ON Sept 26, alleged drug dealer Anmol alias Pinky and her alleged accomplice Sameer were indicted in a narcotics case registered in 2021. This followed Pinky`s acquittal in three other narcotics cases over the summer. She remains in jail, facingseveralothercases.

Ever since she was arrested in May of this year, Pinl(y`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 Pinl(y` and `Naam hi kafi hai`, have all the ingredients of a gangster movie. Except, of course, that there is a `godmother` at the centre of it all.

What then to make of a woman who appears to have made a name for herself in the male dominated gangster world? As a weekly columnist for over a decade, I`ve written regularly about Pakistani 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` Often, these columns are obituaries. Just two weeks ago, for instance, I wrote about a nineyear-old girl from Swat named Ishmal, whose only mistake was to go to her neighbour`s house as she often did. She was allegedly sexually assaulted and 1(illed. 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.

These are the usual stories of women in Pakistan, and I know you know many more than the ones I have written about.

Women trapped in abusive and even torturous marriages because they do not 1(now if they will be able to make it on their own. Or women who have tried to mal(e 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.

And these are stories of the middle class; poverty exacerbates all of these cruelties even further. Life in Pakistan in 2026 is harsh and Hobbesian for everyone, but for women it is a particular kind of hell.

Then there is Pinl(y an alleged cocaine dealer whose lethal product was packaged under her name. Born into a family of modest means with a home in Lyari`s Baloch Para, she finished Class VIIL According to investigators, she then left for Lahore to pur-sue modelling. According to police, it was from her former husband, a lawyer and alleged drug dealer, that she learned the drugtrade.

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. She allegedly sold to customers in Karachi`s affluent areas.

Her story is unusual, but the allegations againstherare serious:drugtrafñckingis not an act of female emancipation simply because the person accused of running the operation is a woman.

Selling drugsis a reprehensible trade.

Sadly, many turn to it to escape penury.

It is an aspect to reflect on without turning Pinl(y`s alleged criminal enterprise into a heroic rebellion. The same poverty and absence of opportunity that can mal(e criminal networks attractive also produce countless victims of the narcotics trade.

Pinky must pay for her crimes. Even asI say that, I cannot help but wonder how many of the wealthy and influential people allegedly connected to her network will face similar scru-tiny. Police said an initial forensic examination of her phone identified hundreds of contacts,including300 alleged active customers, as well as multiple banl( accounts allegedly used for payments. Will we ever know who among the powerful benefited from or sustained this 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. But equality cannot mean transforming an alleged drug dealer into a feminist 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.

A defiant woman is a rare creature in Pakistan, and one who manages to stay alive while challenging powerful structures may be rarer still. But defiance alone is not a virtue. Pinl(y`s story may tell us much about gender, poverty, power and hypocrisy in Pakistan. None of that requires us to turn her into a heroine.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com