addition to a car. The victims who fell prey to “Natasha Danish” rash driving are “Imran Arif,” 60 years old, and his daughter “Amna,” 23 years old; others were wounded. The situation led to her FIR, with immediate arrest for bloodshed or manslaughter charges. When it comes to judicial hearing procedure, Natasha (the suspect) was not present in the court on the basis of psychiatric medical attention in Jinnah Medical Centre during the custody. While this case is given full attention through the protests of the victims families and a few victims themselves. Expectations for better results are anticipated from judicial proceedings.
But the same expectations arise in the case of Noor Mukdam, 27 years old, found dead in Zahir’s house in sector F-7/4, Islamabad. Unlucky Zahir Jaffer, son of wealthy businessman Zakir Jaffer, managed to appeal in the Supreme Court to uphold his death sentence. The first information report of Zahir included Section 302, which is for intentional murder of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Yet he managed to escape the death penalty under the same cover of psychiatric issues. The same issue was taken up in the court while targeting the victim father (Shakuat Mukdam) for not regarding this matter of Zahir properly. People with authority utilize their perks to capture more than their due share. Hence perpetuating structural disparities through prejudice against other social groups.
Somehow the problem lies in the hands of the judiciary. Nonetheless, either it is the elite class that is composed of the judiciary or they are under the influence of elites. The wealth and professional responsibilities should be dealt with on two separate levels. Rosita Armytage is an anthropologist, author, and specialist in governance. She is a citizen of Australia. She chose to do research on “Elites of Pakistan” and gave a statement after interviewing many of the wealthiest families of Pakistan.
“The elites create regulations but do not follow them”
By this, we can easily come across the fact that the fundamental strategy is to get wealthier to get better control over things.
In her book “Big Capital in an Unequal World,” Rosita mentioned in the concluding part of her book that today’s Pakistani elite is akin to their forerunners when it comes to abuse of power and moral grounds. The exploitation of power is present around us; it is a fact that we cannot deny. To overcome the intensity of power abuse, the functionaries must cultivate policies so that an individual can harvest them in the time of need.
Pakistan’s judicial procedures need to be changed so that every Noor, Asif, and Amna would get the right and due justice. The elite or privileged class consumes a total of 17.6 billion dollars of Pakistan’s economy, according to the report of UNDP. Two types of elites are in Pakistan. Our educational system is also plagued by constant societal separation. One of the cases was in 2012 when a university student, “Shabaz Khan,” was shot by Shahruk Jayoti, son of a feudal lord. The court ordered the death sentence but somehow the suspect (Shabaz) family overturned the judicial proceeding, citing that a compromise had been reached.
In the analysis of the societal separation and accountability of Pakistan’s elite, it is clear that the power and wealth have created deep separation in the communities by the unequal access to justice and accountability. They can do any violations with the rules or regulations whenever or wherever they want because a shelter for refugees is provided to them by the political networks. Pakistani citizens are hopeful that true accountability will be taken by the judicial wing and no more “Tareekh pe Tareekh” will be given to them. So that an environment of trust would be built among the individuals on the judiciary.
The Author, Rohma Qaiser Satti is a student at the National Defence University, Islamabad, focusing on Middle Eastern studies to deepen understanding of regional conflicts and their origins.
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