ON the roads we see drivers from the police department or cars with green number plates driving recklessly and aggressively as if they have the right of way just because they are in the government or police. Those driving bigger cars, especially SUVs, do this to drivers of smaller cars; the drivers of smaller cars do this to motorcyclists and pedestrians. It is a chain of harassment and bullying that goes from the ‘strongest’ to the ‘weakest’. This seems to be the only law on the roads.

But this is not restricted to the roads alone. It is true in almost all walks of life in Pakistan. The gas company threatens people with prison and other dire consequences if bills are not paid on time or not paid at all or if gas is pilfered. Electricity distribution companies use the same tactics. FBR does the same and more; through emails it warns citizens about the consequences of not filing tax returns in time and/or not filing correctly or filing nil returns, etc. The other day, radio broadcast a message from the Punjab government telling farmers that since the smog season was round the corner, if they burned crops their agricultural equipment could be confiscated and they could be jailed.

Ministers and some law-enforcement agencies keep telling us about the possible consequences of speaking about some ‘institutions’ of national importance or against the ‘ideology’ of Pakistan on social and other media. We have also seen, over the last year and more, how even the name of........

© Dawn