Pakistan in Media

THE murder in Bahawalnagar of a five-year-old boy by his own father cannot fail to shock. Accused of slitting his son’s throat, the man told the police that he committed the crime upon the command of his pir. The barbaric act is illustrative of the manner in which so-called spiritual leaders and faith-healers gain inordinate influence over a superstitious and under-educated populace. There is no dearth of cases where pirs exploit their devotees to extract livestock, goods, cash and even land. In some reported incidents, women and children are given over into the ‘care’ of pirs, condemned thereby to anything from a life of prostitution to slavery. In the Bahawalnagar case, it is difficult to immediately perceive how the pir stood to gain from instigating the crime; nevertheless, it is clear that if the pir indeed gave such instructions, his influence was unquestioned and absolute.
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