It has been seen that the criminals in our country are able to be inconspicuous as well as, they have the right to remain, un-named and un-identified. Being a single mother of two daughters, I was always afraid that these criminals (who generally get away with the crime) might be my next door neighbor, or the man who sells me grocery? Who knows? All over the world people are afraid of being identified for committing a crime, they have mug shots in the police files, their information is in the data base and it becomes hard for them to hide.
In Pakistan we see these criminals, whose faces are covered, being paraded by the police after they are caught. They are actually never seen by the people! Unfortunately we have no comprehensive data base where everyone in Pakistan could be registered, leave alone a data base which has all the criminals in our country registered. If we come across a suspicious person there is no way we could find out if he or she was a criminal or not. While writing this I looked up the Pakistani website listing the ‘Most Wanted People’ and I came across some names but no photographs, why?
This is the era of cell phones, equipped with cameras to snap quick pictures of whatever is happening around us. In these trying times of crime all around us we could act as responsible citizens and report these crimes. I would also like to request the government to update NADRA’ data base and get everyone registered, which can help in curbing crime tremendously.
Lala Rukh Paracha,
Lahore, March 5.