MicroPakistan

By Anum Pasha

Imagine – two hearts devoted to love, two souls struggling to make ends meet in the economically abysmal-rut of this country, and amidst this all, the Pakistani law suddenly deciding their doom in jail. This is a three-year imprisonment in the Central Jail and the District Jail Faislabad. Somewhere in the middle of these four-cornered jails, many questions evoke the minds of the imprisoned – Is death better a calamity than the cage of the law? Is a three-year captivity more of a pain than that felt when one’s spirit abandons the corpse? Is severance from the beloved an affair proficient enough for a three-year-long endurance? The tragedy that befell Shumail Raj and Shahzina Tariq’s lives is one which has been reported on by the dailies and hence, I shall not take up more words to recite the nightmare yet again.

It’s a gorgeous night. Celebrity divas, hand in hand, stroll about in the mammoth-sized garden arranged flamboyantly for celebration. Merry-making is well-in-progress. The full moon is casting shadows on the four corners of this space and blatant smiles form on the faces of the rich and the famous – Adil and Sarfaraz have arrived. Clasping each other’s hand to feel the warmth of let’s say, love, the duo disappear into the crowd which is now applauding for the long-life of their relationship. Both exercise a Rolex on the wrists and a chauffeur-driven Porsche, puffed up with the Pakistani pride, is pleased to wait outside.

It’s a Saturday night and the insanely annoying tone of my cell phone meets the ears – outlandish messages about the Late Night Show being aired on the idiot box are being received. Coerced to watch this, I’m still irresolute if I need to be in high spirits about the recent shift towards media - frankness in terms of cross-dressing as women, bisexuality, gender-alteration, and what not. And that too, on national television in the houses of the paanchwi-jammaat – pass Shaguftas and Ranias who cross the threshold of our air-conditioned palaces to flounce off the debris from our lavatory seats. Whether this is a revolution in terms of media and an escape from the ‘extremism’ many of the influentials are fighting against, or a lashing targeted towards the morals of the Pakistani pride, is a debate not close to its end. Nevertheless, the fact that those in command of the country feel welcomed on the show, only states that the law is a sounding board here.

Still, two souls surrender within the four walls of a prison cell. I say, had Shumail and Shahzina carried pots of gold in their pockets, the situation today would have been a lot different. Maybe, not even an ‘issue.’ Maybe, unnoticed like they do when it comes to the richest getting away with smeared sexualities outside the closet and promiscuous talent ultimately affecting the lives of many. But no . Shumail and Shahzina are not rich. Not rich enough for the court. Not rich enough to flee from a minor folder of ‘perjury.’

In a country where the ‘live and let live’ syndrome can only be practiced on the surface, it is painstakingly sad to see an absence of ‘law’ when it comes to rape, murder, honor killing, marriages to the book, undernourishment among the poor reduced to rubbish, the thousands of porno websites viewed by the ‘future leaders’ of the country and whatnot. I question, where then is the law? Where is the book of commandment, which says that gay marriages in Peshawar are absolutely sane but when it comes to the harmless little beings set in their lives meaning no harm no third parties, it calls for mistreatment. I question, will tossing Shumail and Shazina inside the misery of jails help the situation in any way? Will a three-year imprisonment unravel the act of perjury? Will it bring an unnatural death upon the love these two harbor for each other? Will it make these two citizens fonder of the country their forefathers helped to make? I question, how will the mass public containing the seventy percent illiterate minds of the country react when the two are finally released? Are the two going to be raped to the pleasure of political goons? Are the two going to be harassed by patronizing police officers in the jails they are currently enforced in? I wonder.

Even while all religious and social norms have been defied, these two still have the basic human rights to be themselves. Yes, I understand that a ‘harmless’ lie can be a tad bit too offensive to the ‘law’ but where has the same law ran off to when it comes to nonsensical consumption of liquor, unwarranted exhibitions of hush-hush parts, the safety of rundown masses, inequality, and acts of tax –evasion performed dutifully by the powerful. What I am left with is a simple query: My God, why am I Pakistani at all, when this is all, the national pride’ that I belong to?