Anacharsis, the philosopher from 6th century BC, while discussing the possibility of a written legal system with Solon, had famously observed: “Laws are like spiders’ webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.”

And so it is, and so it remains.

More than 2,500 years later, who could have imagined that there would be parts in the world still fighting the same dilemma, still entrenched in the same quandary.

Walk in to a magistrate’s court in one of the Pakistani metropolises around midday on any given day and you will find dozens of chained individuals standing on the side, waiting to be rapidly dispensed by the court, one after the other.

Their crimes are as big as those committed everyday in the secluded corners of most colleges and in the safety of many farmhouses – doing drugs.

Some of these would be languishing behind bars for three months, some five and some more than seven. Occasionally, there would be a few upon whom a fine had been imposed but they were unable to pay the paltry amount (not exceeding a few thousand rupees) and had stayed incarcerated. These people would thus become a constant burden on the state exchequer and filling up the space that could have held extremists of all kinds.

Also read: ‘Overcrowding in prisons leading to growing radicalisation’

Leo Tolstoy wrote: “All happy families are alike, all unhappy families are unhappy in their own different way”. Here, on the contrary, when I looked at all of these unhappy felons, I saw more commonalities in them than in the country's happy families. Poverty, dysfunctional families, little or no education and an unbearable amount of stress – few people are able to break free of these shackles. The rest seek deliverance even if it comes in the form of becoming a drug addict.

Their pleadings are similar, their plight the same and their punishment excessive. Seven months of lives spent behind bars for being caught using a drug which is now legal in much of the western world.

My contention, however, is not with the ‘up to 2 years’ imprisonment stipulated for minimal possession in Article 9A of the Control of Narcotics Substances Act, 1997. It is with the hypocrisy of the legal system and with the misery that the impoverished of this nation have to bear for the smallest wrongdoings when the affluent get away with committing murders and frauds.

In an environment like this, any talks of justice are pointless and discussions of progress superfluous.

Read on: A pie for an eye

The most deplorable commentary on the state of affairs in Pakistan had come from a serving Additional Inspector General of police, who had told me a couple of years ago: “I know exactly which houses on the Margalla Road (Islamabad) deal in alcohol. But if I were to order a raid, I would immediately start getting calls from the top bosses, telling me to keep my hands off their favourites. If not heeded, I would be transferred, and might even be made an OSD. The system roots out the non-compromising. So better do something while being a part of the system, instead of doing nothing after direct confrontation.”

Then, if asking for an overhauling of the entire system is a quixotic notion – one entertained only by the most idealistic minds – can we not even ask for lax punishments for the wretched of the country?

See: Punjab suggests legal reforms in criminal justice system

How about introducing a system of community laws, that which is already in vogue in much of the first world? The perpetrators of small crimes could then be asked to broom the streets, serve time teaching children about the dangers of drugs or work as volunteers in the capacity-building exercises undertaken by the government.

This would serve two purposes: It would assist in reforming these outlaws without having to keep them in the factories of crime that our jails have become. And it would also save the expenditure incurred in keeping these people locked up.

Our legal system is wholly based on the principles of retribution and deterrence. It is time to shift the balance in favour of reformation now, especially since retribution is not equal for all.