The sad story of a 12 year-old Christian girl Shazia Bashir who was allegedly murdered by her employer, Muhammad Naeem, a lawyer and former President of Lahore High Court Bar Association, is sign of the escalating violence against women and child abuse in our society. The victim had been working as a housemaid and if reports are to be believed, not paid her wages for over 8 months. The doctors on duty at Jinnah Hospital Lahore who had examined her body told her father that she was raped and murdered. There were 36 visible wounds on her dead body with a broken arm. The lawyers of Lahore Bar Association and Lahore High Court Bar Association have been campaigning ceaselessly in favor of their community member who is accused of murder. Their pressure is such that the plaintiffs, family members of the victim and even the media have been stopped from entering the court. In the last couple of weeks, the issue has also been obscured a little and not in the focus of media. So no lawyers, including even the Christian lawyers, are willing to appear on behalf of the plaintiffs in the court in this case. It is a perennial problem with our society that under pressure of the powerful, for a few thousand rupees or a handshake of friends, we ignore the cause of justice. The criminals saunter off free from courts, are declared innocent in investigations and able to invalidate the law with consummate ease. The Chief Justice of Pakistan is requested to treat the case on high priority so that exploitation of law of the land by lawyers themselves could be stopped. -BADAR ASHFAQ, Karachi, March 19.