Adil Najam
The murder of 12-year old child Shazia, working as a housemaid in the house of one Chaudhry Naeem (a former president of the Lahore Bar Association) has been widely reported and strongly condemned by all (including Chief Minister Punjab and the President of Pakistan). It is, indeed, something that we must all condemn.
But it is also something that should shame all of us. I certainly stand shamed today.
Certainly, the brutality of this murder and the inhumanity of the treatment that this child had reportedly received is NOT something common. The circumstances here were “cruel” as well as “unusual.” However, the mistreatment of domestic help, including little children and the elderly is not at all unusual; even if the cruelty is.
What happened here is indeed an aberration, but the circumstances that led to it – i.e., children working as domestic servants, the mistreatment of domestic help, and the total lack of rights for such help – is not just common but sanctioned by all of us. In some cases directly; in others by consent through silence and by toleration. No one in Pakistan can claim to be ‘surprised’ by the fact that domestic help, especially the most vulnerable amongst them, are subjected to mistreatment. In this case the abuse was physical and ultimately fatal. In other cases – maybe too many – it is sexual. Often it is verbal. But even if those cases it can be demeaning and destructive to the humanity of those being abused.
This incident deserves condemnation. But it also deserves introspection.
More developments continue as one writes, and will no doubt continue to come in, but the essential elements of the story are outlined in this news item in Dawn yesterday:
Police said on Sunday they had arrested Advocate Chaudhry Naeem, the main accused in the case of murder of a 12-year-old maid, and five others. “We have arrested Advocate Naeem and three members of his family on charge of murdering their maid,†SSP Operations Chaudhry Shafiq told this reporter. He said that Amanat and his wife had also been taken into custody for getting Shazia employed at Chaudhry Naeem’s house in the city’s Defence locality. He said that Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif had taken suo motu of the incident and directed the police to produce the accused before him on Monday.
Citing the autopsy report, a police official said that the girl had been subjected to severe physical torture. But she was not sexually assaulted. Chaudhry Naeem, a former president of the Lahore Bar Association, his son Yasir, a sister-in-law and a daughter-in-law have been nominated in the FIR. Amanat and his wife have been booked for providing the maid to Chaudhry Naeem. Punjab’s Senior Minister Raja Riaz condemned the incident and said that Rs500,000 would be paid to the girl’s family on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari. It ‘s learnt that Shazia, a resident of Lyton Road, started working at Chaudhry Naeem’s house about seven months ago on a monthly salary of Rs1,000. According to sources, she used to be severely beaten even for petty lapses.
The editorial in The News is exactly right in what it says:
The torture and death of a 12-year-old maid in Lahore has caused a stir. Protests have been held and police are reported to have arrested the main accused – a lawyer – and seven others. The president and the Punjab chief minister have both taken note. The child, forced into work by poverty, was brutally exploited by the middleman who hired her and the employers who murdered her. Such trafficking is certainly not unknown. Similar, sordid stories have emerged before. The story of the girl’s life – and death – is now known because her father refused to remain silent despite attempts to bribe him. Now that an outcry has been raised, action has been taken against the policemen who neglected to act.
Indifference and apathy of both government and society is one reason why such crimes take place. Statistics show that 70 per cent or more female domestic servants suffer abuse in some form. All domestic servants remain unprotected by labour laws with no regulations in place as to their hours of work, leaves and other rights. The many young girls hired to perform domestic chores and tend to children more privileged than themselves are especially vulnerable. They have nowhere to turn when subjected to violence and abuse. Measures must be put in place to protect this category of workers. We need specific laws and mechanisms that allow domestic workers to set up unions. Those responsible for murder in the latest case must be made to pay for their crime. Many like them have escaped unpunished. It is this failure to bring such people to book that leads to more such brutalities being committed each year and to the untold suffering that continues behind closed doors. Now that the matter has been taken up at the highest levels it is vital to put in place a system that can save other children from ending up dead at places where they are forced to work.
There will be those who will say that such crimes, or worse, happen elsewhere too and are not unique to Pakistan. Indeed, they are not. But that is neither an excuse nor a justification. It is sad, but immaterial, if such inhumanity happens elsewhere too, it matters only that it cannot be tolerated anywhere. There are those who will say that this is an extreme case and not the norm. Indeed, and thankfully, it is not. But this matters little too. This extreme case has happened simply because abuse that is not as extreme, but is abuse nonetheless, is tolerated too often by too many who choose to “look the other way.” There are those who view this as a case of ‘minority victimization.’ It surely is that and for that reason is even more reprehensible. But it is also more than that. The rot in society that this represents is spread wide as well as more deep. A rot that too many of us have too long tolerated.
Let me end by repeating what I have already said above: This incident deserves condemnation. But it also deserves introspection.
excellent post. thank you for raising this uncomfortable topic because we need to talk about this. there will of course be those who will de facto defend the culprits and blame the victim, but THIS IS a call for introspection.
Surprised to see the writer of this blog trying out this case here on ATP and almost passing a guilty verdict on all the accused based on the news reported.
Its all a one-sided story, without any concern for verifying the facts. Of late the Paky media seem to have gone berzerk with hyper hateful yellow journalism. They talk too much of Islam but start calling some body as a criminal just on hear-say without listening to the story of the accused.
What is sad, in fact, is the poverty of our people which forces parents to get their children employed on house jobs and themselves to try to go abroad for seeking employment by hook or crook risking sometimes their lives even.
ahem….introspection? from whom ? You do realize that almost every Pakistani posting on this site, including the authors and admins, probably have minors like Shazia employed as maids in their own homes.
Raise hand if your family, immediate or extended, in Pakistan does not use minors as maids ?
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “:(”
– “Now we should analyse how actually we are as a nation!!!!! And why Pakistanis are disliked so much internationally!!! May Allah grant peace to the poor soul and her parents .. and deal with the cruel ones here and hereafter Ameen !”
– “Azka you are wrong, your analysis are based on one person or a family, ALL the Pakistanis are not same, see we stand together against this criminal activity and due to this unity government take action against the culprits. May ALLAH Bless her….”
– “:-(”
– “but khurram what is the output of that action? that is the point….only taking action is not the solution of the problem”
– “that LIAR shud be punished in front of not less than 16 Crore pakistanis.”
– “y only pakistan iz pointed.. alot of such crimes take place in America nd other Eurpeon countries…it doznt menz dat wat happend shud nt b criticizd..just wanna say dat dont criticize pakistan 4 it…criticize da culprit”
– “i agree…only 1 of us have done that.. simply punish him and let him b a mark for others..”
– “max i agree with you these bustered should be hanged publicly as an example for others”
– “See how many response came in my support, but the 2nd thing action , inshallah you will see the action against it, ALLAH is watching everything and he the one doin justice for any kind of.”
– “i agree with u Nayab and Khurram…
….. these all issues arises just to cause defame to Pakistan…see our own people the media just raise some issue n we people start blaming Pakistan…that this is not the place to live..etc etc..y u forgot that this Pakistan is because of u…and if Pakistan is bad it means WE are bad..there is sthing gone …”
– “My question is why this happened in the first place at all …. if this is a society based on Islamic concepts then this would never have occurred …. As a nation we cannot build if we have no true Islamic Principles in place and who will take action out of those belief less leaders and think they are Gods (Nazubillah) don’t we respect only rich and support them and make life miserable for the poor and weak ….. Come on lets not blind ourselves for something which has been faked by non-Muslim cultures!!!”
– “And let me clear here that I love Pakistan and Never at all blame Pakistan but i blame the wrong culture which has been adopted by Pakistanis …. We must correct ourselves for deserving this blessed country!”
– “nice but we shud see ourselves than otha’s”
– “Another heinous violation of human rights glares at us blatantly in the face. 12-year-old Shazia MasihYes Azka i think u r right we dont have to blame Pakistan unless we have to correct ourselves. we have to kick out those bad sectors from our country”
– “the sad part is that we are unable to thank God for whatever He has given us .. if we do then we can look around and help others who are poor and weak..! That is true that God will do justice No doubt …but before this He has given “us” eyes, and ears, and conscience …. which we kill while dealing with such cases …. God will do justice and ask us too why we did not stop such behavior which leads to such incidents… We have to admit that our mind sets are totally worldly and we do not fear Allah but we will be answerable ….”
– “if we are to leave the matter on ALLAH then wats the need of all sch criticism…..obviously we ppl should take a stand against it not only by getting satisfied that our governmnt has taken action”
– “no 1 here is blamng pakistan 4 all dis bt we r blamng ourslf 4 wat worst is hapening wid us”
– “being a lawyer myself, i personally feel like prosecuting the murderer on the state’s behalf.”
– “u r saying such things which are wrong…there is no power greater than Allah…n u must understand that we cant do anything..cursing them, doing protest is not the solution of problem…and abv all doing these things will create problem for so many other people..for example the boltan market incident…so accepting the reality and JUST making urself better is the only thing which is in our reach..
do think abt it…
one more thing BLAMING PAKISTAN was for Media…n to some extent to us aswell..coz i face people who just start cursing Pakistan…on basis of such incidents..”
– “n most important thing we have no Fear of Allah…we have forgotten that we have to face Allah in the end..the people just concentrating in their present…and the life which they spend in this mortal world..”
– “Strong Social Disapproval for Arrogant and sick behaviors is required ….. We need to promote the standards not on the basis of richness or power rather we should only accept Sanity and Humanistic approach.”
– “ooooooo darknes……”
– “o hhhh god wat will made of pakistan”