Truth that costs a life
HYDERABAD- Yet another journalist has fallen in the line of duty. Yet another journalist has been crucified at the altar of the Sardari system.
Shahid Ali Soomro, a brave young journalist in the prime of his life, was murdered in cold blood at the door of his house on Sunday night by the sons of Bijrani Sardar for writing the truth. They had come to kidnap him. He resisted and was killed.
Shahid was 26 and father of five children. He had identified the murderers before he died. In legal parlance, this identification amounts to “dying declaration”, which is considered an irrefutable evidence in criminal law.
But who will punish the Sardars?
According to media reports, when some photographers tried to take a snapshot of one of the men detained in the lock-up, he defiantly rebuked them: “Don’t you know I am the son of a Sardar”.
The town of Kandhkot remained closed on October 22, 2002. It was a spontaneous response from the outraged people who attended the funeral in the thousands.
When the case is sent up for trial, if it is ever sent, I am sure not that a single witness will dare stand up against the killers.
To pacify the angered people, the police have arrested one man out of five. However, when the situation becomes normal and it comes to recording evidence, none will come forward.
The police cannot pursue the case without evidence and no court can hand down punishment. Then we have two laws – one for the rich and one for the poor. For the rich, the law is the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance. Under this law the rich can always exploit the poor. Many murder cases have been “mutually” settled under this law. This case is ultimately also going to end that way. The poor family of the slain journalist in the absence of ocular evidence will have no alternative but to compromise, and the murderers will come out wearing garlands.
Some time back my editor had asked me as to why two systems were simultaneously prevailing in the country: the Jirga system and the normal law. When I plainly told him that I had nothing to do with this system, he shot back: “The least you can do is write”. I complied with the orders and wrote quite a strong piece. After the write-up was published, my erstwhile good friend, Nazar Hussain Mahar (education secretary), who was then the commissioner of Larkana, informed me on the telephone that he had banned the Jirga system in his division.
True to his words, he took up the cudgel against the Sardars. He had taken a foolhardy step and was soon transferred from Hyderabad after he had sealed over 30 under-construction buildings in Hyderabad, which belonged to a powerful builders’ mafia.
Shahid Soomro is dead but the Jirga system and Qisas and Diyat Ordinance are very much alive. Shahid Soomro is just another casualty who had been trying to write the truth for the last 10 years. My heart goes out for his five minor children, the young widow, and his old mother.
The working journalists should never ever forget the ‘Ides of March’ unless they are prepared to become martyrs in the cause of truth.
Source: Dawn
Date:10/23/2002
” 
” 
” 
” 
