The robbing of money and gold from the Edhi head office in Karachi has been a low blow. An ethical re-education is in order, and knowing right from wrong, choosing honesty over dishonesty must be embedded in childhood and reinforced though law. We do not need more religious education for this, we do not need more mullahs and ulemas shouting from pulpits, we do not need a Khan promising the end of corruption in 90 days. As much as one tries to argue that such depraved actions are due to widespread poverty and inequality, they are not. They have everything to do with a lack of ethical education on the parts of parents and teachers. The same society who admits that they would rather live next to a neighbour that takes bribes rather than one who consumes alcohol. A society that finds it easier to tell a woman not to go out, rather then teaching men to have respect for human life and dignity.
An FIR has been registered against unknown persons, but Karachi is our version of the Wild West. Law enforcement is in such a state of collapse that there are areas in Karachi where the police, and even the military, cant enter. Turf wars are rife and is every-man-for-himself, including Abdul Sattar Edhi. To speculate why there was money on Edhi’s person, was there security outside his house etc., all make the case petty. Edhi has an established reputation and we have seen his life long struggle for the protection of the down-trodden. What was stolen belonged to widows and orphans and those who stole knew this, knew who Edhi was, and what he means to the nation as a symbol of hope and redemption. This type of crime is not just a crime against an individual, but against all the good in us that someone like Edhi expresses. From this moral bankruptcy, we must muster the will to do more for the poor, for the orphan, for the sick, just to prove that we have a conscience, and the culprits must be brought to justice in the speediest manner possible. This must be an immediate and urgent national priority.