What is in a date?... nothing and everything

Another May 12 has gone by and the lawyers’ community observed it as a black day to remember that fateful day when hell was unleashed in the city of Karachi. Similar to what they show in the Old Western flicks, law and order did not exist in the city on the May 12 of 2007. Bodies of dead people were scattered around in various areas of the metropolitan and its law enforcers were cowed by armed thugs, who called the shots that day.

May 12 might just be another day on the calendar. A date keeps coming back year after year simply because of a system that humans have devised to keep track of the passage of time. The May 12 of 2007 is gone and it will never come back. But it is important to mark this day and keep remembering what happened back then - just like January 27 is observed as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day so that everyone can remember or learn about the Nazis’ brutality and to commemorate the victims of their callousness.

A great deal of blood was spilled on the streets of Karachi on that day four years back when a dictator swung his fist around while murderers continued their onslaught. It is essential that we remember that a great wrong was done - at least until justice is served and those who caused the bloodshed that day pay for what they did.

Many of us tend to forget very quickly. A few years pass and all is forgiven. But it’s not the same for the families of the May 12 victims. They must be living with a pain that will last a lifetime. Had they not lost their loved ones, their future could have been quite different now – in most cases a better one. We must not forget May 12, if not for the sake of those who were mercilessly murdered so that some oppressors could bask in their power and glory, then for their unfortunate families at least.