Mushir Anwar

It was a good thing to confer awards on what one may call prison literature. The Pakistan Academy of Letters organized a function few weeks back at the Prime Minister’s secretariat to announce the awards for some of the prominent writings which some of our politicians, journalists and activists wrote during their incarceration.

The late Z.A. Bhutto was naturally among them for his If I Am Assassinated. It was also in the fitness of things that such an award should have been given by a PPP government that among political parties has suffered the most in this respect at the hands of both civil and military rulers.

But two things did not happen. The prime minister who was to preside over the ceremony did not show up, perhaps out of modesty, as his own book was among the prize recipients and, secondly, very urgent matters like the fate of those unfortunate beings who somehow end up in our prisons, thana lock-ups and other secret places of incarceration and the inhuman conditions that prevail there, methods of crime investigation, physical torture and above all lack of observance of due process that one expected the prime minister to touch upon at this appropriate occasion, remained unaddressed.

Uppermost in the minds of many people who cherish any feeling for human life remains the question of death penalty and its abolition in Pakistan that the present party in power has at times claimed is on its things-to-do list. That is not surprising as its founder was hanged in a Rawalpindi jail under the most disgraceful of circumstances. Before climbing the scaffold he was kept for months in a dark hovel half his standing size. On their last meeting, his wife and daughter had to crawl on their knees to be able to see his face. Whoever, the condemned prisoner needs some consideration from the living.

The abolition path is hard and difficult. The conservative elements who not only believe in the efficacy of punishment but derive pleasure from inflicting pain and believe in suffering as the panacea and enjoyment of life as sin will not accept the logic of sparing murderers who righteous revenge demands must meet a similar fate. It would be inconceivable for them to realize that the state which is a moral body and represents all that is good in society cannot do a thing which it forbids others from doing. The state cannot descend to the level of a repugnant act or display a narrow mindset. It has to show the broadest understanding of the human condition in its laws and practices. But if this view cannot at present be understood by a badly brutalised society and Pakistan is not ready yet to stand with nations which have scrapped the death penalty from their laws, at least the dungeons where the condemned are kept can be demolished and the unfortunate souls allowed to await the hour in dignity and reasonable comfort.

Rightist parties will justifiably point their finger at some of the shameful detention centres like Abughraib and Guantanamo run by the champions of human rights in the 21st Century. But much maligned as we are, we have small reason to come up to the expectations of our maligners. Our jail conditions need immediate attention. The parliament must attend to this business without delay. Human rights bodies must agitate for the rights of the imprisoned. If pardon can be granted to blue whales, the net can be widened to allow the small fish to escape. Let’s teach no morals to the poor. If they take the law into their hands, we shall be too few to reclaim our palaces from them. The rise in small crime is the direct result of the increasing inability of the poor to meet their essential needs. Those who have sold their souls are begging, those who have friends are borrowing, but those who cannot do either, have no middle class qualms.

The winners of the Pas-i-Zindan Adab award should spare a thought for the millions who are rotting in the ugly and inhuman confines of our jails and who have nobody to listen to their stories or give them a pat for their immeasurable patience and fortitude, in fact for having lost all faith in justice and all hope.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/26/2010