On Tuesday 12 September Police thrashed teachers protesting about non-payment of their salaries since 2012. It was disgraceful. Teachers were manhandled, dragged by their legs, their clothes ripped, by the brutal baton charge and high-velocity stream from water cannons. Two teachers were badly injured and three were arrested. Police officials claimed riot-control methods were used to disperse the protesting teachers and avoid possible damage to property and harm to human life. From this statement it is easy to gauge the mentality of the Police: they do not regard thrashing innocent commoners as an act causing harm to human life. Do they think the batons are made of cloth and the cannons only shower rose petals and that neither action causes injury, internal bleeding, or broken bones, and that their action was an expression of love and kindness, not humiliation and indignity?
The common man is still downtrodden and rulers are still the 'Mai-baap' of the police even though this country is supposed to be a democracy and the leaders elected members of government, voted in by the very people they now abuse. Together the police and the leaders have made democracy a farce. Would you believe it? Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah claims to be our knight in shining armour, whose top priority is development of health and education sectors in the province, which are the two most neglected, nay, ignored, sectors in the Sindh. He said as much the day after the disgraceful treatment of teachers in Karachi. He was speaking as chief guest at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Sargodhian Spirit Institute for Professional Development (SSIPD) in Tando Alahyar. Was he unaware what happened in the provincial capital a day earlier? Perhaps, because there was not a word of concern or sympathy for the teachers. Not then nor any time later in the week. In short the matter was ignored.
Our CM could say, but the Information Minister did look into the matter. True, he did. Nasir Shah arrived at the Karachi Press Club to negotiate with the protesting teachers, and regretted the incident. That is the usual official way of getting out of a tight spot. It is a way of buying time, so that the matter is forgotten by the Press and electronic media and the government can go back to sleep on the issue. This is called hoodwinking. Nothing was said to actually promise to pay the teachers' pending salaries. If in the past four years salaries were not paid why bother now.
The high-handed treatment of protesting teachers is just one more case similar to treatment of protesting Lady Health Workers (LHW) and even blind persons demanding their salaries or their right to be employed. The reason is that next year there is to be (God willing) the general elections for which the Pakistan Peoples Party, the party in power in Sindh, is preparing. Anything which highlights their failures is quelled and a false persona of their loving caring and sincerity for the common man is being projected.
Police brutality exists because there is no sustained expression of shock. An incident causes shock that has a short shelf life. For instance, the teacher's disgraceful treatment was highlighted in the Press and TV channels one day, then forgotten, as other such incidents of the past are forgotten. Society launches no movement for the end of police atrocities, from the corruption of taking fines (called bhatta in Urdu), which they pocket from so-called traffic violators, to extra-judicial killing. Legislators do not think about setting up committees to monitor police misbehaviour and breaking of law. Why not? And I do not buy the excuse that Police reforms are not their jurisdiction. Concern for the masses is their jurisdiction, any trampling of human rights should be criticised by elected members of the provincial assembly.
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