India may have had its Zainab moment, though not a very edifying one. In Arunachal Pradesh, a five-year-old girl went missing. Her body was found, murdered and assaulted, on a tea estate in neighbouring Assam. Estate workers were arrested. But then a furious crowd dragged them from the police station where they were being kept, and lynched them. Zainab’s killer was given four death sentences, but her father wasn’t satisfied. He wants a public execution.

What price the punishment thought up in a Jharkhand village for a mother and daughter thought to have killed a relative by black magic? The two had their heads shaved, and were then paraded naked. India seems to be ahead of us, using naked parades for witchcraft, not for honour crimes.

All Pakistan could show, as an example of male bestiality against women, was Imran Khan’s marriage. Well, it wasn’t illegal, but it wasn’t accompanied by a dharna. As a matter of fact, the Dharna Wife (or rather ex-wife), Reham Khan, said Wife Number Three was the reason for her break-up. Sour grapes or bitter truth?

I think there has been some cynicism creeping in among the youth vote, with a lot of speculation on how long the marriage will last. There has also been adverse comment about the bride’s age. No one seems to have noted the groom’s, and he would want it kept a secret in this election year, when he aims to get the youth vote. It must be hard to be a teenager when the World Cup you won is not.

Look, getting married is no crime. Murder is. Like the woman whose body was found outside a flat in Mumbai. She had been killed by the owner of the flat with whom she had become Facebook friend, and whom she had visited. A post-mortem will tell whether she was assaulted or not.

Well, over here, one lawyer shot another dead, and that too in the district courts. Other lawyers didn’t support the action, perhaps because the victim was also a lawyer. It’s bad enough that accused in murder cases get killed, as recently happened, but for lawyers to settle civil cases (the two lawyers were engaged in a civil suit over property) this way, is not very encouraging.

When one goes out to seek a lawyer, does one seek some combining knowledge of the law with a glib tongue, or does one seek an accurate gunman? It’s a little like President Trump, who has suggested arming teachers, in response to the Florida shooting. My younger boy is against this, because he’s afraid teachers might commit mass murders of students.

Of course, if UNICEF is to be believed, that would not necessarily happen, because the kid might be dead at birth. According to UNICEF, Pakistan is the worst place for children, not because of teachers searching for targets, but because it has the highest rate of infant mortality. And even then we have so many problems with school enrolment…

Still, that perennial children’s favourite, Zakoota Jinn, who made a generation familiar with his catchline (Mujhe kaam batao, main kya karoon, main kis ko khaoon--- Tell me what to do, what shall I do, who shall I eat) in the teleserial Ainak Wala Jinn, has passed away. Well, not him, the actor who portrayed him, Munna Lahori.

And she predated him, but Indian actress Sridevi died after he did. Well, she might have been more of a heart throb, but I don’t know if she was a better actress. But even Munna would have conceded she looked better. Though maybe his mother might not have agreed.

Speaking of passing, former LDA DG Ahad Cheema was arrested by NAB, allegedly for corruption in the Ashiana housing scheme. Judging from the fuss that has ensued, complete with an attempted lockdown of Civil Secretariat, one would have thought he had suffered a fate worse than death. And not because NAB investigators do things to you if they get their hands on you, but because he was a DMG officer. Though Independence occurred over 70 years ago, it seems DMG officers still think they are twice-born.

Yet they are not involved in the debate on institutions that was kicked off by the PM in the National Assembly. The Minister of State for Information, Marriyum Aurangzeb, said that accusing elected representatives of being Godfathers was not right. As the Chief Justice clarified, no one called elected representatives Godfathers. You know, that was right. The judgement in question merely quoted Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. Was Ms Aurangzeb expressing her party’s disdain at the Chief Justice having read a book? Elected representatives, on the other hand, do not read books, do they?

And now elected representatives do not have to be headed by disqualified people. The Supreme Court has not just struck down the law permitting Mian Nawaz to head the PML(N) even though he had been disqualified as an MNA, but it also ruled all actions since being disqualified illegal. That meant that all the Senate tickets he had issued were null and void. They’ll  all contest as independents, which will open a new can of worms. It does set the scene for the disqualification of the winner of the Lodhran by-election. That’s a seat which has twice been vacated this Parliament.

Footnote to end these notes: There has been an incipient rise in Christian militancy. How else does one explain the German-Russian dual national who stabbed an Afghan, an Iraqi and a Syrian in Heilbronn, Germany? Talk about Deutsch courage.