Friday, December 28, 2018

LIKE SENDING MAN TO MARS?

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/12/28/like-sending-man-to-mars/

  • Pakistan’s record of resettling displaced persons has not been good
NASA is preparing to send manned flights to Mars. The pilot of the first human flight to leave earth’s orbit in 1968, Bill Anders, has called it a “stupid” plan, because he said there was a lack of public support to fund the project which would be much more expensive than an unmanned expedition.
For that matter, funds are even thinner on the ground for elaborate systems of roads, overpasses and underpasses in Pakistan. How well judged are these projects? You have to set parameters to work out whether a plan is viable or not. One of those is: what do you gain and what do you lose as a result of carrying out those plans?
In the case of the NASA projects, space travel gave rise to several important advances in scientific knowledge and resulted in inventions that made life easier. We got equipment that saves lives, such as the Jaws of Life that are used to rescue people from places such as crashed cars, a landmine removal system that destroys landmines without detonating them, and the invaluable CAT scanners. Also, think camera phones, scratch resistant lenses, home insulation and wireless headsets, memory foam, foil blankets, ear thermometers, and improved artificial limbs. Dust Busters resulted from a small device used to collect samples on the moon. There is also the computer mouse and laptop computers.
The elaborate system of roads in Pakistani cities, useful as they are, are ill adapted to the needs of the bulk of the public that walks, uses motorbikes or cycles to get from A to B. These new roads with long stretches of barriers between carriageways are not suited to such movement.
In 2002 and again in 2008 and 2009 Pakistan observed Daylight Saving. The idea was to save electricity. But because of a lack of systems and planning there is no data to say if the exercise was worth it or not. It was a costly exercise, and on the face of it we lost much more than we gained, so the schedule was shelved and there is no Daylight Saving in Pakistan any more.
Thalassemia is on the rise in KP, where doctors report that 8pc of the population is vulnerable to this disease. The programme that was supposed to help create awareness of the factors that give rise to this disease has been ended due to lack of funds
And now there is the Daimer Basha Dam project in the offing. Are we likely to gain more than we lose as a result of that project?
Laila Kasuri, a water engineer, has written a useful article about that damn project. She points out that while there is nothing wrong with building a large dam, smaller reservoirs and other techniques for saving water would be far more feasible.
At present, agricultural officialdom is of very little help in disseminating information, seeds and equipment. Farmers grow crops that use a lot of water because they are not taught otherwise (this is an illiterate country, remember), and because large factory owners are very willing to buy sugar cane and rice which are among those water intensive crops.
There is also the crucial matter of the number of persons who will be displaced.
Khalid Hasnain in his article reports that some 14,325 acres of land in Chilas, Gilgit Baltistan has been given over to WAPDA for the Diamer Basha Dam which is to be a 4,500 MW project. The dam will displace 30,350 persons, in other words 4,266 households belonging to 32 villages on either side of the River Indus. They will need to be resettled.
Pakistan’s record of resettling displaced persons has not been good. A report produced by the HRCP in 2010 talks about the massive displacement caused by several factors such as the Afghan refugee crisis, the military action against militants in Malakand, in KP, and against the Taliban in FATA, and the displacement caused by floods and earthquakes. Such crises are likely to continue in Pakistan. The construction of this dam only adds to these already huge numbers of internally displaced persons, among the largest in the world. The report says:
‘While a specific framework exists to offer protection for refugees, in the form of the 1951 Refugee Convention, and an international organisation, the UNHCR, has been mandated to assist them, neither is available for internally displaced persons per se. This because they remain inside their own countries, and therefore do not have a similar claim to assistance and protection under any international legal instrument or from an international organisation. It has not been uncommon for the government of Pakistan to restrict humanitarian assistance or even block access to displaced populations for a range of reasons. Ongoing conflict and overall insecurity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA have also impeded humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced people. Despite hosting one of the world’s largest displaced populations in modern times – the refugees from Afghanistan to Pakistan – Pakistan remains surprisingly ill-equipped to deal with large-scale internal displacement at both the policy and implementation levels.’
The report adds that:
‘The country has neither prepared nor enacted any specific domestic legislation or policies addressing internal displacement or put in place a framework for the protection of internally displaced persons.’
The population of Pakistan, including its displaced persons, requires safe drinking water, shelter, medical care, food, education, and work opportunities. At present more than half of the children in Baluchistan are subject to stunted growth because of malnutrition, and child mortality in the province is higher than in the other provinces. Almost as many mothers suffer from malnutrition and iodine deficiency, and the incidence of anemia among mothers and children is very high.
Thalassemia is on the rise in KP, where doctors report that 8pc of the population is vulnerable to this disease. The programme that was supposed to help create awareness of the factors that give rise to this disease has been ended due to lack of funds.
So, what was it that Bill Anders said about sending man to Mars? Does the comment apply also to projects here that are likely to create even more displacement in an already cash strapped environment? If the same advantages that the larger project sets out to obtain could have been obtained just as well or better by smaller, less disruptive means, are the larger projects a good idea?

Sunday, December 23, 2018

THE WAY THE GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/12/24/the-way-the-government-functions/

  • Irrational reasons for legislation
Basant was the indirect cause of so many deaths and injuries each year it’s been banned in the Punjab since 2005, with several lapses in between. At no time, either when banning it, or at the time of the frequent lifting of the ban, have the factors that make it dangerous been systematically examined and addressed. Now, it seems that Basant is to be allowed again. Considering that the festival is around the corner this February, talk of a committee headed by the Punjab law minister to look into all aspects of Basant prior to restoring the festival is eyewash, since there is no time for any of the factors to be addressed. This, clearly, is yet another of those arbitrary directives, the way governments in this country tend to function, and the PTI always so to date.
Even harmless customs can backfire badly. Last year a ‘gender reveal’ party took place in Arizona. This is a relatively new custom where the gender of an unborn child is revealed in innovative ways. At this one, a US Border Patrol Agent Mr Dickey decided to reveal the gender of his child by firing at a target labelled ‘boy’ and ‘girl’. The target was filled with a highly explosive substance called Tannerite, and placed in a field of tall, dry grass. Mr Dickey was obviously looking for a spectacular announcement since the Tannerite blows up with an impressive blue flash.  Well it did blow up, and with an impressive blue flash, but not surprisingly it took the tinder dry grass with it, and more than 45,000 acres of land encircling the site, causing  eight million dollars in damage before the fire was brought under control.
In this case it is not gender reveal parties that were at fault, but the shortsightedness of the host of this particular one. Mr Dickey has been placed on a five-year probation and is to pay more than eight million dollars in restitution.
The banning of the Satanic Verses in several Muslim countries a few years ago was a ‘ban milestone’ for Pakistan. The book was not likely to be widely read but following the ban most people who read tried to get hold of a copy, making it patently clear that banning things make them attractive; in other words, that bans rarely work. Really, if something is not likely to do much damage, it is better to let it die a natural death.
But you can’t do that with the custom of female circumcision, because of which an estimated two million women every year undergo torture. Around a third of these women die of shock, excessive bleeding or infection. Circumcised women suffer agony all their lives. So even if it is ensured that those who perform the procedure use sterile instruments this is one of many traditions that do not deserve to survive.
Keeping in mind such examples, the various problems surrounding them, and how they were handled, let’s talk about Basant, which has many positives going for it. Come spring, the skies over Lahore once came alive with thousands of kites, red, blue, green, yellow, and cries of “Bo kata!” the traditional shout of triumph when one person’s kite overpowered another’s. People dressed in bright clothes, partied, danced and sang to celebrate spring. It was a communal festival, which brought neighbours together, and fellow citizens, and it created business opportunities when kite makers and food vendors earned good money. In a world with so many schisms any opportunity to bring people together in amity ought to be encouraged. Traditions tend to do that, and Basant did. But it possessed its share of danger and tragedy.
It is a lapse of organisation and law enforcement if Basant cannot be made risk free by countering its risk factors
In the Inner city of Lahore, houses are built so close together that persons can easily jump from roof to roof, and they did this chasing kites during Basant. And sometimes, their eyes on the sky, they missed their footing.
The other cause for injuries and death is the insane practice of aerial firing in celebration in Pakistan. That and the kite string coated in glass used particularly during Basant, which can and did cut people’s throats. And so Basant was banned, rightly so, until something could be done about it.
It is a lapse of organisation and law enforcement if Basant cannot be made risk free by countering its risk factors. The glass coated string needs to be made illegal outright, as well as the celebratory gunfire. And houses in the inner city to be made safer, not just for Basant but generally, since accessible rooftops without safety walls are dangerous at any time. If enforced the measures to make rooftops safer are likely to take years, which means Basant cannot take place in the inner city until then. But it is surely possible to set aside space for kite flying. There are many parks and open spaces in Lahore.
People ought to be allowed to indulge in festivals and live to tell the tale. Yet certainly lifting the ban on Basant is the result of some government official’s desire to bring back the fun days of his childhood, or the culmination of some group’s pressure campaign to allow this celebration to take place. These are irrational reasons for any legislation. Yet, this is way the government functions.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

FRAUD vs RELIGION

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/12/17/fraud-vs-religion/

  • The persistent persist, such is the power of irrational belief
In Germany it seems persons who are superstitious burn hair instead of throwing them in the trash, a practice shared by their counterparts in Pakistan. While in Pakistan the belief behind this is that hair can be used in black magic rituals, in Germany they’re worried a bird may carry the hair off to line its nest, which apparently causes the donor to suffer headaches. And heaven forbid that the bird should be a starling because then the person is likely to go blind of cataract. That one has of course been defeated by surgical removal of cataracts, and there is always the ubiquitous Paracetamol to combat headaches, but no doubt the persistent persist, such is the power of irrational belief.
Hair it seems is interesting. Once again in Germany, if a girl wants to know what her husband’s hair is like before he appears on the scene, she must lean backwards out of the door on Christmas eve and grab. She will find some hair in her hand and that is what her husband’s hair will be like. Presumably, if her hand comes back empty he is likely to be bald? Dunno. Superstitions are as vague as they are irrational.
It isn’t just ignorant, uneducated societies that foster superstitions. Germany which is neither appears to host hundreds of superstitions some of which nasty, such as the one that asks you to slap a child as soon as you see its first tooth. Apparently, it makes babies teethe more easily. And likely as not it also produces an adult with an irrational fear of teeth.
But superstitions have another side which is less easily dismissed. In Pakistan for example there is a widespread belief in the power of prayer to purify water. Several years ago a representative of the WHO reported via IRIN, the news agency focusing on humanitarian issues, that during floods that year 13pc of 4.4 million people treated by the WHO in just one month were suffering from acute diarrhea.  A doctor in the area reports that although chlorine tablets were distributed people disliked its taste in the water and preferred to get a ‘pir’ to pray over the water. That, they believed, purified the water, but instead it caused illness, and death.
Mufti Muneebur Rehman who heads the Ruyat e Hilal Committee helpfully offered his opinion that this belief was incorrect, and said that Imams should tell their congregations so in each mosque. His opinion is appreciated, but coming from a gentleman who believes that life stops unless he physically sights the moon this advice holds only as much water as that satellite, which is hunted down by Mufti sahib and his colleagues from the top of a tower twice a year.
The sad fact is that pirs are taken seriously in this country. Although there must be some well-meaning ones, a growing number of pirs are out to make money by using religion to manipulate a gullible, poverty ridden population, or else – as in the US which is not as poverty ridden except in pockets –persons searching for an anchor and strength in their lives, in the absence of religion. Many of these so called spiritual leaders whose edicts actually lead to death continue their work without being apprehended, which is where Pakistan needs to get its act together. Charles Manson for example, in the US died at the age of eighty-three in a Californian prison. He had been found guilty of nine first degree murders and seven counts of conspiracy to murder; these had been carried out by members of his cult, his murid, at his instruction. He was initially handed a death sentence which was changed to life when California invalidated the death penalty in the 70s.
Although there must be some well-meaning ones, a growing number of pirs are out to make money by using religion
You wonder if the ‘spiritual leader’ who directed two brothers to bury their mentally disturbed sister alive in a well in Taxila will be apprehended and punished – the second does not always follow the first even if the person apprehended is found guilty. It seems the pir told the brothers that their sister was under an evil influence which would affect the rest of the family, and advised them to kill her. And they were so under his influence that they complied.
There was also the case last year of a similar leader in a village near Sargodha who clubbed and knifed twenty persons to death in what he called an attempt to cleanse them of their sins and send them straight to heaven. He, thankfully was arrested, but one does not know what followed the arrest. Let us hope this man, Waheed is his name, and others like him, are more regularly apprehended and placed where they can no longer influence the convoluted thought processes of gullible persons, a tortured population, which should be taught to differentiate between religion and fraud on this and other platforms.

Monday, December 10, 2018

DEFINED BY A LACK OF COHERENCE

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/12/10/defined-by-a-lack-of-coherence/

  • Ruling by ordinance is not a good thing, Mr PM. Don’t even think about it
After a singularly violent birth, Pakistan spent more than three decades under martial law, resulting from three military coups. Since then, although the spectre of martial law has never been far from reality the people of Pakistan have managed to be ruled by civilian governments — democracy, something all people everywhere deserve. The very last thing one wants to hear therefore is a prime minister who calls himself an elected representative of the people saying he would be happy to rule by presidential ordinance. That is another way of saying he wishes to bypass the parliament, aka the people.
One does not rule by such arbitrary means in a democracy, Mr PM, not unless there is an emergency or a very urgent need. It is the ruling government’s job, led by you, the prime minister, to pass legislation via parliament. If an outright majority is unavailable you must use other methods at your disposal, including putting together alliances and coalitions with opposition parties if so required.
But as an editorial in a national newspaper points out, Imran Khan appears to look down upon such methods, saying he would not seek the support of opposition parties, that he would rather push legislation through by means of ordinances. Why? Is this a display of some sort of feudal ego? And also, this is particularly odd seeing that IK is on record supporting talks with the Taliban as the only solution to insurgency. (Euronews 27 Feb 2014)
In a democracy, the party with a majority holds power only currently, a power that may at any time transfer to the opposition. To thumb one’s nose at the opposition or the parliament is to thumb one’s nose at large segments of the people of the country, when it is the people who are supreme, and who rule via parliament. Sadly, many people are unaware of this very basic fact in a country where the majority is uneducated. Imran Khan’s rhetoric is invariably aimed squarely at this very segment, banking on lack of understanding to produce the bulk of support.
What is as if not more unsettling is that Imran’s statements indicate that our new prime minister has himself very little knowledge of political science. It might explain why he vacillates pendulum-like between opposing views: supporting the Taliban being allowed to open offices in Pakistani cities (The Telegraph, 4 Feb 2018) while calling the Taliban ‘a terrorist group’ (Al Jazeera 30 July 2018).
There have been several instances of ordinances being resorted to instead of legislation throughout the history of Pakistan, but none as infamous as Ordinance XX under the dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq in 1984, which is not to be confused with the equally infamous Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan which came earlier in 1974 during the tenure of Mr Bhutto’s government. While the Second Amendment declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslim, the later Ordinance XX imposed further restrictions, barring members of the Ahmadi sect from calling themselves Muslim, claiming to practice Islam, calling their places of worship ‘mosques’ or using the Muslim call to prayer. This ordinance was in flagrant violation of a basic tenet of Pakistan’s existence which supported freedom of worship for all sects and religious groups. It led to thousands of Ahmadis being charged with violations, and a great deal of religious prosecution.
Just as the company in which a person passes his time defines him, a government is defined by the means by which it aims to rule
There were other Ordinances, such as the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance passed in 2013 which granted policing powers to the armed forces and security agencies, allowing them to arrest and detain – even indefinitely, anyone suspected of terrorism and endangering the security of Pakistan, no judicial process involved.
Just as the company in which a person passes his time defines him, a government is defined by the means by which it aims to rule. The current government does not shine by this standard if it supports such arbitrary means, which define its intellectual range. The attitude is not just foolish it is ominous because it reveals a predilection for authoritarian rule. Ordinances –Imran Khan probably does not know this – are not an enduring means of legislation since they are not meant to last beyond 120 days unless extended by parliament for a further 120 days, but no more. A government running a country by means of ordinances would have to scramble for an extension of its ordinance-based policies every four months, leaving it little time for any coherent governance. That probably explains why the first few months of the current government’s tenure are above all defined by a lack of coherence.

Monday, December 3, 2018

KARTARPUR: A BRIGHT SPOT ON THE HORIZON

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/12/03/kartarpur-a-bright-spot-on-the-horizon/

  • In the best interest of the region
One gets a petty satisfaction watching Teresa May’s trials, a vicious gratification witnessing Britain’s suffering in parting ways with the EU, nothing as those sufferings are compared to what the people of India went through when parting ways with each other back in 1947. More than a million people might still be alive had the partition of India remained a pipe dream, which it might have if India not been colonised.
As Al Jazeera reported a couple of years ago, Teresa May was only formally against leaving the European Union. ‘May was almost entirely silent during the referendum,’ it said, ‘and (now that Britain is headed for the exit), she has to stop the UK from fracturing any further.’
Did anyone, it is almost impossible not to ask, ever even try to stop Pakistan from fracturing further once it had parted ways with India? Jinnah’s famous, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the state” sentiments were even then gloriously ignored, and they remain so. Pakistan has fractured in every way it could.
Anyway, Partition happened. You may wish it had taken place after the same deliberation and step by step approach as Brexit. That is the reason Brexit was brought into this column. At this stage to ask the question ‘are we any better off after Partition?’ is to open a large kettle of very long worms, so let’s refrain from that question here. We owe Pakistan our allegiance and loyalty, we accept reality and must move on.
Reality, however, does not help since nowhere does one find the promised country that was born only after the deaths of almost a couple of million persons. Is this it, this country whose citizens themselves are not safe if they belong to diverse religions and sects? In fact, they’re not safe. Period.
Ayesha Jalal speaks of Partition of India as ‘the central historical event in twentieth century South Asia,’ She calls it the ‘defining moment that is neither beginning nor end,’ and says that partition ‘continues to influence how the peoples and states of postcolonial South Asia envisage their past, present and future.’
Pakistan is built on expectations of goodwill. Anything that complies with those sentiments is a good thing, and the Kartarpur Corridor, a bright spot on that horizon, seems to do so
Perhaps the defining tragedy of Pakistan is that that vision of the past, present and future is so widely disparate from one quarter to the next, and that the ‘wrong’ quarter appears to be winning the day. The past, as it is stuffed down our throats, has undergone gross distortions, as much as the hapless present and uncertain future.
Thinking along those lines, an event such as foundation of the Kartarpur Corridor is a long overdue bright spot on the horizon, a small but positive way of making it possible for people of other religions to ‘visit their temples in this State Pakistan’, although the people of Pakistan themselves have no such assurances under current conditions.
Observations in support of the Corridor generally result in a tu quoque comeback which says, ‘have you forgotten all that the Sikhs did against Muslims during the Partition of India?’
The answer is another example of the same kind of response: let us remember that the Muslims of India were no saints either. They committed their share of massacres.
I only just learnt the term ‘tu quoque.’ It means ‘an appeal to hypocrisy’ by means of which one tries to discredit an opponent’s argument by asserting the opponent’s failure to act consistently in accordance with his argument’s conclusion. The term applies quite delightfully to most arguments flying around today.
If the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had gone along with the tu quoque fallacy he would have failed to understand that he was responsible for his own actions, however ignorant his opponents may be. History may have played out very differently then, and for those of us who care about Islam, that would have been a pity. However, that is an aside.
So, why bother with the Kartarpur Corridor?
The Kartarpur Corridor connects the Sikh holy places between India and Pakistan — the shrine Dera Baba Nanak Sahib in Indian Punjab and the gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Punjab in Pakistan, the two being less than three miles apart. Cutting them off one from the other is like Muslims being able to visit either Mecca or Medina, not both.
If it becomes reality this corridor will allow Indian Sikh religious devotees to visit the gurdwara in Kartarpur without requiring a visa or a passport. The corridor is due to be finalised by this time next year.
Mr Khan’s counterpart on the other side of the border has compared the decision to proceed with the corridor to the fall of the Berlin Wall which, unusually for Mr Modi, is pretty apt. And in another aside, it would be interesting to know what both leaders this and that side of the border really think about the project and to what extent their hearts are in the idea of free movement between the two countries. There is of course always a way out, a U-turn for which Mr Khan has expressed enthusiastic support. Let’s hope a U-turn is neither required nor executed in this case.
Pakistan is built on expectations of goodwill. Anything that complies with those sentiments is a good thing, and the Kartarpur Corridor, a bright spot on that horizon, seems to do so.
Here’s wishing the corridor every success. We hope it will prove to be in the best interests of the region and its people. We hope that starting with this project we can leave the past where it belongs and move on, not in ignorance of the past but towards a better future.
Amen.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

THE POWER OF NEWSPRINT

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/27/the-power-of-newsprint/

  • Publishers appear to be unaware of this potent tool in their hands
Pakistan, with its poor literacy figures, needs to improve them by making a concerted “one, two, three…Pull!” effort, because literacy is important. Studies show that literacy impacts on population growth, its health and the mental state of individuals.
Education is one of the best things a person can possess, but there can be no formal education without literacy. So, while both are crucial, literacy is the more urgent of the two.
Teaching a person to read isn’t easy. In a positive development there is much more and better reading material available now than there was a few years ago: colourful, well-illustrated books for children using clearly written letters and words, and for adults, books with interesting but simple content to encourage a reading habit. The OUP (Oxford University Press) has made some great contributions in this context. But still, the most easily available reading material is a newspaper.
Hot roasted peanuts, channa choor, fabric, dishes… these and many other things are wrapped in newspapers in lieu of bags; newspapers are also a commonly used packing material in crates of fruit and are used in many other ways. This makes a newspaper the single most likely reading material to be freely available in even a poor, illiterate household.
Yet newspaper publishers appear to be unaware of this potent tool in their hands, and a glance at the average Urdu newspapers is enough to drive one to despair. Letters scrambling one on top of the other, interwoven with vines, squiggles, curlicues, and other elaborate decorative items… what a waste of a resource, and what an example of thoughtlessness.
There are government schools and colleges, but private educational facilities for the disadvantaged sector of society are more than a match for what the government provides. There are many Trusts, individuals and NGOs involved in the field and they are doing excellent work. No one can say that people are either unaware or negligent regarding the importance of literacy. But still, a lot of work needs to be done. The point about newspapers being crucial is worth considering.
Perhaps newspaper owners throughout the country could put their heads together and come up with a plan at very little cost to themselves?
The desperate situation we find ourselves in in this country calls for cunning measures. With the population where it is at present, few people are likely to have funds left over after housing and feeding the family to invest in books and school. People who can afford them buy books, but they generally don’t give these books away. Newspapers on the other hand are either thrown away or sold off. Which only means that a person with a newspaper will not mind giving away segments or even the entire paper to someone who needs it. So, even though newspapers may not be a conventional aid to literacy, nothing prevents them from being a creative and viable route towards achieving it. For adults looking to learn English, newspapers with news regarding everyday life may be more interesting than stories, because they deal with every individual’s day to day concerns. It might be more interesting to read about Imran Khan and his U-turns, about why the CJP imagines he should be allowed to dock people’s salaries for the purpose of making a dam, and about the Kartarpur corridor …than about how Surayya’s doll was both short and fat, and whatever else it was.
Perhaps newspaper owners throughout the country could put their heads together and come up with a plan at very little cost to themselves? Perhaps they could each devote a very small section of their newspaper for the use of people with poorer reading skills. This applies to English and Urdu papers both, but Urdu papers might also re-assess the font they use, and how to make it easier to read. A student trying to learn from an Urdu paper has started sticking a little symbol rather like a dangling earring under her words. When I asked her why she pointed to the daily Urdu newspaper lying beside her and said: It’s like this one, here.
She was right. It was there, everywhere, and it didn’t make any sense in the newspaper either.

Monday, November 19, 2018

EDUCATION - OF THE 'AZAAN BAJ RAHA HAI VARIETY'

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/19/education-of-the-azaan-baj-raha-hai-variety/

  • U-turns all around?
The various convent schools dotted across the country used to produce what we were pleased to consider an elite; in the case of female students that meant women known for deportment and cheesecake, best described as ladies of the ‘azaan baj raha hai’ variety able to speak English better than their mother tongue.
Aitchison was even then in a class of its own, producing young men who looked impressive on horses; able to mount a horse on one side without falling off the other. They were also skilled with a polo stick.
Someone probably realised that the fledgling nation was hardly in crying need of such skills. A different set of skills were needed. So, a new batch of schools appeared and proliferated, the Beaconhouses, City Schools, LGS etal.
Like the schools mentioned above the education these newer schools provide is of an international standard. Most students enrolled here get through O and A levels and continue to higher studies at home or abroad.
All these schools however address the needs of just the few. The majority, as always, is ignored.
And still, those different set of skills needed by the fledgling nation are not to be seen.
The convents were not expensive, but it was hard to get admission in one unless you were related to someone who was someone. Aitchison was never affordable, and the newer schools are not affordable at all. None of these institutions provide what this country needs most: an equal opportunity for all its students. The deep, very deep chasm that runs through this society and pulls it apart remains, only now it is deeper than before.
Just as it is wrong to foster a minority that has very little in common with the majority, it is not the best idea to produce a set of young people with a great deal of academic but no life skills. In this country, members of the elite would generally not know what to do if a set of plyers were to fall into their hands. Not that a set of plyers would forget itself so far as to do that. And, of course, there’s always the lucky matter of mummy knowing of a very good plumber…
They do nothing around the house, and summer jobs are almost unheard of. Life starts at two in the afternoon and ends at four in the morning. Rather a waste of an education? That fact that Pakistan is a poor country, now also a malnourished one, skittered across their horizon at some stage, but then it disappeared because there are few reminders in such a pampered life. Even the beggars that come knocking at car doors are invisible because these children have phones in their hands. All things practical are learnt during higher studies overseas where this chasm does not exist, or at least not to such an extent. Because yes, that is the sad thing, that these children, educated lopsidedly as they may be, are, after all’s said and done, educated. And they leave the country taking that education with them.
The Supreme Court and the High Court of Sindh in their combined wisdom have suspended the registration of some schools because of their high fees which – annually – rises more than it is allowed to rise
But who, given a choice, would live in the same country as Khadim Hussain Rizvi, one of the many markers at which the government made a U-turn, today a move much touted by our PM, but more of that anon.
The government run schools in Pakistan are most of them abysmal. Graduates come away with no language skills – either mother tongue or that of strangers, and next to no understanding of geography, science, or much of anything else. Practical skills are learnt on the job.
The country needs more schools where students are taught life skills in addition to academics. One such school – there may be others – is the Chand Bagh School, in Muridke, about 40 km from Lahore. It is a residential school with a reasonable fee — which would still be out of reach of the common man, but the school itself provides some two hundred scholarships to address that problem. In addition to academics, students are taught plumbing, electrical skills, gardening, and even though they are boys… cooking. It is a laudable effort, and that is what we need.
The Supreme Court and the High Court of Sindh in their combined wisdom have suspended the registration of some schools because of their high fees which – annually – rises more than it is allowed to rise. Thousands of students across the country have been cast into a dilemma regarding their education. Clearly, official understanding of this issue is that one must shut down what is available instead of providing alternatives.
Of course, the suspension of registration will not last long because students belonging to these schools belong to rich families, the only currency that never dips in Pakistan – and someone or the other will use their clout to put things back on course. The courts will, in short, do a U-turn then, which according to our PM is the best example of leadership, or else we all stand in danger of being defeated, like Hitler or Napoleon.
Well, Hitler is beyond the pale, but Napoleon, despite his lack of U-turns, had several achievements which are best described in this passage by Wiki:
‘Napoleon’s influence on the modern world brought liberal reforms to the numerous territories that he conquered and controlled. He implemented fundamental liberal policies in France and throughout Western Europe. His Napoleonic Code has influenced the legal systems of more than 70 nations around the world. British historian Andrew Roberts states: “The ideas that underpin our modern world—meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on—were championed, consolidated, codified and geographically extended by Napoleon. To them he added a rational and efficient local administration, an end to rural banditry, the encouragement of science and the arts, the abolition of feudalism and the greatest codification of laws since the fall of the Roman Empire”.’
All this without a single U-turn. Tut. If the Supreme Court of Pakistan or the current government can achieve one tenth of this, particularly in the field of education, or any field really, I’ll eat my hat. I may not wear it, but I do possess one. I was after all once at CJM.

Friday, November 16, 2018

WHO'S THE 'THEY' THEY SPEAK OF?

this column was printed in the paper but was not published online.

Anyone following the trajectory of Imran Khan’s rise to prominence must wish, most arduously, that he’d settled back into a semi-private existence after retiring from cricket. He could have made occasional forays into the public eye to sign autographs and perhaps write a book or two instructing Botham and Lamb on how not to be racist, but that’s it. Instead he went on to build a Cancer Hospital. Fame is a heady experience.

The Shaukat Khanum University Hospital is a great achievement and has turned out to Imran Khan’s credit, a lifesaver for countless people who could otherwise not have afforded the care this hospital provides. But with SKUH the captain appears to have peaked, and thereafter ‘captain’ has been replaced by ‘Taliban Khan.’ Sadly, a great portion of his electorate was unable to get the charismatic captain out of their mind, and the man who refused to condemn the Taliban and insisted he would negotiate with them stood for elections, and with the support of these fans has been able to form a government in this country.

Pakistan can ill afford a man of Khan’s uninformed grasp of politics, beset as it is by itself and others. Mr. Khan thinks in terms of slogans and knee jerk reactions due to inattention to planning; he imagines the country can be run by such means, very much like the very people we most need to shake off. Such inept politics has managed to place the government on the back foot, more than at any other time. Had ‘they’ searched from this pitch to that, they would not have found as ideal a stooge to serve as front man.
It’s a moot point exactly who the ‘they’ are. The usual ‘they’ appear to have had little to say, when as Irfan Hussain points out in a major daily, they were on the blasting end recently. That is something that has never happened before. So who exactly benefits from the PMs random bouncers here, there and everywhere, and his predilection for all things right of centre?

Could it be that Pakistan has finally done what it has been trying to do since it came into being, and like the Americans given the country’s helm into the hands of someone who is holding the ship fully on course to the bottom of the sea? Will ‘they’ stand forth then, as Saviours and steer the nation towards…heaven knows what. Or is it that by allowing themselves to appear outdone ‘they’ are not actually outdone? That ‘their’ aims and the aims of Pakistan’s foul-mouthed Voldemort actual dovetail? It isn’t difficult to imagine where they converge and what one gains from the other’s success; the prospect is frightening, yet that is the most likely scenario. Because dharnas like the ones our PM set into fashion for his own ends, without a thought for the losses incurred by the nation, do not and cannot just occur. They take finances, and finances, in this country, are most of them in ‘their’ hands.

Have they overstepped their intentions though? Because since the latest three-day bout of savage violence up and down the country, the common man incurred so much loss as a result of shutdowns and road blockages that the narrative has changed with the suddenness of a game in which the team most cheered-on has been caught tampering with the ball. Or match fixing. Or threatening the umpire. Or whatever-ing in that vein. You wonder if Mr. Khan is aware that most of his die-hard fans who voted for him because “well, there is no one else after all!” or because “we need a change,” or because “he did a great job with the hospital, maybe he’ll do as well by the country,” or “lets see this ‘naya Pakistan’ he speaks of,” have since been eating their words as if there were no tomorrow. Very likely there isn’t, and if there is it won’t be pleasant.

See – and this is an important observation: nobody likes to finance their dreams themselves, and that too as brutally as people have had to do during the latest dharna, only to find that – lo and behold! Those dreams are still somewhere in the dim and uncertain future.
And also, because most people, uneducated and uninformed they may be, dislike the sort of language they heard from persons who claim to uphold the will of the Prophet (pbuh).

So, IK needs to be aware that as when a beautiful woman looks in the mirror and finds (gasp) a wrinkle on her nose, his charisma, based on much the same theme, has lost a great deal of the grip it possessed at the outset. You wonder if that is what ‘they’ wanted and he will now be cast aside as unnecessary, or was it all a big boo-boo in the general scheme of scheming? Who knows.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

WILL THE REAL BLASPHEMY PLEASE STAND UP?

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/05/will-the-real-blasphemy-please-stand-up/

  • What kind of government allows itself to be hamstrung and held hostage this way?
On 19 August 2014 Imran Khan was addressing a huge rally in Islamabad during the course of which he yelled — as he does — that the IMF and the World Bank should not give further loans to the then government of Pakistan. He threatened that if any loans were given they would be turned down. At another rally just before his party came into power he offered to do himself in if his government ever forgot itself so far as to seek such loans. Now, his government has done exactly that, and the gentleman continues amongst the living. You’d think experience would have taught him not to utter such words without thinking first. Obviously the words taste good, otherwise why make a habit of uttering them before turning around and eating them? But such forbearance takes foresight.
At his inauguration speech the PM made some very commendable remarks regarding the equality of all citizens, before appointing Atif Mian to the Economic Council a few days later. Very soon after he caved in to pressure — as he does — and took back the appointment because of Mian’s affiliation with a much persecuted group of citizens.
And there is Asia bibi. Most people breathed a sigh of relief when she left prison, and prayed that she and her family would leave the country as speedily as possible for their safety. The PMs most recent speech followed Asia Bibi’s acquittal. It was a firm speech, such as you can imagine a cricket captain delivering, saying that any member of his team caught ball tampering would be ousted from the team, end of story. He said no person could go against the writ of the State. If they did they would be dealt with sternly. Yet the bearded ones and their cohorts continued breaking, screaming, burning, beating, until the government went into a huddle with the rioters. As expected the PM did a U-Turn and ate his words. He’s getting adept at that.
So now we have Asia, a lady who spent many years in prison under a death sentence as a result of a questionable accusation from a questionable source, an accusation that was never proved. She was released from prison only to be placed on the exit control list. She is stuck in this country where she and her entire family are under imminent danger of being murdered by rabid sections of society. Whither firm moves?
A free citizen’s movements cannot be restricted without just cause, also by law. Asia and her family have not committed a crime so they cannot be placed on the ECL, by law
The group of persons implicated in the riots is the TLP a registered and recognised far right political party. The first mistake was of registering them. That was committed by the ECP. By negotiating with them not only has the PM gone back on his assurances but he has given such parties a boost, a power which tells then that if they break and burn and utter enough threats they can pretty much get whatever they want. Government, courts, laws, all be blowed.
What kind of government allows itself to be hamstrung and held hostage this way?
The government has caved in to the demands of a set of persons who has called for the murder of the Chief Justice of Pakistan among other violence.
Is the government aware that they have negotiated with a group of persons who have enough against them to place them in custody without further investigation, seeing that incitement to murder and violence is a crime, and is caught on video?
The government has also agreed to restart proceedings against Asia, when a verdict by the Supreme Court cannot be taken back to court by law.
A free citizen’s movements cannot be restricted without just cause, also by law. Asia and her family have not committed a crime so they cannot be placed on the ECL, by law.
One of the stated aims of the TLP is to confront and punish blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
So far, the only blasphemy has been committed by the TLP itself when it claims that its actions are sanctioned by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was a man who believed in forgiveness, education, persuasion and peace. Witness the name Islam. If all else failed the Prophet (PBUH) was asked to say, “To you is your way, to me is mine,” and carry on with life.
To see the country’s elected government hijacked by a party based on violence is bad enough. To see one’s most beloved Prophet’s injunctions so trampled upon is quite another matter. He taught us to use force for a rightful cause only if there was no other means of defense possible. All of this has been violated here.
This, that is being shoved under our noses, is a caricature of Islam. Which then is the actual blasphemy?

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF THEIR MINDS

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/10/22/out-of-sight-out-of-their-minds/

  • Culture of violence
On December 14 2012, in Connecticut in the USA, a twenty year old man shot and killed his mother, then twenty children between six and seven years of age and six members of staff at their elementary school at Sandy Hook before shooting himself dead. It was the deadliest shooting at an American school. It was found that the shooter had Asperger’s Syndrome and had suffered from depression, anxiety, compulsive obsessive disorder and a preoccupation with violence. Under the State’s laws he was old enough to possess a rifle or shotgun but too young to possess a handgun. A large quantity of all of these and semi-automatic weapons were found on him, in the school and in his car.
The old school was demolished after the massacre, and now, a new Sandy Hook Elementary School building costing 20 million dollars is ready to welcome back its students. It does have heavy duty windows and a high-tech security system but there are also courtyards, study spaces made to look like treehouses, a raingarden, and also: ultra-safe ‘soothing’ classrooms all set to give students a ‘great big hug’ when they walk through the doors.
In the meantime, many cases of gun violence later the US has been unable to set any restrictions on the possession of arms. The National Rifle Association, the NRA, has too strong a lobby and is well able to protect its interests. So, God forbid should any such thing happen again, at least the victims will have been hugged when they walked into school. It hurts to be flippant about such a matter but the intention is better than these words.
In short what has happened in Sandy Hook is that the issue of gun violence and the ready availability of guns has been hidden behind an expensive new cover and words that mask the seriousness of the problem.
It needs no stretch of imagination to extend this analogy to many places and issues, including to what is happening in Pakistan, where the very serious matter of harassment of women by men is put aside, instead of which whether or not women shroud themselves in chaddors and burkas is focused upon. The claim is that this is demanded by Islam, that women who don’t shroud themselves deserve harassment. Meantime nothing is done to change the male mindset which if it were as it should be, would not hurt a woman – or any other human being – regardless of dress. Nothing is done to prevent men from hurting and harassing women. Men in this society possess the clout and attitude that the NRA does, and nothing appears to dent it.
At a recent incident at the Punjab Secretariat a guard denied women entry unless they were wearing a dupatta. He said women would be allowed to go in so long as they had a dupatta on their person, even if it were slung over one shoulder like a sash
There are a thousand examples to bear out this observation about the attitude. Such as the official calendar published by the Punjab Bar Council which contains the Bar Council’s logo at the top of each page. The page for the 6th October of this calendar bears the following words of wisdom: The society that gives its women too much freedom will definitely regret its mistake one day.
Not only does the statement sound ominously like a threat, but it has nothing to do with the law, or with justice, or with anything to do with the Bar Council. It is grossly misogynistic and brutish which makes it both illegal and unjust. It casts a slur upon women as something that must be kept contained like a disease, and nowhere mentions the fact that those who impede the freedom of women are the ones who must be curtailed instead. Such as those who provide the guns should be the ones to be stopped.
At a recent incident at the Punjab Secretariat a guard denied women entry unless they were wearing a dupatta. He said women would be allowed to go in so long as they had a dupatta on their person, even if it were slung over one shoulder like a sash. He also claimed that the directive was a new one and had been issued by the provincial minister for primary and secondary healthcare Dr Yasmeen Rashid.
Dr Rashid refuted the guard’s claim, and said she had issued no such order. It is to be seen whether those orders were some kind of a practical ‘joke’ by someone whose idea of funny is to drive around the city passing lewd remarks at women. The guard, when passing on the false orders appeared to be courteous enough. Wherever they came from, they are as sharp an illustration of the way people think in this country where making women invisible and keeping them out of sight is supposed to cure the problem, like making a school pretty, colourful and welcoming is supposed to cure gun violence in the US.

Monday, October 15, 2018

JARNDYCE and JARNDYCE vs DECOY DETONATOR

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/10/15/jarndyce-and-jarndyce-vs-decoy-detonator/

  • Time to do the right thing
With just a couple of months to go till retirement, the CJP has thrown himself into his mohim to fix the country and bring it onto some kind of track. With a pack of photographers and hangers-on in tow he arrives unannounced at institutions and questions personnel on the premises about the institution’s administration, and contribution to society. He does this with the best will in the world, one is sure, and the zeal of a reformer, although you wonder what set the zeal in motion so all of a sudden, and why the aggressive stance, but oh well. It isn’t clear what but something’s going on. If you’ve read the Harry Potter books these incidents smack of Weasley’s Decoy Detonators which are little objects that run around letting off bangs and puffs of smoke, creating diversions where required. What the bangs and smoke are hiding… in Harry Potter it could be something quite sinister, like He Who Must Not Be Named. Real life is often quite out of a book.
But the CJP is right. Everything needs fixing. Not least of all the judiciary, which seems to have been included in the list at the last moment as if it had suddenly occurred to someone as something that had best be mentioned too.
The legal situation in Pakistan smacks of Dickens’ Jarndyce vs Jarndyce in Bleak House, a case that dragged on and on. Dickens describes it like this:
Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, over the course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least; but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant, who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled, has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out.
There are several cases this reminds one of but none as much as the case of Asia Bibi. Please CJP, settle this before you go if you want to earn that medal of a knight in shining armour.
Aasiya Bibi is a 47 year old Christian woman who has been in prison since 2009, ten long years, made that much longer for Asia as a woman with five young children, who like the wards of Jarndyce have grown older while their mother’s sentence drags on. A death sentence hangs over Asia’s head but has been postponed several times following appeals.
The reason for Aasiya’s incarceration appears to be an accusation of blasphemy made against her by a woman already involved in a tu tu mai mai (unpleasant disagreement) with Aasiya’s family regarding damage to property. Aasiya’s crime was said to be drinking water from the same cup as some Muslim women, which they claim is not allowed in Islam. Really? My daughter in law is Christian. She and I have no such hang ups. But then of course she is white which is categorised differently.
In response she was thrown into prison. Is that really what our Prophet (pbuh) did, or what he would have done? What an ideal opportunity to have thrown away, if one must proselytise at such a point, of enumerating the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) great deeds and forgiving nature, how he would never belittle another person’s beliefs to start with, or treat a woman like Aasiya had been treated, how he was kindness incarnate, and just and merciful as well.
What the CJP and Imran Khan’s government does in the case of Aasiya Bibi is likely to be the pivotal point of judgment with reference to them. You hope they will have the strength of character to do humane justice by her.

Saturday, October 6, 2018

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/10/06/it-was-the-best-of-times-it-was-the-worst-of-times/

Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation shows how far the #metoo movement still has to go
Despite protests by thousands against his appointment, Mr. Brett Kavanaugh appears set to be confirmed to the American Supreme Court with undecided Republican Senators announcing to vote ‘yes’. But the imbroglio involving Kavanaugh and his accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has added one more pebble to the well, raising the water level a tad higher for women in the struggle against sexual exploitation. It’s a shot in the arm for the Me Too campaign, even if Kavanaugh is nominated.
It is an emotive issue, an explosive one, in which almost every positive has a negative, but in the end, it is a winner because it empowers women to speak out against sexual exploitation.
Sexual exploitation is nothing new. It takes place in every society to a lesser or greater extent. It is probably women’s physical frailty that causes it. That, and the fact that with countless exceptions, men appear to be ego-bound for which nurture and not nature is at fault. What makes a difference in this battle – as in others, are justice and the law.
It makes you cringe when a potential judge of the Supreme Court is accused of sexual aggression, not for the first time either. Any judgement given by such a man, unless the accusation against him is proven wrong, would always be suspect.
It makes you cringe when a potential judge of the Supreme Court is accused of sexual aggression, not for the first time either. Any judgement given by such a man, unless the accusation against him is proven wrong, would always be suspect.
Women who accuse men of sexual exploitation are almost always accused of being attention seeking.
In the case of Dr. Ford, this does not smack true. Mr. Kavanaugh has served as a judge for the US Court of Appeal for the DC Circuit since 2003, to which position he was nominated by President Bush, Jr. Dr. Ford had time to accuse him then, but she did not, even though she did not know if she would get another chance. The Supreme Court appointment appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Yet all things taken into account there is no way to prove either the accusation or the rebuttal. Yes, Kavanaugh’s ranting rebuttal of the accusation was enough to set up most people’s back, that and the fact that he is Trump’s nominee. The indecent manner in which he was defended by Trump also works against him. And yes Dr. Ford’s clean record and a testimony that appeared extremely genuine gains support.
But these are all subjective reactions. There is no proof, and that is what is most required for justice. That’s the damning thing.
Issam Ahmed in his well-written report for AFP has presented different views held by participants at the recent rally against Mr. Kavanaugh in DC. Among these was a Ms. Robinson who does not believe Dr. Ford. She says, “I have a son and a daughter. I wouldn’t want my son treated like Kavanaugh, and I wouldn’t want my daughter saying that somebody assaulted her and not have any evidence of the fact.”
I couldn’t agree more with that last bit. No one who has children would wish something like this to happen to them.
But Ms. Robinson appears to have missed a crucial point, that had someone really assaulted her daughter, Ms. Robinson would be the first to want her daughter to have the ability to bring the incident to light.
Also, that if Mr. Kavanaugh has really committed the acts he is accused of, is he the best person for the job of a supreme court judge? What price justice in a country where such persons dispense it?
The American constitution does not place any criteria upon the appointment of a supreme court judge, which is at the discretion of the President and the support of the senate. For those who argue that there ought to be stipulations there is the example of ‘sadiq and ameen’ in Pakistan, which is about the most misused stipulation in existence.
Such cases are important for Pakistan where sexual aggression is probably more common than in many countries, where women are muzzled by society and prevented from speaking up, and men get away with anything.
At the same time one would hope that one’s judge would be free of such accusations.
At the same time yet again, how easy is it to discredit a person by making such accusations against him or her? How many instances can we enumerate in politics and in social interaction when persons have been wrongly accused?
A crucial question is: should an accusation if it is unproven – or unprovable, be taken into consideration?
Without a doubt, accusations destroy lives. Yet all accusations must be taken into consideration and investigated. The FBI in Kavanaugh’s case has been accused of making a poor investigation.
The second question follows that while it is unproven, should such accusations be made public?
A proven accusation must be made public. But in the case of Kavanaugh vs. Ford, whether you believe this side or the other is a subjective matter, and there is no chance of an objective ruling. It would have been better to keep the issue quieter than it has been until proof is obtained. But that is easier said than done, and in this case almost impossible. Yet you wish that the media were less vociferous. But then if the media is restrained too much it creates a situation we are familiar with. And the issue would not be brought to public attention. It’s a tough one.
So really, the best thing about this incident is that women seem to be on the way to being able to speak out, which is a major win and a great thing. That, and the fact that the Me Too movement into which this case slots has started a crucial debate about what is appropriate and what is not, what can be done about it, and shown how sexual exploiters are brought down. It’s an immense deterrent and a debate that was long overdue.
Such cases are important for Pakistan where sexual aggression is probably more common than in many countries, where women are muzzled by society and prevented from speaking up, and men get away with anything. “Log kia kahain gay” what will people say, “tumhari shadi nahi hogi” you will never get married, “khandan ka mun kala ho jai ga” the family will be disgraced – such sentiments are part of the social psyche. Here, if accusations without evidence are given official credence, something they already possess to a great extent unfortunately, it is mindboggling to think of the injustice that will result.
At present Pakistan is not the best place for a woman to live. Check the polls. The only way to help women is to bring the law more into line with women’s needs so that justice can be done. It would truly be a great thing if women feel empowered to speak up. But unless they are supported by more stringent means, relevant education in schools and homes, and greater punishment for proven aggressors or those who give false evidence, none of these measures may lead very far.