Wailing In The Wind

Asem Mustafa Awan

Islamabad: Her merchandise worth only a few thousand rupees, mostly unstitched cloth but authorities turned a deaf ear to the wailing orphan who in her early teens was a bread earner for the family in Larkana and the possibility is she left with an empty hand and slept with an empty stomach.
It is very common sight, the street vendors are despised by the traders as they believe they are a nuisance to the customers while the fact of the matter is majority of population living below poverty lines has very little purchasing power. These poor face rebuke from all who have more to spend.
The international reports paint a very bleak picture and it’s a miracle that everything appears to be calm while few believe it is lull before the storm.
The young girl represents the segment of society whose presence doesn’t matter but somehow, irked the elite who showed displeasure and the poor in the vicinity and all those present faced the wrath that has resulted in many going home crying and in agony.
The social media has many clips where women accusing the officials at distribution centers of asking for favours that were ulterior and beastly.
The floods in Pakistan has made many poor susceptible and elite capitalizing on their vulnerability offered flour and like took advantage of the hapless women.
The Ramzan Package with flour distribution resulted in many getting killed and trampled in the stampede. Why it happened and mismanaged display a mindset that is both sadistic and inhuman.
The people registered with the government and are provided assistance could have been given aid at their doorstep but to create a show, these dead bodies add flare to the campaign that most believe is for securing votes.
The clips on social media display many political stalwarts giving out cash to poor who pledge their support to the candidate on the holy book.
This is all happening in Pakistan’s ‘land of the pure’ where authorities harp tunes of upholding the law and a simple litmus test witnesses them in removing the dark tainted screens from private cars but dare not touch the vehicles carrying the ‘policymakers’ who make the law.
Such duplicity of standards make people choke with anger and that is not all there are tons of report in the health and education sector which are horrifying and bone-chilling as this can happen only in Pakistan and perpetrators go free.
The patients getting raped in hospitals their organs removed, children getting killed owing to negligence, ghost schools and whatnot anything that can come to mind happens in this part of the world that was created with the sacrifice of over a million lives and had the bloodiest of migration in the history of mankind.
This should end now!

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.

Photo Credit: Dawn File