THE ENEMIES WITHIN

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/29/the-enemies-within-2/

• Is peace even an objective?

Many appalling things occurred in the last few days, as appalling things do with exceptional regularity. Two of them however were so equally ‘bad’, to use Donald Trump’s intelligent adjective, that it was hard to choose which one to write about. Therefore, this is about both.

Interesting that Donald Trump should show up so early in the piece, because he is automatically included in the observation that a nation does not need external enemies to destroy itself. The enemies that arise within nations, the chosen, popular and elected ones, they cause far more damage and are much harder to dislodge, which is what this is about.

More than a quarter of a century ago, in Ayodha, in Uttar Pradesh in India, the Babri mosque was pulled down by Hindu mobs. It was an old mosque, built in the sixteenth century at the time of the first Mughal emperor, Babar. Naturally, the act resulted in riots between the Muslim and Hindu communities of India. More than a thousand people died in these riots, the result of tensions created by old wounds. That wound remains open today. The rise to power of the political party the BJP, is a manifestation of that festering sore, and also an example of an enemy within. In this case, within India.

Ten years after the Babri masjid was demolished, mobs attacked and pulled down the Manchaji mosque in Ahmedabad, also in India. It is said that the BJP government allowed the mobs to get on with the destruction, and that the police and military stood by without interfering.

Ten years after the Babri masjid was demolished, mobs attacked and pulled down the Manchaji mosque in Ahmedabad, also in India

Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of Gujrat defended the violence, and refused to allow investigations into the incident.

On both these occasions, public sentiment in Pakistan was roused to fever pitch. There was anger and resentment against the violence done to the Muslims of India and to their places of worship. Demonstrations took place here, and there was much fist pumping and sloganeering. You’d think that the public in this country was averse to all forms of religious discrimination, but of course we know otherwise. As if to reiterate that, just a few days ago, in Sialkot in Pakistan, a rabid mob attacked an Ahmedi place of worship.

Predictably, said rabid mob was composed of members of the Tehreek e labaik ya Rasool Allah (TLYR), and sadly of the PTI (rapidly becoming Pakistani Tehreek e Idiots). The actions of these people were facilitated by the Tehseel Muncipal Administration (TMA), which allowed the mobs to get on with the destruction, as authorities had in India.

It was seen, thanks to a video that is available for anyone to view, that at least one member of the mob was a member of the PTI, Hamid Raza, thanking the big guns in the TMA on this video for their support. Mr Raza also suggested that mobs should now go on to pull down other places of worship, in other places. If for nothing else, this man should be arrested for incitement to violence.

The PTI has not yet kicked Mr Raza out of the party. So now, whoever supports the PTI should know exactly what this party stands for. They should also know now that anger and resentment in Pakistan against similar acts elsewhere is meaningless.

Is it worth living in a country where large political parties and authorities both support actions that are not only blatantly unconstitutional but also so terribly inhumane?

The other event concerns guns.

In the US recently, where gun violence tops the world, an attacker and bystanders were all armed, so that when a man opened fire in a restaurant and injured three persons, two armed bystanders shot and killed him. Rather than penalise this vigilante action, the police praised the bystanders.

Similarly, in Sindh a couple of years ago, the Inspector General (IG), a Mr Khwaja, awarded a Rs50,000 prize to a citizen for his “valiant” efforts which consisted of shooting (men who were as yet only suspected of being) robbers. In fact, he said, citizens should continue to make similar efforts to help the police fight crime in the metropolis. Once again, courts and the police were bypassed when civilians took justice and the law into their hands, while the Inspector General incited the public to violence. There is a penalty for that particular crime.

In Islamabad just a few days ago, the ban on arms licenses for non-prohibited bore weapons was lifted. The ban had been imposed in 2013 when the government made a move towards de-weaponisation. According to The Dawn newspaper, non-prohibited bore weapons ‘include non-automatic or semi-automatic shot guns and revolvers or pistols.’ That list, the report adds, is not exhaustive. Now, apparently, licenses for ‘non-prohibited bore weapons’ will be issued after completion of formalities. In other words, you must now follow ‘standard operating procedure’ aka SOP to obtain that license, not that it was ever hard to get arms without or without an SOP.

Anyone who has tried to obtain any kind of a license in Pakistan will know what that means. It means a great consumption of chai panni, and ‘burp!’ the license is issued.

Chai pani has become a way of life, from the top of the ladder down. SOPs rarely work.

In Sindh, there was a restriction on owning more than four guns, a number that is four too many. But now that rule has been done away with and you can, with official blessing, own any number of guns in Sindh. The only thing not allowed in that province is a toy gun, which means that scaring someone is illegal, but killing someone several times over is okay. I suppose soon, bystanders will shoot other shooters dead here as well – if they don’t do that already – and it will all be put down to progress, right up there with the presence of Malls and McDonalds.

It seems like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, with several contenders for the Mad Hatter.

In the US, the NRA enjoys such power that even the death of thousands of people is explained away and brings no change. You need to check who benefits in Pakistan, because we have seen no change either. It seems we too need worry about no external enemies. The internal ones are enough to bring us down, and you can’t condemn them as they deserve to be condemned either, thanks to censorship, and to certain blasphemous laws.

It’s bad. Very bad, because you cannot have peace with weapons this easily available.

But perhaps peace is not an objective?

UNITY, FAITH, DISCIPLINE AND INCLUSION

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/27/unity-faith-discipline-and-inclusion/

“The reason disability is held responsible is that the label – the word ‘disability’ – is a negative term. One that ought, ideally, to be replaced. It is why the term ‘differently abled’ is often used instead, since people with disabilities possess abilities just like anyone else, although in some cases they may manifest differently.”

I narrowly missed running over a person moving below my line of vision, when reversing the car from a parking spot. The man who survived despite my efforts to the contrary, sat on a small wooden cart with wheels, raised about three inches off the road. His thin, unusable legs were folded under him as, hands on the road, he pushed his cart from car to car, asking for money.

This man’s life was not this way because of his disability. It was this way because of poverty. The reason disability is held responsible is that label – the word ‘disability’ – is a negative term. One that ought, ideally, be replaced. It is why the term ‘differently abled’ is often used instead, since people with disabilities possess abilities just like anyone else, although in some cases they may manifest differently. And people with ‘disabilities’ can and very often do lead full lives. Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, F.D Roosevelt, Stevie Wonder, Frida Kahlo come to mind as examples, and from Pakistan, Muniba Mazari, Saima Ammar, Sarmad Tariq, and many others.

When a person with a disability is burdened with severe poverty is when the disability becomes even more challenging than it already is.

The world needs the contribution of all its people, all the talents and abilities that every individual, disabled or not, can contribute. As Stevie Wonder said, ‘Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes does not mean he lacks vision.” People with disability, rich or poor, should be able to lead a full life if governments take their responsibilities seriously. The government in Pakistan, unfortunately, treats its responsibilities like a manhole: it moves around them leaving that gaping hole for others to deal with as best they can.

So, what does Pakistan have to offer persons with physical disability?

Mercifully for the people of this country, its private individuals have shouldered the burden. They have set up organisations that help their disabled compatriots lead easier lives, organisations that provide equipment and training so that people who need them can make a living.

This article deals more specifically persons with spinal cord injury, which is one of the most common cause of disability.

Pakistan had no specialist medical centre to deal with spinal injury until 2014. That is when the Orthopaedic and Spine Unit was inaugurated at the Lahore Medical and Dental College / Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital in Lahore. Although it is hardly sufficient for the number of patients throughout the country, it is a wonderful start.

More medical facilities, and more equipment to deal with spinal injury such as wheelchairs, lifts, and ramps are crucial. Yet, the first message delivered most consistently by patients with spinal injury, by those caring for them, and by the doctors working with them was not about lifts and ramps. The first thing they all said was: If you suspect someone has hurt their spine, please do not move them.

Second only to the accident itself, the fact that they were moved after their injury often causes the most damage to persons with spinal injury. “Maybe if I had not been moved, the extent of my disability would have been less,” was the common musing of every one of the people I spoke to.

Sana

Sana was a first-year medical student when, in 2003, the car she was travelling in from Lahore crashed on the Motorway on the way to Islamabad. Sana’s older sister died in that accident, and Sana was left with a broken neck at C5, C6.  She was moved from the car and taken to hospital.

Sana had surgery, but was left with no sensation below her neck, although she can move her shoulders and her arms to a small extent. With that minimal movement she uses a computer. But that story comes later.

Aqsa

When Aqsa was still doing her Masters in 2016, she and her brother were taking out mattresses from a store on the roof.  Aqsa opened a flap that led into the room below so they could throw the mattresses into the room. But then, forgetting the flap was open, she stepped onto the opening herself. She fell through to the floor, breaking her thoracic spine in the fall. The fracture at T12, means she can use her arms, but not her legs.

Aqsa was taken to Shalimar hospital. It was doctors there who recommended she be taken to Ghurki hospital, to the spinal care unit.

“I had no idea what had happened to me,” Aqsa said. “I had never heard of such an injury as mine. I thought I would be operated upon and be fine in a short while. I didn’t know that I would not walk again,” she said, tears in her eyes.

Aqsa’s mother brings her to Ghurki hospital for physiotherapy every few months, otherwise she does the recommended exercises at home. She has been fitted with braces that give her limited mobility. The physiotherapists taught her to turn over in bed, and to sit. They taught her and those who care for her the best way for her to move around, from her bed to a chair and vice versa, and how to use the bathroom.

“’I had no idea what had happened to me,” Aqsa said. “I had never heard of such an injury as mine. I thought I would be operated upon and be fine in a short while. I didn’t know that I would not walk again,’ she said, tears in her eyes.”

Aqsa now wants to carry on with her studies. Her mother wants Aqsa to become a lecturer.

“But I cannot carry on with my studies,” Aqsa said, “because in the universities in Lahore, although there are lifts in some of the other departments, there are none in mine. And the classes are held on the upper floor.”

“We asked them to move her class down,” said her mother, “but they said there was no space on the ground floor.”

“I heard there are lifts in my department in a university in Islamabad, but it is not possible to move the entire family there,” said Aqsa. “It is the same in the shops and other places, there are no ramps for wheelchairs.”

I asked her about social attitudes to her injury, and Aqsa said that the hardest thing is when people wonder, even within her hearing, what sins she must have committed to deserve such an injury.

Tahir

Tahir injured himself in 2015, in almost exactly the same way as Aqsa. He blacked out when he fell and injured his spine at L1. It means he has the use of his arms, but has lost movement in his legs.

He was taken to the General Hospital, to Shalimar Hospital, and then to Surgimed.

“So it was five days after I fell, that my spine was operated upon by Dr. Amer Aziz at Surgimed,” he said. “At Surgimed they recommended I come to the spine unit at Ghurki for further treatment.”

The main suggestion here seems to be:  If you suspect a spinal injury, take the injured person straight away to the Orthopaedic and Spine Centre, run by the Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital, located at the premises of the Lahore Medical and Dental College.

In the case of some injuries such as to the spine, time is of the essence, and there is a window within which certain procedures must be performed if they are to have a chance of success. These procedures are performed at this hospital.

In Tahir’s case, following surgery and physiotherapy he regained feeling in his legs, feeling he had lost because of the injury. His feet are still numb however, and he is still not mobile. He lives in a modest home, where space is limited. The bathroom is small and does not accommodate a wheelchair. His joint family is very supportive. After the accident Tahir’s younger brother left his job in Saudi Arabia and returned home to become his brother’s main support and caregiver. Tahir stresses that his neighbours are very helpful, but his experiences elsewhere have not always been as good. He remembers the time when he was hooted at at a wedding, and some of the guests shouted: “Why was it necessary for him to attend?”

Not surprisingly, one of Tahir’s messages is that people should be supportive of people with disabilities, and not allow them to become depressed.

Paradoxically, supportive and invaluable as family members are, they can be a hurdle to independence if they try to protect their disabled relative too much.

Tony

Tony was employed by the Rangers, when in 1986 he broke his neck at C5, C6 in a swimming accident. He was twenty- two years old. It was the first in a series of accidents to befall the young man at that time. The second was when, being paralysed, he did not realise he was resting against a scaldingly hot part of the back of a truck that carried him to hospital, and his skin was burnt right off his body.  The third was when his ambulance overturned on the way to Lahore, and what little feeling he had in his legs disappeared.

“The Rehabilitation nurse Ruth literally bullied Tony into independence. The first thing she did was insist on Tony’s mother returning to Pakistan, because she was too protective of her son. Tony’s mother complied. When she returned three months later, Tony was more independent than he would have been with his sympathetic and supportive family by his side.”

Tony’s family was very supportive, although they were not affluent. But he had been a government employee, so he received a government grant for treatment abroad, and assistance from Agha Hasan Abidi, of the BCCI. With these funds, his mother took him to England where the doctors operated upon him without a fee. Dr. Amer Aziz, who now heads the Orthopaedic Department at Ghurki helped and visited him regularly.

At the Spinal Injuries and Rehabilitation Centre in Aylesbury, the Rehabilitation nurse Ruth literally bullied Tony into independence. The first thing she did was insist on Tony’s mother returning to Pakistan, because she was too protective of her son. Tony’s mother complied. When she returned three months later, Tony was more independent than he would have been with his sympathetic and supportive family by his side. Obviously, although sympathy and support are indispensable, it is also important to be forced to be independent, and neither can replace the other.

It took a while, but eventually Tony progressed. He married. His wife is extremely supportive, and a nurse. They have two children, conceived by means of IVF. Tony bought video stores which did well. Today Tony is financially independent, lives in his own home in England, and drives a specially adapted car – rather fast – all while being quadriplegic, which means he has no movement below his neck.

Let’s return to Sana, introduced at the beginning of in this article. All the persons I spoke to for this piece were extremely likeable, attractive persons, with a strongly visible vein of courage, and their families have been extremely supportive, and Sana is no exception. In Sana’s case however, her parents have the means to help her deal with her disability.

Sana was taken abroad for treatment and rehabilitation, in addition to treatment in Pakistan. In England she met Tony who helped her in every way he could.

The same nurse who helped with Tony’s rehabilitation was also involved in Sana’s care. In Sana’s case too, she insisted that her family allow Sana to help herself. Hard as it may seem, being forced to do something is the best way to learn. Sana uses the computer now, which she could not do before, and drives her own wheelchair. She is less mobile in Pakistan because of uneven roads, and the absence of ramps, but when she visits England she is extremely independent. She is a charming, confident, intelligent young woman, well aware of current events and with a wisdom beyond her years.

Sana has gone on to study law – and holds a a post-graduate diploma in Human Rights, as well as an LLM in Dispute Resolution, all via the University of London’s International Programme, which means she was able to study long distance, from home. She is also an ambassador for the Ghurki Spine care centre, she has written articles about disability, and she is a vocal advocate for facilities for the disabled. When she pointed out the need for ramps on social media recently, some restaurants were known to comply and provide special access. She has also asked the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) for facilities such as ramps, and has been assured by them, when she visited them personally, that they will implement her demands.  

It is hoped that Sana will also turn her attention to other places, such as schools and universities.

That there are no ramps in public spaces is hardly surprising, given that the only discoverable mention of disabled persons in the LDA by-laws was:

6.2.3 Ramp & Toilet for Disabled Persons In all buildings other than residential buildings, a ramp of minimum 4 feet width and having maximum gradient of 1:6 should be provided for disabled persons. In case of non-provisions of lifts in Multi-Storey Buildings each floor should be accessible through this ramp. A toilet for disabled must also be provided. Whereas no ramp is required on buildings on plot size less than 7 Marla

That half-hearted recommendation ‘should be provided’ indicates the low priority such facilities have, confirmed by the fact that a ramp is almost never available in Pakistan.

“The best medical care in Pakistan is provided not by the government but by private individuals and trusts. The Ghurki Orthopaedic and Spine centre, a unit of a private family Trust, is no exception. As at Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, patients at this Unit are treated according to their means, the poor entirely free of charge. The money is raised by means of donations such as zakat, and fund raising programmes in Pakistan and overseas.”

If you follow the canal from the Mall Road in Lahore towards Jallo park, you eventually come to a bridge of uncertain quality spanning the BRB canal. Another bridge being constructed next to it is due to the efforts of Ghurki hospital.

The bridge leads to a rutted road (also in the process of being fixed), and when it curves to the left you will find the Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital on the right.

The Orthopaedic and Spine Unit is here, a sprawling building behind the main hospital, with extensions still under construction, and ample parking space. It is headed by the well-known Orthopaedic and Spinal Surgeon, Dr. Amer Aziz. Inside it is wonder of wonders, very clean, a rarity in Pakistan.

This write up has focused on spinal injury, but there are other kinds of orthopaedic disabilities which include congenital disabilities, and those caused by disease. Those are also treated here.  The unit contains wards, imaging rooms, clinics, pharmacies, lecture theatres for students that are hooked up to view surgery taking place in real time, conference rooms, and on-site facilities where instruments are sterilized, packed and distributed to the entire hospital.

Patients are operated in ten state-of-the-art operation theatres equipped with impressive imaging technology. Up to 8,500 operations have been performed here annually, including trauma surgery, arthroplasty, pediatric surgery, arthroscopies and surgery of the spine.

Every patient in the wards, and one attendant with each patient, is provided with two delicious free meals every day, courtesy Gourmet, the bakers and caterers.

The Orthopaedic and Spinal Unit is an approved AOSpine Training centre, and Dr. Aziz has been appointed AOSpine ambassador by the foundation. AOSpine is a professional, medical not-for-profit foundation based in Switzerland, generating, distributing and exchanging spine-care knowledge to improve the lives of patients.

The team at the unit at Ghurki includes ten consultants, five senior registrars and forty residents from all over the country, as well as a certain number of residents from other countries. The surgeons operate upon forty to fifty patients every day.

The best medical care in Pakistan is provided not by the government but by private individuals and trusts. The Ghurki Orthopaedic and Spine centre, a unit of a private family Trust, is no exception. As at Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, patients at this Unit are treated according to their means, the poor entirely free of charge. They are also provided with additional facilities as required, air mattresses, wheelchairs and prosthetics. The money is raised by means of donations such as zakat, and fund raising programmes in Pakistan and overseas.  £217000 were raised in Manchester, England, recently for the Spine Centre.

All that medicine can do, however, is insufficient in the face of ignorance and lack of facilities in society at large. Disability is something any one of us may need to deal with, either in oneself or in a loved one. So a sensitivity to disability must be striven for. All persons, with or without a disability, any disability, require the same things: emotional support, and the ability to access facilities such as offices, hospitals, and shops. They need education at every level, school, college, university and libraries. They also need recreation such as cinemas, restaurants, malls and exhibitions.

Just as everyone inside a building must be able to leave it to escape fires, which means every building must have a fire escape, every person outside the building must be able to enter it. But not everyone can do so, unless there are ramps and where possible lifts, in every commercial or government building small or large.

This means the existence of laws accommodating this essential need, the enforcement of those laws, and a complete overhaul of attitude in Pakistan towards people who are different from the mainstream in one way or another. It is imperative to run campaigns, and provide education regarding disability in schools, and to train first responders who arrive first at the scene with an ambulance.

What a difference it would make therefore, in more ways than one, if our national motto were amended to ‘Unity, Faith, Discipline…and Inclusion’, as a means of helping every person in the nation, man, woman and child from whatever background, with whatever ability, to lead a full, meaningful life.

BRUTALITY AT THE FAMILY LEVEL

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/22/brutality-at-the-family-level/

• An uneducated family can only go so far

It is time the people of this country realise what is going on and insist on change, before the entire nation breaks down. The clampdowns on the press, the judicial deficiencies, and interference by various institutions in matters that are not their remit, and sheer incompetence at every single level, all these are matters of the greatest concern. But worst of them all, the hardest to swallow is the brutality at the family level.

There are laws in this country that aim to protect women in cases of domestic violence, forced marriage, or the myriad other ways in which women are abused. But none of these laws appear to be enforced. At times young men are brutalised as well as their female counterparts. The most ghoulish of such cases took place last week in Nasirabad in Baluchistan, when a twenty two year old man had his eyes gouged out with a spoon by his own father, assisted by four of his sons. The reason for this demonic act was that the young man wished to marry his girlfriend and had told his family so. A similar case took place in Mexico recently, as part of a satanic rite. Why are our role models always so terrible?

In Karachi recently, a couple who married a couple of years ago was shot dead by members of the woman’s family, because theirs was a marriage of choice. There have been many more such cases. In the period of one year, the Independent Human Rights Commission says at least 280 such killings have taken place, a figure the Commission says is much less than the actual number.

Medieval systems such as jirgas that prescribe horrific punishments for ‘affairs’ between men and women are allowed to exist and thrive. It is almost unknown for the murderers to receive the justice that is due to them. Aside from anything else, there are too many loopholes in the law. In the case of Qandeel Baloch, for example, the state had to turn complainant to prevent the victim’s family from forgiving the brother, which would have allowed him to get away with the murder of his sister. The only reason the state was more proactive in her case was that Qandeel’s murder was very much in the limelight and hit the headlines in Pakistan, and other countries as well.

Recently, a Pakistani girl who grew up in Italy was sent to Pakistan by her family under false pretenses. The actual reason was that her family, that had previously forced her to abandon her studies in Italy, wanted to marry her off in Pakistan against her will. Because she was an Italian national and because the Italian embassy became involved, the girl was traced and rescued, and is to be sent back to Italy where she wishes to live and continue her studies. Such an ending is unusual.

The government being handcuffed and forced to cave in to demands, laws which if they are opposed lay people open to assassination and the death penalty — all these issues have radical, armed extremist elements behind them

There are some provisions for such victims, some facilities for women in trouble, in the Punjab, but murders and abuse of women take place here regardless. Nowhere in Pakistan do there appear to be attempts to make inroads in the way people think, although the way people think is even more important than laws. To prove that point, the greatest number of cases of forced marriage in the UK, take place in the Pakistani community despite the laws of that country, laws that are enforced. Such acts, ironically are seen by the Pakistani community as ‘preserving our culture.’

Where do these ideas come from, that women are ‘property’, to be made to do as one wishes, that marriage is the business of the parents and brothers as much as the wedded couple, that it is okay to beat a woman, and okay not to educate girls. Islam does not teach this, quite to the contrary. Instead, it is the purveyors of religion, teachers at madrassahs, the mullah in the mosque – red, green, blue and gold, it is these people who are culpable. No less culpable are people like Rana Sanaullah whose statement regarding women was obscene in the extreme, and he remains undisciplined.

Unless everyone, particularly people in any kind of authority, are educated, unless they are forced to impart decent values, unless they are held responsible for the damage they cause, this state of affairs will not only continue, it will get worse.

The government being handcuffed and forced to cave in to demands, laws which if they are opposed lay people open to assassination and the death penalty — all these issues have radical, armed extremist elements behind them. Quite openly.

An uneducated family can only go so far. When its members are told in very forceful terms by so called ‘religious figures’ that something is prescribed by religion, they accept it as true, sometimes only because they need to survive in the community in which they live.

Is there a solution? Laws, any number of laws, are ineffective until the problem can be fixed at the grassroots, the family level. How that is to be done is open to debate. One suggestion would be to get rid of the mullah altogether. I know. Easier said than done. But it is possible.

IN THE GENUINE INTEREST OF THE PEOPLE

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/14/in-the-genuine-interest-of-the-nation/

• What does it matter which party comes into power?

Education

Education, we all know it, is the most important requirement for any society. The Economist covered the subject of education in Pakistan earlier this year. An excerpt from their article says:

Pakistani education has long been atrocious. A government-run school on the outskirts of Karachi, in the province of Sindh, is perhaps the bleakest your correspondent has ever seen. A little more than a dozen children aged six or seven sit behind desks in a cobwebbed classroom. Not one is wearing a uniform; most have no schoolbags; some have no shoes. There is not a teacher in sight.

Pakistan’s gap between girls’ and boys’ enrolment is, after Afghanistan’s, the widest in South Asia. Those in school learn little. Only about half of Pakistanis who complete five years of primary school are literate.

The government spends more on higher education that on primary, which means that most of the people benefitting from this expenditure belong to the upper classes, not the section of the population where lack of education really exists.

Pakistan’s overall literacy rate has declined, and now hovers around the 58pc mark.

Health

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that an expenditure of 6pc of a country’s GDP is required as a minimum for basic health care facilities. According to a WHO report, Pakistan’s current spending is less than that minimum.

Defence

On defense, on the other hand, The Diplomat, an international current affairs magazine for the Asia Pacific region, reports that last year there was a 7pc officially stated increase in spending. The newspaper notes, however, that the actual expenditure is in fact probably about 50pc higher than that.

Human Rights

The Human Rights Watch reports in 2017 that most of those facing charges of blasphemy are members of religious minorities, often victimised for personal reasons.

The government continues to actively encourage legal and procedural discrimination against members of the Ahmadiyah religious community by failing to repeal discriminatory laws.

The reports says that journalists fear retribution from security forces, military intelligence, and militant groups, and that the Taliban and other armed groups threaten the media and target journalists and activists.

On Saturday, the leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement was not allowed to board a plane to travel to Karachi, where the PTM was to hold a rally the following day.

The organisations working for women’s welfare in Pakistan are all Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), The Aurat Foundation, Tehreek-e-Niswan, Shirkat Gah, and others

The media in 2016 remained under pressure to avoid reporting on or criticizing human rights violations.

Children continue to be used as suicide bombers by armed groups. That has to be the most awful sentence in the history of the written word.

Sexual harassment for women in Pakistan remains a huge problem, and the rate of child marriages is high.

In this society the word ‘honour’ has been twisted until the new meaning is a monstrous travesty of the actual. According to the Aurat Foundation, about 1,000 women are murdered in the name of ‘honour’ each year. The Foundation believes that the majority of the cases go unreported, which means the number is actually much higher. Acid attacks, rape and other forms of violence against women are rampant, and are often endorsed by jirgas.

Water

Pakistan is third among the countries most threatened by water shortage, according to the United Nations. The country has no organised use of water. In this country, only 30pc of the population can access clean drinking water, according to a UNICEF report.

According to an AFP report, nearly 60 million people in Pakistan are at risk of arsenic poisoning due to contaminated ground water. That figure was the result of a study. That is a massive number, about three times the population of the whole of Australia.

The same AFP report singles out two villages in the Punjab, where nearby factories are being blamed for contaminated the water. As a result people in the village suffer an abnormally high rate of bone and dental deformities.

Officials in the Punjab refused to comment, despite repeated requests by the news agency.

Air

According to a World Bank report, the urban air pollution in Pakistan is among the worst in the world.

Food

In his column in Dawn, Javed Jabbar says that About 44 percent of Pakistani children are reliably estimated by the Unicef to be suffering from malnutrition.

What are politicians doing?

Nothing.

Given all these myriad issues requiring urgent attention, the government and the politicians appear to be concentrating on nothing but power politics, and supporting what and whoever, for no other reason than building numbers.

Non-governmental contribution to Pakistan.

The positives are the private contribution to Pakistan. The Citizens Foundation and many other smaller groups have made huge contributions to education. Private hospitals provide a much higher quality of health care and often free services to the poor in a country where the bulk of the population lives well under the poverty line. At the villages that are most acutely affected by arsenic poisoning, it is a private charity that provides safe drinking water for the residents, while at the time the report was compiled a government plant for clean water was still in the process of being built, although the problem had been known for almost a decade.

The organisations working for women’s welfare in Pakistan are all Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), The Aurat Foundation, Tehreek-e-Niswan, Shirkat Gah, and others.

The Burns Ward at Mayo Hospital is privately funded, as is a Home for the Elderly in Lahore.

And of course, there is the Edhi Foundation, which clinches the argument.

Javed Jabbar in his column also suggests that ‘The July 2018 elections afford an opportunity to citizens and political parties to prioritise the provision of adequate food to the people, alongside critical issues of enhanced access to family planning services and innovative approaches to primary school education.’

So yes, elections are coming up.

What does it matter which party comes into power, there is little to choose between them. Still, it is hoped that the voting criteria for most rational individuals will be to support whoever acts in the genuine interest of the nation.

And who is that, exactly, if anyone?

NO LONGER GREAT PEOPLE TO FLY WITH

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/08/no-longer-great-people-to-fly-with/

• Scenarios that could easily take place in Pakistan

In December 2004, a massive tsunami caused the death of 62,000 people in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. If even one of these countries had had a viable warning system and an evacuation plan, these deaths could have been prevented, but they did not. A few years prior to 2004, a meteorologist in Thailand had warned of such a disaster. He recommended that all new hotels should be set back from the beach and be provided with sirens in case of an expected event. Instead of taking his suggestions seriously, he was moved away from his position and his suggestions were not implemented, just as people who take a stand are dealt with in Pakistan.

The Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal was built in 1969, in a densely populated area. In 1984 MIC, a lethal gas leaked from one of its tanks and exploded, killing at least 3,800 people immediately, leaving another 150,000 persons disabled. Eventually the death toll went up to 20,000, and the city still has a high rate of spontaneous abortions. After the explosion the facility was simply abandoned, and children still play on the poisoned ground, as children all over Pakistan play in trash dumps.

This tragedy took place for reasons that were entirely preventable. Some pressure gauges were missing, some malfunctioning, and in ways that are so familiar to anyone who has lived in Pakistan, the operators ignored the readings on the gauges that worked. Before the explosion, when the control room filled with gas, the operators might have been able to do something to save the situation. But they had no oxygen masks, so they had to run for their lives. None of the safety systems worked, and the number of persons in the work and maintenance crews had been cut down and was insufficient anyway. Parts were missing and had not been replaced, cooling systems had been shut off to save money. Warning systems, where available, failed to work, and some sirens had been turned off to prevent the inconvenience of false alarms. The people working at the plant were ill-trained, and several of the instructions were written in English, when the people were able to read Hindi only. A familiar scenario.

Chernobyl in Russia in 1986 became a synonym for nuclear tragedy, but there was another nuclear facility at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, US, that fell just short of Chernobyl

Chernobyl in Russia in 1986 became a synonym for nuclear tragedy, but there was another nuclear facility at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, US, that fell just short of Chernobyl. Safety systems did not kick in at Pennsylvania either, but operators took measures at the last minute and prevented disaster. In the meantime, thousands of people fled the area amid general hysteria.

The residents of Chernobyl were not as lucky. Kiev was demanding more powers. Workers, under pressure, ignored warnings, made mistakes, and used a less experienced team to run crucial tests. The reactor exploded less than a minute after a test had begun. Millions of people had to be evacuated, and over the years thousands died of thyroid cancer, a direct consequence of the explosion. Farmland became unusable, and birth defects stemming from radioactivity are still high. The pollution spread as far as Wales, Scandinavia and Germany. It will take about two hundred years to counteract the ill-effects on the environment.

These are only some examples from around the world. There are thousands more that could easily take place in Pakistan, God forbid, because Pakistan, too, possesses several commercial nuclear plants and chemical factories, and the level of management in Pakistan is as abysmal. As for tsunamis, a few years ago a newspaper reported that ‘Four years after a tsunami left some 150,000 people dead or missing in South Asia, Karachi remains at risk of killer waves due to a lack of coordination between the district, provincial and national disaster management authorities, even though the meteorological department has implemented a land-based tsunami early warning system.’

No surprises there.

Four nuclear power plants are operational in Pakistan and construction has begun on two more in Sindh, due to be completed by 2020. Pakistan has long had contracts with China for cooperation in nuclear technology. In 2020 a further two Chinese nuclear reactors are due for completion in Muzaffargarh. The site is currently being prepared. Which brings one to CPEC.

Given our experience with the East India Company, CPEC makes one wince in discomfort. Whether or not that feeling is justified is still to be seen. But with or without CPEC, the people and government of Pakistan have proved to be their own worst enemies. Mind-boggling mismanagement at the Pakistan Steel Mills and the national airline come to mind, although mismanagement exists everywhere, at every level. It remains that PIA are no longer great people to fly with, which believe it or not, they once were.

Education in this country stresses ill-considered shortcuts with no rational backing, rather than understanding and judicious planning, making Pakistan a country not to be trusted with nuclear power plants or chemical factories for now.

Unless the focus of the people of this country can be raised from the mere ability to exist, unless a system of accountability makes it a punishable offence to ignore safety procedures and take dangerous shortcuts, and unless that accountability is enforced, Pakistan will remain incapable of handling dangerous facilities that require meticulous maintenance and training of personnel. Time and again it all comes back to education and poverty, the lack of the first and the all-pervasive existence of the latter.

WHAT ABOUT YOU, AND ME, AND MY GRANDMOTHER?

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/05/01/what-about-you-and-me-and-my-grandmother/

• Will you, CM?

A few days ago, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Saqib Nisar ordered the withdrawal of unauthorised security deployed throughout the country. He ordered it quite out of the blue as he does. It turned out then (although we all knew it, really) that in the Punjab alone, 4,610 police personnel were being used, illegally, to provide unauthorised security for politicians, civil administrative and police officers, judges, lawyers, and media figures. These security personnel have now been withdrawn, at least until there is an opportunity to sneak them back again.

The rest of us of never did have security, and we continue to have none. And why not? What about me? And you? And my grandmother?

Naturally, the order to withdraw that security has not gone down well (was it the CJP’s job to give that order though?), and the many people suddenly bereaved of the style and superiority that armed guards confer, are not happy. An MPA belonging to the PML-N, Rana Jamil, in fact created a kerfuffle in the Punjab Assembly, which place is quite used to its sessions being used to defend everyone except the people it is supposed to defend. The MPA said he was kidnapped once (he and the rest of the country), and was only released because of the personal efforts of the chief minister. What! When my grandmother was kidnapped her kidnappers just let her go because she was too noisy. I didn’t see the CM making any personal efforts on her behalf.

The MPA went on to say that if anything happens to him and the rest of his family, he will hold the CJP responsible, and will file a report against the CJP himself.

It seems therefore that people other than the MPA from the Punjab are being kidnapped too. Surely their families are entitled to security in addition to the family of Rana Jamil?

Now that’s interesting. Is it possible to hold the CJP responsible if the security was illegal to begin with? The fact that the erstwhile security was illegal and unauthorised clearly does not count as far as Rana Jamil is concerned. What counts is that as an MPA he feels he deserves greater security, authorised or not, than anyone in the country can lay claim to.

Why can’t I have security too then, if he can? I’m not authorised to have it, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Or why can’t you have it? Or my grandmother?

Shouldn’t the MPA, and all those other people who have been using the taxpayers’ money illegally, be penalised for breaking the law? What happened to Sadiq and Ameen in this case, or is that only selectively applied?

Meantime, in Sind, a citizen residing in New Town has apparently been abducted, in just one example of thousands of such cases. The police in the area seems not to have taken any action following the event because it was necessary for the Inspector General of Police of Sindh to ‘direct the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) East to submit an inquiry report in this regard as soon as possible,’ and for him to direct that an investigation team be formed to recover the citizen at the earliest, adding that ‘measures should be taken for the safety of the affected family.’ That of course implies that had he not issued those orders, nothing would have been done.

Once again, what about the rest of us? Why did no one direct that measures be taken to ensure safety for us too? For me? And you? And my grandmother?

Earlier this year there was a hearing in the Supreme Court regarding all those thousands of missing persons in this country. There is in fact a Commission of Enquiry of Enforced Disappearance in existence. And an NGO, called Defence of Human Rights — which tries to locate missing persons. The chairperson of this NGO said that the Commission was ignoring their communications, that their documents concerning the matter were being returned by the post.

“There is no let-up in the cases of missing people,” she remarked. “In fact, these cases are increasing by the day.”

It seems therefore that people other than the MPA from the Punjab are being kidnapped too. Surely their families are entitled to security in addition to the family of Rana Jamil?

The Commission of Enquiry of Enforced Disappearances has disclosed that it has dealt with 3,000 cases of disappearances, while 1,577 were still pending.

Meantime one of the judges regretted the parents of the missing persons were having to face all kinds of problems, such as this, in their old age.

So, clearly, there is no recourse to justice, except regrets if you, or I, or my grandmother go missing. Unless of course we make enough fuss in the Assembly, the law go hang, and the CM makes a personal effort to recover us.

Will you, CM?