"Saving Face"

It is in the news that the governments of Punjab and Azad Kashmire have decided to punish men who throw acid on women. It is a good news.

"I was sleeping at my mother's when he came in threw acid on me..... He didn't take a second. In one second, he destroyed my life."

These are the words of the main character of the documentary that won Pakistan her first ever Oscar. These words are as shocking and as haunting as they are straight. Anyone who has got even an ounce of sensitivity whether that be for humanity in general or as a Pakistani for Pakistan, will surely feel the pain. These words will not (would not have in some cases) let him sleep for some time.

Some of us out there are arguing that this win has actually debased Pakistan by bringing it in highlight; as if before this we were really respected around the World.

This documentary is a turning point for us all. So much claim many of us make that we are a literate, progressive society, but actually we are not. This movie is a big clarion wake-up call which we must pay attention to and respond to positively. This horrendous crime is going on in our midst and we cannot rather do not do anything to stop it. I feel shameful at these act of ours. I do not find a place to hide my face because this is atrocious. It is not a Muslim's act. It is not the doing of a person who speaks of Islam so much. We have fallen in deep pit that we need to move out of.

At the present Pakistan is going through a number of problems. Most of them are of our own making. They can be very easily solved if I and you take the step forward.

Whether it is Waheeda Shah, whether it is the decision of a 'jirga' to brutally murder two women, whether it is honour killings, whether it is rape of vulnerable women, whether it is beating of two boys at the hands of brutal animals in Sialkot or whether it is the cowardly act of throwing acid on a woman and the list goes on and on; it is I and you - the individual - who is responsible for all this.

Punjab and Azad Kashmire governments have taken the decisions to make the perpetrator of these brutal acts pay. It is a good news.

What remains now is to see whether these governments can establish law and implement it in its true sense. Because implementing a law has always been a problem for Pakistan. Unfortunately we are not a law-abiding nation.