Holding an entire city hostage in the name of security is unacceptable: Qasim Gaji Zai
TURBAT: Former vice chairman of the Balochistan Bar Council, Qasim Gaji Zai Advocate, has said ensuring security is the duty of state institutions, but holding an entire city hostage in the name of security and subjecting ordinary citizens to continuous hardship is unacceptable.
In a statement, he said important highways and routes in Turbat were being closed almost daily due to security arrangements, leaving people stuck in traffic for hours. Lawyers could not reach courts on time, litigants missed hearings, students and government employees were affected, and patients and their attendants faced severe difficulty reaching hospital.
If closure of a road is unavoidable for security, he said, the administration and security institutions must provide alternative routes, keep traffic organised and detain people for the minimum possible time. Unfortunately, he added, citizens’ difficulties and basic needs were not being given due weight in security arrangements in Turbat.
Patients going to hospital, ambulances, doctors and nursing staff were not part of any security threat, he said. Stopping a patient from reaching hospital in time or keeping a doctor standing on the road for hours on the way to duty was not security but injustice to civic life.
Gaji Zai strongly condemned alleged indecent treatment of doctors on Thursday, saying doctors and nursing staff served patients with dedication and that rude or humiliating behaviour towards them could not be tolerated. Humiliating those in the healing profession, he said, was an insult to humanitarian service.
Similar complaints had also emerged regarding treatment at Turbat Press Club, while elderly citizens were also being stopped on roads and faced hardship and alleged humiliation. He asked whether detaining an elderly citizen, patient, doctor, lawyer or journalist for hours without reason was really an essential security requirement.
Citizens’ basic rights cannot be continuously suspended in the name of security, he said. State institutions must adopt an effective and balanced strategy between security and civil liberties. Providing facilities to the public and protecting their self-respect were also basic duties of the state.
He clarified that lawyers were not against security arrangements but opposed the practice of collectively punishing citizens in the name of security. If there were security concerns at a specific place, a modern and more effective strategy should be adopted instead of holding the entire city’s residents for hours.
He demanded that the authorities immediately take notice of repeated and prolonged road closures in Turbat, keep alternative routes open and not stop ambulances, patients, doctors, nursing staff, lawyers, journalists and elderly citizens without reason.
He also called for an inquiry into alleged mistreatment and humiliating behaviour towards the public and action under the law against officials found responsible.
If, instead of taking the public into confidence, people were continuously subjected to hardship, humiliation and fear in the name of peace and security, the gap between security institutions and citizens would widen, he said, adding that security is for the people, not the people for security arrangements.
