Privilege and policing.

POOR policing and privilege collided in what could have been an entirely preventable tragedy. A young man - a powerful ex-bureaucrat's son - shot and killed another young man, an on-duty Karachi police constable, in an incident that has exposed the ugly realities of how law enforcement works in Sindh. Videos on social media showed the two men engaging in a pointless and heated conversation, which ended with one shooting the other dead. In a video of their interaction, seemingly shot by the killed constable's partner, the suspect appeared unwilling to comply with the policeman's orders and had also pulled a gun on him. From the repeated mention of his father's name, it appeared that he felt that his privileged upbringing alone would get him out of the pickle he was in.

Meanwhile, the policeman, too, seemingly failed to properly identify himself, despite repeatedly being asked to do so, or to satisfy the suspect regarding which police station he was being taken to. He made the further mistake of forcibly entering the suspect's vehicle and attempting to...