Account of a Silent Spectator

With the recent mindless and heartless butchering of  two teen-aged brothers in Sialkot, I saw a profusion of  emotional updates stating how the bystanders and the participants of the massacre alike should be tortured to death in the same manner especially the spectators for not taking a stand for the poor departed souls.

Don't you think we all are deserving of the fate that my friends have suggested for the spectators of the incident? Haven't we all been witness to the sadistic event? Is repeatedly playing the video footage on news channels and  heedlessly passing it around and sharing it on social networking websites going to make any difference and prevent such heinous acts from happening in the future? It will only serve to further desensitize the already immune community.

The killings were downright wrong and unjustified. The way the mobs took justice in their hands clearly depicts the sinister capacity of the masses.

But such things have always been a part of the past and will be in the future. Remember  karo kari, the so called honor "saving" ritual which claims hundreds of  lives each year and is no different than how those poor brothers were brutally beaten to death. Burning women alive, acid burn victims are common lore. Do I need to mention the atrocities in Kashmir, Palestine, the drone attacks and annihilation of innocent civilians within our own borders? We conveniently have been mute witnesses to it all.

 If we hadn't been so oblivious to all that has been happening before, maybe this horrendous act might, MIGHT not have happened at all. 


I wish this will serve as a wake up call for us all at the expense of  those ill fated brothers. The people at the crime scene rightly deserve the same fate but we all deserve it with them for being Silent Spectators through the ages.

Evolution of a Pakistani

Many of us have often encountered people crossing the busiest of roads, dashing for the other end at the bleakest of moments. Driving on the highway sometimes at speed beyond 100 km/hr, I am at times petrified yet awed at the dopey act of utter bravado.


I often wished I could comprehend the compulsion behind such recklessness.

I guess the riskiness and the recklessness runs in our blood (in general) and can be traced back to our forefathers who left everything they owned behind, put their life at stakes and decided to migrate to this part of the subcontinent in the hope of realizing their dreams in a newly born country.

But decade after decade, our dreams have been shattered and we have lived through a plethora of unfulfilled promises and vacuous commitments.

We've been very unwary in selecting our leaders and then seeing the same elected people squandering with the national assets, living a life of great luxury and comfort when a common man rots in many a problems proffered by our establishment, we have lost trust in them, become somewhat oblivious and learnt to fend for ourselves.

Living amidst chaos and unrest has made us very incautious in our acts. In these times, the mere act of stepping out of home requires some amount of guts when there is this notion always at the back of mind whether we'll survive and make it back home in one piece ALIVE!

So now when ever I encounter people rushing through crazy highway dodging speedy trucks and cars, I see people who have been trodden upon by power hungry politicians. I see people who have graced with much agony everything the so-called leaders have had to offer, be it power shortage outrages, crazy hikes in fuel prices or increased taxes (the list goes on and might not end for that matter) but we've lived through it all and survived and emerged more reckless than ever.

No wonder our people like to plunge for the road to make it to the other end. Maybe things are brighter on the other side.

On this note, wishing you all a very Happy Independence Day. Though this 14th August is marked by a lot of uncertainty but like all the other times we'll pull through this Insha'Allah and emerge as a cautious nation which thinks and looks twice before crossing the road.