Social Barbarism

"It can be well understood that attainment of maturity of understanding depends on social, economic, climatic, dietary and environmental factors, that's why a child in our subcontinent starts understanding nature and consequences of his/her conduct much earlier than a child in the West specially because of general poverty, hot climate, exotic and spicy food which contribute toward speedy physical and mental growth of the child."

The fractured syntax and explicability of that run-on sentence is a lesson in how to force a child to grow swiftly into a juvenile cynic in a country that does not extend protection to children, where force, abuse, coersion and misery all conspire to produce what the authorities consider to be a 'mature' entity at the age of seven, punishable by law for actions seen to be inimical to the general well-being of the state.

This emanates from the brilliant judicial minds of the country's ministry of interior, busy blocking another ministry's efforts related to raising the age of criminal responsibility. United Nations guidelines instruct that the age of criminal responsibility be twelve, not the age of seven that currently obtains in Pakistan. Even criminal responsibility at age twelve seems barbaric.

This is a country where millions of people live in poverty, where the administration is incapable and even unwilling to provide help to the tens of thousands who have been forced to migrate as refugees from their homes because of yearly disastrous flooding events. Unsheltered adequately from the elements, without adequate food or water.

This is a country that is in possession of nuclear technology, and a cache of nuclear weapons. This country sheltered Osama bin Laden for five years, in a compound where he lived in security with his three wives and countless children until U.S. Navy SEALs tracked him down.

This is a country that exemplifies the pathology of mass psychosis, fear and hatred of their neighbours, leading them to conspire to attack and destroy as many of their 'enemies' as possible through funding and formation of non-state militias, steeped in fanatical religious devotion to jihad and terror, to sow distrust and fear.

This is a country that stands out as the world's foremost producer of terrorists, those fundamentalist Islamists who obey the instructions of their religious leaders to heed their duty to Islam by violent jihad. This is a country that accepts and feels entitled to financial support from the international community to feed its own and support its military, while inciting terror.

The head of Pakistan's ministry of human rights has been informed the country would face international sanctions if it fails to raise the minimum age for prosecutions. "Not only are we trying to raise the age of criminal liability, but we are also trying to introduce legislation to outlaw child pornography, trafficking and abuse which doesn't exist in Pakistan at the moment. Yet it is being blocked because of an unscientific theory that children here mature faster."

The ministry of law and justice claims that, under sharia children become adults at the onset of puberty. And puberty itself varies given factors that make it simply not possible to increase the age for criminal responsibility. The ministry also sanctimoniously claims that it would be impossible to punish would-be suicide bombers under age 12, if the age of responsibility was raised.

In Pakistan children are forced to work or beg every day. In some of the madrassas to which young children are sent by their parents to receive a religious education, they are manacled and isolated in dank dungeons, and beaten into submission. Religious minorities face persecution, prison, and sometimes death. Countless people have been 'disappeared' in the custody of Pakistan's intelligence agency.

Women are commonly defaced by acid attacks. People who dare criticize Islam or its Prophet may find themselves summarily executed. Women who are raped are considered to be guilty of loose morals and imprisoned. And children of the age of seven have little protection under the law.