Last week former Federal Minister Arbab Alamgir hosted 'Amir Tehkalay's' family, & representatives of the police department at his home to try & reach a compromise in the case. Unfortunately for most of us what happened to Amir (real name Radiullah) wasn't really much a surprise. https://twitter.com/titojourno/status/1277846435610927106

The stories that you used to hear especially from the CID back when the likes of Ghayoor were running it were just horrific. But the excessiveness of the abuse has always varied depending on where the victim was from. For example, if they're from remote localities like the NMDs,

without support & busted on misdemeanors, the incidence of abuse would go up significantly. Now when it comes to Afghans, it'd be fair to say that all bets are off. And that's rooted in the overall attitude Pakistanis have towards Afghan refugees, which can be observed just about

wherever you look, whether it's at the airport or a checkpoint or a school, Afghans are always given a hard time in Pakistan. We've done just about anything you can to make life difficult for Afghans. Anything other than address their concerns & issues. This is despite having

hosted the largest UN Refugee operation for more than 3 decades. As well as a dedicated Commissionerate under the SAFRON Ministry, which was like that one Ministry everyone wanted because the INGOs did all the heavy lifting, while you basically did nothing. Najmuddin Khan held

the Ministry during the PPP's government.Apart from the usual practices, like hiring your constituents & procuring a massive motorcade with fancy new SUVs, his sons (namely youngest Asif; Lawari Welfare Org) were 'recruited' on some really large & lucrative donor funded projects.

I bring up Najmuddin because I'm always struck by what he used to say-without fail I might add-in each & every one of his meetings.'They (Afghan refugees) are parasites.Just round them up, & throw them out.'Others before & after him have expressed variations of the same sentiment

Heck, you hear people in their living room say the same thing. Those words, 'just round them up, & throw them out,' encapsulate the Pakistani states approach to dealing with refugees. You start off by dehumanising them,& then proceed to corral them like excess livestock & dispose

of them as if they weren't your problem in the first place, absolving yourself of all responsibility-moral & otherwise-in the process. Riadullah AKA Amir Tehkalay, an Afghan migrant, is equally as much a victim of our convictions as he is of police excess. The public reacted in

in unison to condemn it, as they should have. But I do wonder that if some people knew that Amir was an Afghan when all of this began; or that he had ethno-nationalist political views, would they have reacted the exact same way? I honestly don't know. In the meanwhile 2 SHOs have

lost their jobs, & the IG KP Sanaullah Abbasi has quickly offered SSP Ops Zahoor-Babar Afridi up as sacrifice. The KP police's rank & file were already demoralised as it is thanks to the tenure of Cosmetic IG Nasir Durrani, who has since become persona non grata for the PTI.

I can't imagine this episode would've done much to raise morale. Doesn't help either that we live in a time where it feels like almost every social construct we've devised as humans seems to be unraveling. So far Amir's family have been consistent in seeing things through. It'll

be interesting to see exactly whar these talks will result in. No doubt it will take alot of effort on the part of the police. The PAS's heirarchy has predictably been using the incident to try & reign in the PSP, & gain the upper hand in their seemingly never-ending turf war.

And to think, all this because an inebriated Afghan national living in Pakistan, went on a drunken profanity-laced tirade against local law enforcement officials on social media. End*