ON Sept 26, alleged drug dealer Anmol alias Pinky and her alleged accomplice Sameer were indicted in a narcotics case registered in 2021.
asserted
Anmol → indict → 2021
This followed Pinky’s acquittal in three other narcotics cases over the summer.
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This → follow → summer
She remains in jail, facing several other cases.
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She → remain → cases
Ever since she was arrested in May of this year, Pinky’s case has garnered a ton of media attention; purported voice recordings in which she taunts police over their inability to catch her, and the branding on her alleged product, ‘Queen Medam Pinky’ and ‘Naam hi kafi hai’, have all the ingredients of a gangster movie.
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she → arrest → movie
What then to make of a woman who appears to have made a name for herself in the male dominated gangster world?
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who → make → world
As a weekly columnist for over a decade, I’ve written regularly about Pakistani women.
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I → write → women
I’ve written about innumerable cases in which women are beaten down by the system, by men, by in-laws, by their own male relatives, by the economy and by all the forces that coalesce to keep women ‘in their place’.
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that → write → place
Just two weeks ago, for instance, I wrote about a nine-year-old girl from Swat named Ishmal, whose only mistake was to go to her neighbour’s house as she often did.
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she → write → house
She was allegedly sexually assaulted and killed.
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She → assault → ?
Or let’s remember Hina Javed’s case from just over a month ago — a woman married to a former professor at Nust, who was found dead in a bathroom after allegedly suffering abuse and torture.
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who → let → abuse
These are the usual stories of women in Pakistan, and I know you know many more than the ones I have written about.
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I → know → ones
Women trapped in abusive and even torturous marriages because they do not know if they will be able to make it on their own.
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they → trap → own
Or women who have tried to make it on their own and are punished at every turn, landlords rejecting them for not having a man of the house, bosses harassing them because they are seen as available because of their single status.
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they → try → status
And these are stories of the middle class; poverty exacerbates all of these cruelties even further.
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poverty → exacerbate → cruelties
Then there is Pinky — an alleged cocaine dealer whose lethal product was packaged under her name.
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product → be → name
Born into a family of modest means with a home in Lyari’s Baloch Para, she finished Class VIII.
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she → bear → Class
According to investigators, she then left for Lahore to pursue modelling.
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she → accord → modelling
According to police, it was from her former husband, a lawyer and alleged drug dealer, that she learned the drug trade.
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she → accord → trade
Investigators allege that she went on to manage an extensive cocaine network spanning Karachi and Lahore, using riders, social media, benami accounts, and other intermediaries.
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she → allege → riders
She allegedly sold to customers in Karachi’s affluent areas.
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She → sell → areas
Her story is unusual, but the allegations against her are serious: drug trafficking is not an act of female emancipation simply because the person accused of running the operation is a woman.
Selling drugs is a reprehensible trade.
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Selling → accuse → drugs
Sadly, many turn to it to escape penury.
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many → turn → penury
It is an aspect to reflect on — without turning Pinky’s alleged criminal enterprise into a heroic rebellion.
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It → reflect → rebellion
The same poverty and absence of opportunity that can make criminal networks attractive also produce countless victims of the narcotics trade.
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networks → make → trade
Pinky must pay for her crimes.
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Pinky → pay → crimes
Even as I say that, I cannot help but wonder how many of the wealthy and influential people allegedly connected to her network will face similar scrutiny.
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many → say → scrutiny
Police said an initial forensic examination of her phone identified hundreds of contacts, including 300 alleged active customers, as well as multiple bank accounts allegedly used for payments.
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examination → say → payments
Will we ever know who among the powerful benefited from or sustained this trade?
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who → know → trade
Pakistani society is often eager to make a woman pay even as it looks askance at the sins of male leaders, politicians, industrialists, and others with power.
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it → make → power
But equality cannot mean transforming an alleged drug dealer into a feminist heroine.
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equality → mean → heroine
It must mean equal accountability: for Pinky if the charges against her are proved, for those who allegedly enabled her operation, and for the wealthy customers whose money made such a lucrative trade possible.
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trade → mean → customers
A defiant woman is a rare creature in Pakistan, and one who manages to stay alive while challenging powerful structures may be rarer still.
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who → manage → structures
Pinky’s story may tell us much about gender, poverty, power and hypocrisy in Pakistan.
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story → tell → Pakistan
None of that requires us to turn her into a heroine.
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None → require → heroine
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
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writer → teach → law
The Aporia
