We will talk about a sensitive issue and reveal some truths today, but speaking the truth is dangerous in Pakistan. Why are we losing our empathy, morality, and ethics as Pakistanis?
I will not name the politicians, lawyers, journalists, and just general citizens currently languishing in jails across this country on frivolous, fabricated charges. We all know their names, and we all know how quickly voices are silenced when they dare to speak plainly. But there is a rot in our society that we need to talk about, one that goes far beyond politics, censorship, or the economy. Morality, empathy, and the basic ethics of everyday Pakistanis are on their deathbeds. We have become a profoundly callous nation. If you think that is an exaggeration, look at what happens in our streets and on our timelines every single day.
Let’s be exceptionally clear: we do not have any political affiliation, but it simply needed to be said. Over the recent past, he-who-must-not-be-named has thoroughly exposed a lot of black sheep within our system. The veil has been lifted, and the sheer apathy and corruption of those running the machinery are now out in the open for everyone to see. The damage at the top has aggressively trickled down to the bottom.
Empathy, Morality, and Ethics
The Empathy Deficit in Our Streets
Recently, the story of a food delivery rider being robbed at gunpoint made the rounds. After the muggers stripped him of his cash, his phone, and his dignity, the young man collapsed on the street pavement, weeping uncontrollably over the loss of his hard-earned livelihood.
What was more horrifying than the robbery itself was the background of the scene. Not a single person tried to console him, not even the person he was delivering food to. No one put a hand on his shoulder. No one even offered the man a glass of water. A man sat there shattered, and his fellow citizens treated him like he was invisible.
The Callousness in Our Drawing Rooms
This lack of empathy is not just reserved for the working class on the streets; it has infected how we view tragedy across the board.
Just days ago, an 18-year-old medical student—the daughter of a sitting MNA—was killed by a stray bullet while standing inside her home in Karachi. Regardless of your political affiliations, this was an innocent teenager whose life was violently snuffed out.
Yet, if you opened social media or listened to drawing-room conversations, the response was chillingly apathetic. People cracked political jokes, made snide remarks about the ruling elite, and weaponized the tragedy for point-scoring. It was someone’s child, and the public response was largely devoid of basic human decency and empathy.
The Elite’s Willing Tools
This cruelty extends to how authority is wielded on a daily basis. We constantly see certain forces and officers actively damaging the livelihoods of the poor. Officers barreling into homes without warrants or any legal reason. You watch street vendors and daily wage earners plead and beg as their carts are kicked over, their goods confiscated, or their small businesses shut down. We watched thousands of people lose their home in Islamabad and no one batted an eye. Imagine this happening in France or USA, they would stand up for fellow citizens. But how did you and I react? With a sad emoji on a post? Pretty much.
What is deeply unsettling is that the officers carrying out these orders often come from the exact same meager backgrounds. They know the pain of poverty, yet the moment they put on a uniform, they become the elite’s most willing tools. Why? Why do we crush our own the second we are handed a baton or a gun?
Why don’t they questions their officers? Why don’t they say this order is wrong? Maybe we don’t understand their mindset, maybe we don’t see how difficult it is for them. But least we can do is call a wrong, a wrong.
How Did We Get Here?
Why have we become so cold? Why does the suffering of another Pakistani no longer move us?
- Is it the promotion of immorality by the elite? For decades, we have watched those in power operate with absolute impunity. When the top of the pyramid normalizes cruelty, the bottom mirrors it.
- Is it sheer desensitization? We are bombarded with so much grief that our psychological defense mechanism is to simply turn off our emotions. We scroll past a martyr, a robbery, and a meme in the exact same breath.
- Is it a fear of consequences? We see people being snatched and disappeared in a matter of minutes, businesses being banned, homes being demolished, and so much more. We don’t want it to happen to us or our family.
- Is it the “not my problem” syndrome? We have retreated into our own survival bubbles. If the gun isn’t pointed at my head, it does not matter.
- Is it because the unethical are rewarded? Every day, the honest man is crushed, while the corrupt build empires. We have built a system where empathy is a liability.
- Are we educated in ethics? Our schools produce rote-learning machines. We do not teach the emotional intelligence required to feel another human’s pain.
The Final Thought
We used to be a nation where people treated the oppressed with care, dignity, and a shared sense of brotherhood, didn’t we? But over the last few years, the culture has shifted so drastically that everyone has become a mini oppressor. Anyone with even an ounce of power—whether it is an officer with a whistle, a boss at a desk, or a customer dealing with a waiter—oppresses anyone possible just because they can.
It is easy to look at the sobbing delivery rider and the grieving mother and conclude that Pakistanis just do not care anymore. It is easy to say the soul of this nation has fully flatlined.
But I still refuse to believe that.
I refuse to believe that a nation born out of collective struggle has entirely forgotten how to grieve for one another. The empathy is still there, buried under heavy layers of economic trauma and political exhaustion. But if we do not start actively unearthing it—if we do not start stopping to offer that glass of water—we will soon find ourselves in a country where no one is left to mourn us when it is our turn to cry on the pavement.
The blog is not meant to harm anyone’s feelings or blame specific people. It is based on publicly available information. Some parts are AI generated.