Re: ~ POSITIVE PAKISTANIS ~
Humans of Karachi: (Warning, some graphic language)
“Three years ago, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life when my father introduced me to a human rights organization that worked for prisoners. I started as a volunteer researching on “Police Torture” for them and soon they decided they wanted to hire me fulltime so I worked with them for the next two years under the same project basically concentrating in Faisalabad etc. It was during this time I realized I had a passion for Human Rights work- particularly prisoners.”
“What is the one incident that stayed with you ?”
“There have been so many cases that have been so intense and touched my very core. One particular case that still haunts me was of a newly married couple who were traveling from one city to another- just as they left Faislabad, the police stopped them and demanded their marriage certificate which they didn’t have. Instead of taking them to the station the policemen took them to some house. You can imagine what happened there. The man was tortured and the woman was stripped naked and raped in front of her husband.
When I went to meet the family I was so shaken by this incident I didn’t really know how I would react. Naturally I did not meet the woman but I did meet the man. While relating the details of the incident he just broke down in front of me and cried. My job is to collect narratives and make reports on these kinds of incidents and then work on the legislature. This is just one example of the incidents that get reported. There are thousands that don’t get reported and even the ones that are reported are not followed up with. People do not know what their legal rights are most of the time and my job is to make them aware of what they are through campaigns etc.
Let me tell you a small incident about what happened with me- maybe it will help you understand what my feelings are towards the prisoners I work for and how I deal with everything. When I started working as a data entry person for Faislabad area, it took me 6 months to enter details of all the incidents. At the beginning when I was reading each case and entering the data - with each incident a part of me would die- it was so so painful reading what had happened with people. I could hardly enter more than 3 or 4 cases a day- that is how horrific they were. After several months, I grew numb to the pain. My mind seemed to give up. One day, a case came in and a chuckle escaped me while reading it.
That chuckle shook me out of my numbness. Imagine the point I must have reached where a story of human torture had made me laugh for even a second. I am so ashamed of myself for that but it was a rude wake up call and realization to what the cruelties of society can drive a person to do. Many of them are people driven to do wrong by some pressure from society- many of them are mentally ill people suffering from some sort of depression. Instead of dealing with this mental health issue we just hand out life imprisonment or hangings and the police begins their torture.
I’m only 23 years old but have dedicated my life to working for prisoners- I’ve opened my own organization called “Redemption” where we work to rehabilitate prisoners and counsel them and their families as well as try and provide education to their children.”
