It is a singularly unedifying spectacle. Pakistan, a nation that has long since accustomed us to reports of judicial corruption and authoritarian overreach, has now delivered a verdict that should chill the blood of anyone still clinging to the quaint notion that universal human rights are a serious global concern. A prominent activist for the ‘disappeared men’ of Balochistan has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
And the British human rights establishment, as predictable as a Greek chorus, has erupted in familiar howls of outrage. One almost yawns. But let us not mistake fatigue for indifference.
This is not merely another sad case from a troubled region. It is a window into the soul of our age: an age in which the West has abandoned the hard mechanics of power for the soothing narcotic of moral gesture.
