Pakistan - Doctors demand justice

Now that military courts have become a reality for terror-struck Pakistan, there will be no shortage of cases for them to try. Doctors belonging to different organisations, predominant among them the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), have demanded that the murders of two Shia doctors on January 10 this year, child specialist Dr Akbar Ali and homeopath Dr Yawar Hussain, be tried in the country’s newly minted military courts so that a speedy decision be reached without fear and hesitation. Both doctors were shot in their clinics, no doubt for the ‘crime’ of belonging to the Shia sect. These murders are gruesome reminders that terrorism in Pakistan comes in all forms. It is not only terrorism in which militant groups or organisations like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claim responsibility; sectarian violence is a primary source of terrorism in this country and has been so for a number of years.

There has been a slow genocide of the Shia minority in Pakistan for years now and prominent victims have included doctors just like these two. Doctors are valued and respected members of any community and their loss is felt sorely. By targeting members of such a noble profession, the killers are depriving the community of valued and noble professionals. They have been picked off with so much frequency over the years that uncountable numbers of Shia doctors have fled from Pakistan, leaving a big gaping hole where these educated minds should have been. The PMA has been demanding justice for a long time but their pleas have routinely fallen on deaf ears. That is why this body is now banging on the doors of the military courts. There exists utter disappointment in the civilian judicial system with murderers never being caught and those who are being let off scot-free to kill again with impunity. The system fails to punish those who deserve it the most. That is why there is just no let up in sectarian violence.

These doctors are absolutely right to go to the military courts and ask for their case to be taken up on an urgent basis. There has to be some sort of limit to the injustice prevailing in our society. There needs to be redress of woes and complaints, and there is no bigger woe than to be the victim of wanton violence. Despite whatever reservations we may have about the military courts, our sympathies lie with the doctors who need to know that, for once, the state is on their side. No one should be allowed to flaunt sectarianism on their sleeve like this. No one should get away with murder. That is the rationale for the establishment of military courts that, it must be admitted, ultimately undermine the civil judicial process.