Assailants on Wednesday killed Dr Syed Wahidur Rahman, a professor of Mass Communication department of University of Karachi (KU). A few hours after the brutal murder President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain took ‘notice of the murder’ and called for bringing the perpetrators of the crime to book, in a press release issued by the President office. The notice saga has finally seeped into the President’s office. It was Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who began the tradition of taking notices. Taking notice of an issue and ordering the arrest of the perpetrators is nothing but a gimmick to appease the public. It also shows the weakness of the institutes and the tradition of strengthening individuals rather than strengthening institutes. It is an unfortunate state of affairs that instead of working for the betterment and strengthening of the institutes, leaders resort to taking notices to gain public approval. In any civilized society it is the relevant institutes where the wheels of action are set into motion after any incident. Law enforcing agencies shouldn’t require a notice from Chief Ministers, the Prime Minister or the President to take action on a crime. It is rather comical that even an SHO needs direct orders from the President before fulfilling his job for which he is paid from the tax-payers money. The Government must realize that taking notices is not the solution to the problems, specially the problems faced by the country when it comes to law and order. The Government should focus on making the institutes more efficient. The tradition of notices actually points to the weakness of our institutes and to the fact that the country is running virtually without any semblance of a ‘system.
The notices gimmick must stop and the Government must focus on strengthening the institutes.