Gulzaib Tareen
It was an unfortunate morning when the hailing sun of 8th June 2016 brought the news of target killing of a bright mind Principal law college Balochistan Barrister Amanullah Achakzai. The principled educationist on his way to office was shot dead. He was enough distanced from home such that the firing was heard in his home.
The enraged legal fraternity reached to hospital including Chief Justice of Balochistan. The demonstration then moved before the governor house. Chief Minister and Governor of the time condemned the incident and asked for a report from police chief. The news remained hot news on social media but not on our mainstream media. The mysterious report remained mysterious after the periodic emotional wave of social media criticism.
Right after two months, on 8th August morning the roaming death squad reminded Balochistan by targeting President Quetta Bar Association Advocate Bilal Anwar Kasi. The victimized legal community responded in the form of procession from Balochistan High court towards civil hospital Quetta. When hundreds of legal brains were still present in the hospital a suicide blast occurred.
More than 80 lives were lost including 56 lawyers. Most of the lawyers were very experienced, having practicing careers of more than 20 years. There are total 3,500 lawyers in Balochistan where only 8 were barristers. In the incident 2 barristers lost their lives.
Nothing new happened: a cycle of condemnations, honorary titles, condolences, report formation, and wave of social media criticism was repeated as modus operandi in Balochistan. One thing new happened that, ours or not, commercial media became active temporarily as number of unsecured blessed martyrs was high.
Legal community always remained a soft target for terrorists in Balochistan. In December it was declared that the master mind of civil hospital incident was brought to justice in an operation in Pishin. It was declared that culprit remain involved in various incidents of terrorism including target killing of Barrister Amanullah Achakzai and Hazaras. It was applauded that justice was served but it can be provided previously in order to avoid such immense loss of lives. Here it cannot be mentioned that justice delayed is justice denied.
In one member commission report prepared by Justice Qazi Faez Isa which highlighted some of the heart wrenching facts. The commission suggested immediate implementation of National Action Plan (NAP), which was not enforced as it needs to be. The major part of report also criticized the disregard of doctors and paramedical staff. It is mentioned in the report that timely treatment could save many lives. It also brought into consideration that the presence of very important persons (VIPs) also halted the process of rescue because of security risks.
In Balochistan the existence of Jirga (A council of tribal elders and leaders ) works as an alternative system of justice. It is only because of the lack of literacy and expensive justice system. Justice will remain pie in the sky if such devastating incidents remain the fate of legal fraternity in Balochistan.
The writer is from Balochistan and student of LLB ( Hons ) and MSc Mass Communication Punjab University, Lahore.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
Share your comments!
