The Common Touch

DECEMBER 1997 - I think few will disagree that among the things that plague us, and there are many that do, discipline or rather the lack of it in our daily lives, has to be the single most important factor that explains the mess we are in. From one end of the country to the other, from the most hallowed ground in this nation’s life to the most lowly, there is gross indiscipline. It does not matter who it is, the highest functionaries or the lowest placed individual, all exhibit the same disregard for rules. Consequently, there is chaos at all times and the simplest problems assume gigantic proportions.

A friend who has lived abroad observed that Pakistani children are amongst the worst brought up, which seems odd considering that parents here have almost unlimited time to devote to their offspring. Apparently it is not the quantity of time that parents spend, but the quality of that time which is important. Children are therefore forever tugging at their parents demanding attention while mother goes on chattering non-stop to her friend and father goes on watching television. Children then quickly learn to become obnoxious, screaming, yelling, throwing tantrums and so on, to gain attention. I am no child psychologist, thank God, but it does sound true. On the other hand elsewhere, parents are far more rushed than here so when they are with their children, they are able to give them total attention.

One of the most common sights of indulgence here is to let children get away with blue murder, parents not realising that in doing so they are already planting the first seed that will bear fruit of a warped mind, the one who will one day scale the walls of the Supreme Court, brandish a weapon at anyone who dares face up to him and hurl obscenities at the slightest pretext. The women who grow up are no better, grabbing whatever they can, throwing caution to the wind where their interest is in jeopardy and breaking all the rules whenever it suits them. It is now a fairly common sight to see youngsters who have barely stopped wetting their beds to be on the roads of the city driving in the most reckless fashion, causing accidents, injuries and sometimes, deaths.

Youngsters, sometimes less than 15 years of age, hang out at girls colleges in cars acquired by dubious means. Some time back, there was an incident where a car, with blacked out rear screens, housing a gang of teenagers, were playing merry hell with the traffic around a girl’s college, swerving and screeching. No one dared to stop them, all thinking that they must be powerfully connected to behave with such contempt for others. Sure enough they caused a bad accident, reversing at full speed into a car that went off the road in a desperate bid to avoid them. When questioned, there were absolutely no papers at all in the car and you guessed it, no number plates. The ‘driver’, still appearing for school exams, naturally had no license. When asked to go to the police station, he simply refused and instead offered money (another lesson that’s taught with diligence by parents these days). His companions had long ago fled the scene. It turned out that the father was an ASI, the car was part of the pool of ‘impounded’ cars which had been handed over to the errant lad to fool about in. While those who’s car suffered considerable damage of over 50,000 had to then run around all over town, getting this grubby paper signed by this grubby official, learning the ropes about what happens to innocent civilians when they run into such a mess, they were also astonished to learn that their car was now impounded by the police. It took them two days, a great deal of agony and frustration, not to mention waste of time, to get their car back. The ASI Sahib, in the meantime, arrived and with a pretty combination of four letter words and general threats, simply took his ‘impounded’ vehicle in less than 30 seconds. No question of apology, no question of footing the bills, no question of chastising the lout. Instead, brute threats and in the entire process, utter and total contempt for the law or decency. Let’s leave responsibility out of it because that would be asking for too much.

This is not at all uncommon. Ask anyone who has been at the receiving end of a situation such as this one and you will hear stories that will give you sleepless nights. The entire system runs on these warped principles. It wasn’t too long ago that the Chief Minister’s sons beat up an airforce officer in Peshawar. I know of a friend who was fired at on Sherpao Bridge simply because he dared to overtake the Pajero (blacked out windows naturally) of then Governor Punjab’s son, who if you might wish to know was crawling along being serviced enroute by a lady much in the same fashion as Hugh Grant was in LA. The rogue fired so many shots at my friend’s car that the windscreen was broken, the tyres punctured. In addition he was told that he was lucky to be alive, that the Gov.’s sibling had taken pity on him and not killed him. Horror story ? Happens all the time.

So when men, and women, at the national level, display the behaviour that all civilised societies rightly condemn, you can be sure that it all began many years ago over a marble or a toffee, where parents in their desire to love their children started the process of moulding another monster to unleash on society.