A well-orchestrated vilification campaign against General Musharraf and his government for not protecting the women against their abuse by the feudals, gangsters and the police itself is going on these days in the print and electronic media.
Not only that, he is, at places directly or indirectly blamed for siding with the perpetrators of such heinous crimes. I think this is stretching it too far and is not justified.
He and his government are doing all that is permissible under the law order inquiries and send the culprits to the court. It is, however, another matter what happens to them in the courts.
Our judicial system has far too many loop holes. Firstly the cases drag for years and then it allows the culprits to be set free. It certainly needs revamping and we must also have honest, intelligent, efficient and capable judges to decide cases expeditiously. Most judges take pride in the time old adage that 'Justice is Blind' and sit in the courts literally like blind men.
They just swallow whatever is thrown at them by the prosecution and the defence. If the defending lawyer is smart, the culprit goes free. With due regards to the legal professionals - the lawyers - is there a single lawyer in the country, and I am challenging everyone among the lawyer community and the legal fraternity, who will not accept the brief of a criminal despite knowledge of his having committed crime?
Why must they protect the criminals? Just to play with the law they find legal lacunae favouring the culprit to a establish their reputation as lawyers for few a silver crumbs? Aren't they morally obligated to the society to keep it free from such criminals? Who is siding with the perpetrators and impeding justice? Certainly not, Musharraf. It is probably the other way round.
The judges have their limitations and find themselves unable to convict the culprit, even when they are convinced in their mind of the offence having been committed by the offender, just because of the evidence or lack of it produced before them.
The lawyers defend the criminal knowing that he has committed the offence. And then we blame the President for all this? To me his only fault is that he is succumbing too easily to indigenous and international pressures for restoring democracy in the country. Had there been a true Martial Law with a few corpses hanging in the major and minor city squares thing like their would happen.
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