'Walk of shame'

The film shows the man is mercilessly beaten by police while the woman is prevented from putting on her clothes despite the fact that she laments and cries before the police officers. Being quite grainy it lacks lucidity, and would make little sense in the absence of a background commentary. Of course, it is no match to what is produced by professionals in film studios. But it disturbs you immensely to the point of being thoroughly disgusted - because it is real, was shot on the spot by a police officer on his cellphone last week at Gambat, a nondescript town in interior Sindh.
As to what made the local police to parade the man and the woman naked with a sizeable crowd watching the shameful spectacle, there exist two versions. According to the local chief, they were caught in that state of nature and the police were taking them to the police station in that very condition. The man, a local businessman, however, claims that all of it was a police set-up aimed at extracting bribe from him. Of the crowd on the scene, two individuals later spoke to the media; while one justified the action the other condemned it. But they do bear witness to the fact that the man and the woman were paraded naked as the police marched their catch half a kilometer up to the police station. The officer who shot the scene calls his production "Walk of Shame". Yes, it is a walk of shame but not of the two shown in the clip but of the people of Pakistan. It is a saga of national shame. It is a death- blow to what is called the 'dignity of man'.
And this has not happened for the first time in the history of country; the only difference this time was that it was filmed, which may be very poor in quality but one hundred percent original and not doctored by some NGO. Not long ago, the 'elders' of a village in Hazara forced a middle-aged woman to walk naked as punishment for the sins committed by her son. That in the present case it is the police which conducted the horrid drama is very disturbing - even when it was not entirely an unexpected act given its propensity to hit the bottom of vulgarity.
The fact is that this force of 'guardians of law' is the most dreaded entity. People would go to a police station only as a last resort, for such a visit is never a pleasant experience. And for the ones held in its custody the 'hawalaat' is virtual hell, if for some it is not a chance to lose honour. To what lengths the police officers can go to defeat the law, the residents of the nation's capital, Islamabad, saw it first hand last month when a distraught family from interior Sindh put itself on fire only to register protest that the local police had joined its tormentors.
It is not in Sindh but all over the country that people have last faith in police force. Last year the world saw how the police let a mob lynch two young men in the city of Sialkot. Tragically, it is an everyday experience yet there is no remedy. We believe time has come - in fact, it had come a long time ago - that the government should do something to do something concrete with a view to forestalling committal of such highly despicable uncivilised acts.