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Kot Momin incident: Do rules apply only on the weak?
Global Village Space |
Shahid Anwar |
A few days ago, Kot Momin, a small town and Tehsil headquarter of Sargodha, became a buzzword on TV screens, newspapers, blogs and social media because the lady Assistant Commissioner got a college teacher arrested apparently for frivolous reasons. The incident, then, triggered protest, condemnation resolutions, and a war of blogs. The battle lines were unceremoniously drawn between respect of teacher (ustad ki izzat) and official duty (fraiz-e-mansabi) of a civil servant. Amidst the fog of conflicting narratives, the facts got pretty confusing and blurred.
Let us put the incident in perspective and try to make sense of it. There is an immediate context, relating to the dramatic but extremely unpleasant incident. What actually happened on May 11, 2017, at Govt. College Kot Momin that prompted the arrest of a teacher? The second one is the broader socio-cultural context of power that defines the stature of a teacher vis-a-vis a bureaucrat and that of bureaucrats vis-a-vis a lawyer, a politician, and a military officer or a simple thug. To make a better understanding, we need to set-aside tribal feelings of association with “our man/woman”. So, let us try to separate facts of the matter from really charged opinions, in the first place.
Read more: To improve education in Pakistan we need 2-Way communication
Practical wisdom demands to do the right things in the right way. After all, creating unnecessary fuss during the application of a rule is an undesired outcome. We have no idea about the desired outcome.
What actually happened?
The chain of the events reported in multiple newspapers and my personal conversation with some principal actors makes the following picture. The AC checked the center as per her routine then she went to Principal’s office, he was away. She got herself seated in the latter’s chair, and asked for someone responsible through peon. In response to her call, Mr. Shirazi got into the office. She demanded “attendance register”, Mr. Shirazi questioned her authority to “interfere” with the college affairs. After some exchange of heated argument, the AC called the police. The Lecturer got arrested (without a charge-sheet) and subsequently released. This seems to be the most neutral account of the incident.
However, the official account provides very useful insights. The Assistant Commissioner submitted a report titled as “Indecent Report”. The same is summarized here: on May 11, 2017, the AC visited examination center at Govt. College, however, the “in-charge” of the center Lecturer Azhar Ali Shah raised objections regarding her authority to check the center. When she went to the Principal office, the Principal was ‘absent’; she telephoned the Principal and Mr. Azhar Shah got infuriated and gathered his colleagues who encircled her and she had to call the police.
Now the analysis part. The official account carries some unexplainable gaps and factual errors. For instance, the claims that Mr. Shirazi was “in-charge” of the center is factually incorrect. He wasn’t doing any exam related duty. Another claim that he blocked her way to exam center through argumentation or ganging up sounds quite unconvincing. It begs a question, why or how could any teacher contest her authority to check the center, block her access and “harass” her? Doesn’t it reflect a typical mindset of “Sarkar” ( the phrase defined elsewhere) that takes any question as an obstruction to discharge of official duty (kar-e-sarkaar main mudakhlat)? Until these questions are satisfactorily answered, one can’t buy the official story. Indeed, it defies the common sense!
Read full article:
Kot Momin incident: Do rules apply only on the weak?
Global Village Space |
Shahid Anwar |
A few days ago, Kot Momin, a small town and Tehsil headquarter of Sargodha, became a buzzword on TV screens, newspapers, blogs and social media because the lady Assistant Commissioner got a college teacher arrested apparently for frivolous reasons. The incident, then, triggered protest, condemnation resolutions, and a war of blogs. The battle lines were unceremoniously drawn between respect of teacher (ustad ki izzat) and official duty (fraiz-e-mansabi) of a civil servant. Amidst the fog of conflicting narratives, the facts got pretty confusing and blurred.
Let us put the incident in perspective and try to make sense of it. There is an immediate context, relating to the dramatic but extremely unpleasant incident. What actually happened on May 11, 2017, at Govt. College Kot Momin that prompted the arrest of a teacher? The second one is the broader socio-cultural context of power that defines the stature of a teacher vis-a-vis a bureaucrat and that of bureaucrats vis-a-vis a lawyer, a politician, and a military officer or a simple thug. To make a better understanding, we need to set-aside tribal feelings of association with “our man/woman”. So, let us try to separate facts of the matter from really charged opinions, in the first place.
Read more: To improve education in Pakistan we need 2-Way communication
Practical wisdom demands to do the right things in the right way. After all, creating unnecessary fuss during the application of a rule is an undesired outcome. We have no idea about the desired outcome.
What actually happened?
The chain of the events reported in multiple newspapers and my personal conversation with some principal actors makes the following picture. The AC checked the center as per her routine then she went to Principal’s office, he was away. She got herself seated in the latter’s chair, and asked for someone responsible through peon. In response to her call, Mr. Shirazi got into the office. She demanded “attendance register”, Mr. Shirazi questioned her authority to “interfere” with the college affairs. After some exchange of heated argument, the AC called the police. The Lecturer got arrested (without a charge-sheet) and subsequently released. This seems to be the most neutral account of the incident.
However, the official account provides very useful insights. The Assistant Commissioner submitted a report titled as “Indecent Report”. The same is summarized here: on May 11, 2017, the AC visited examination center at Govt. College, however, the “in-charge” of the center Lecturer Azhar Ali Shah raised objections regarding her authority to check the center. When she went to the Principal office, the Principal was ‘absent’; she telephoned the Principal and Mr. Azhar Shah got infuriated and gathered his colleagues who encircled her and she had to call the police.
Now the analysis part. The official account carries some unexplainable gaps and factual errors. For instance, the claims that Mr. Shirazi was “in-charge” of the center is factually incorrect. He wasn’t doing any exam related duty. Another claim that he blocked her way to exam center through argumentation or ganging up sounds quite unconvincing. It begs a question, why or how could any teacher contest her authority to check the center, block her access and “harass” her? Doesn’t it reflect a typical mindset of “Sarkar” ( the phrase defined elsewhere) that takes any question as an obstruction to discharge of official duty (kar-e-sarkaar main mudakhlat)? Until these questions are satisfactorily answered, one can’t buy the official story. Indeed, it defies the common sense!
Read full article:
Kot Momin incident: Do rules apply only on the weak?
