STOP BREATHING

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/11/13/158095/

Lahore has been rated the most polluted city in the world with an Air Quality Index (AQI) touching 500 and more. That means the very act of taking breath in this city is hazardous to health, and Karachi is not far behind on the scale.

It is such a sad state of affairs that even the Punjab government has taken note of matters as they stand and declared the situation to be a crisis. Unfortunately, that is all it seems to have done so far.

Of course, it is not just the air one breathes that is hazardous to health in this country, it is also the water one drinks and several other things including the traffic on the roads, all things that one encounters every day and cannot stay away from.

The major reasons behind the pollution are the fuels that are burnt in factories (plastics are used as fuel by some), and the amount of pollution being spewed into the air by the many brick kilns. The major factor, however, has to be the fumes emitted by vehicles on the roads, and of course the crop burning that takes place in the Punjab, the agricultural giant of Pakistan– and therefore one of its greatest polluters.

This ‘crop burning’ takes place after a crop is harvested and the stubble is left behind in the fields. This stubble can be removed by machine, or by hand, or it can be allowed to remain where it is. Removing it by hand is obviously not an easy process. If the stubble is allowed to remain where it is, it disintegrates in time into the soil, in the process returning some nutrients for the following crop. This is the easiest and cheapest solution, and the one that gives the best results. The third solution is to turn the soil by machine to bury the stubble back into the soil – a process that would again put back some nutrients. But this is an expensive process.If this option is selected, machines exist that can make it happen, some cheaper than others, yet still too expensive for the average farmer. This is where the government can step in and provide these machines to do the job at a subsidized rate where required.

It is obvious that farmers in Pakistan lack the information to do their job effectively, they are unaware of the pros and cons of the various measures, and unable to evaluate their options, so they generally choose to burn the stubble, causing a blanket of carbon-laden smoke to cover the region, which coupled with the other pollutants in the air is responsible for our elevated AQ Index. This is another place where the government can step in; indeed it must, to ensure that farmers are educated in the best way of doing their job… not by those with an interest in selling their products, but by means of some genuine trainers in the field. They must also ensure that crop burning is brought to an end, by penalising all who attempt to do so, without discrimination.

There are some factors that have always prevented this country from making much progress, and will always prevent it from doing so, as long as they exist. One is the habit of invariably pointing a finger at someone else, and ignoring one’s own role in any given problem. It pleases the people of this country therefore to point a finger at India, which shares this practice of crop burning, despite all arguments indicating our equal share in the problem. It has been pointed out that the wind direction almost throughout the year is north to south, at other times it is west to east. It is only for a short time every year that winds come from India in the East to Pakistan in the West, and yet, judging by the comments in any article and column in the newspaper, everything is always India’s fault, or the fault of the political party other than one’s favoured one, or the fault of some mysterious Western mafia.

The other roadblock in the way of progress is the tendency of the wealthier classes to use their power and money to exempt themselves from all rules by greasing relevant palms. Seeing that it is this class that owns the most land, and this class that owns the most kilns, factories and cars, it is easy to see what this argument refers to and where it leads. The habit of accepting pay-offs pervades every aspect of society, at every level.

Unless these matters are tackled and brought to an end, Pakistan might make a few dazzling malls, it might have become a nuclear power, it might posture and try to figure as a voice to be reckoned with in various matters; but this is no progress, and with this alone Pakistan will never amount to more than what it is at present, and that is nothing much at all.

One of the actions that could make a difference is take stock of those in control, and since this is about the environment, it is an idea to look at the people in charge there.

The person in charge of the environment, who has been in charge for a while now, is another one who considers India predominantly responsible for the smog in the region, and what is far more incredible, has been reported as saying that the smog is fake news, spread by those with vested interests.

She is not alone in being ill-equipped or uninterested in the job that has been entrusted to her

INDIA TAKING THE KNEE? REALLY?

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/11/07/india-taking-the-knee-really/

AND PAKISTAN CHIMING IN? 

Before its match against Pakistan began on 24 October, the Indian cricket team ‘took the knee’ on the field, in what is by now an internationally recognised gesture against racism. The Pakistani team expressed their support of this gesture by placing their hands across their chest, à la Ertugrul Gazi.

The gesture has been received with raised eyebrows, given India’s human rights violations, against Kashmiris, and against Muslims, and because of verbal attacks on Mohammad Shami, the only Muslim player in the Indian team, after the match.

Referring to this event, Andrew Bolt of Sky News recently spoke about how India should fix its own record before making grand international statements against racism. He was speaking specifically about India’s caste system, in which Brahmins have the upper hand, followed by others on a descending scale ending last of all in the untouchable class composed of the Shudras and the Dalits, whose lives are a dreadful tale of survival despite discrimination.

There must be several people on both teams, let us presume all of them, who have their hearts in the right place with regards to racism. Neither team had much choice in making this gesture. It has been said that the Indian team did what they did upon instructions from the Board that manages the event at their end. And the Pakistani team understandably had to chime in.

Be that as it may, what concerns us is the Pakistani team and its support of the anti-racist sentiment.

Any country’s national team, even if it is a sports team, represents the country, which means it represents what the country stands for, so the question arises: does Pakistan stand for racial equality?

Certainly, given the political rhetoric against India in this country, you would imagine that Pakistan itself is free of racism. That would be a highly erroneous perception. It does not, despite its constitution, despite the religion of the majority of its people, and despite the image it likes to project.

The foundation of Pakistan and its people being free to go to their temples, mosques, or other places of worship has long since been overridden by certain amendments. That brings one to the religion.

The majority of Pakistanis claim to be Muslim, a religion that at its inception made a gift of freedom against racism and any kind of bigotry to all humanity. And yet, here in Pakistan, that gift has in effect been thrown back into the hands that gave it.

In Pakistan, other forms of racism aside, the caste system is alive and thriving. Conveniently cloaked in terms such as ‘brotherhood’ (baradari), it is difficult to see how the caste system in the Punjab, consisting of Rajputs, Arains, Dogars, Butts, Bhattis and all that bull differs to the caste system among Hindus. People who number themselves as one or other of these ‘castes’ often have the fact written across their cars, and tend to prefer to marry someone from the same caste as themselves. As for Syeds, that is another ball game, hilarious if it weren’t so dreadful, and so belittling of him from whom members of the caste proudly claim descent. The people who bestow that title upon themselves often, (there are as always many exceptions) prefer to marry only within themselves, and yet DNA tests conducted upon some of them in the sub-continent indicate that they have no connection with any Arab, let alone any particular person hailing from that region. And even if they did, if the supposed head of that family held no illusions of superiority for his family or himself based on that lineage, if indeed he condemned such things, nothing justifies the existence of that illusion among many of his so-called descendants.

Far from the government making the slightest move to change this mindset, the land documents issued by the government of Punjab require a person to state his or her caste. If this isn’t racism, our Interior Minister is a level-headed man.

One can name many shameful incidents, such as those against Pakistan’s minorities, the Christians, the Hazara, the Shias and the Ahmadis.

Let us never forget the Christian colony that was burnt down by a rabid mob, and the Christian couple that was burnt alive in a kiln, or the fact that our Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam was drummed out of the country because he belonged to a much-persecuted, discriminated against community, even by law. Just, you know, as Muslims are discriminated against in India, because they belong to the community they belong to, a discrimination our government and people protest vociferously against.

And most recently, there was the case of the Ahmadi student who was expelled from the University that had given him admission on a minority quota.

Mind you, this was not the first case. In 2008 23 students were expelled from a college in the Punjab. Not for any misdeed, but because they happened to belonge to the Ahmadiyya community. And that took place less than a month after the National Assembly of Pakistan reaffirmed its commitment to uphold the interests and rights of all minorities within the country in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The most recent incident mentioned above took place this month, when the Bahauddin Zakaria University located in Multan suspended a young man’s admission without informing him or giving a reason for the suspension. It was a relief when the Lahore High Court set aside the decision, saying that it ‘amounted to persecuting the already persecuted.’ One would like to know if any measures are planned against those responsible for these actions in the University.

These events mentioned above are only a very few of the racist acts that take place in Pakistan, acts that bring shame upon all Pakistanis, and upon all those who call themselves Muslim, human or decent.

So, what makes us think we can place our hands over our hearts and make a statement against racism? What allows us to condemn India as our people and politicians have been doing, as a matter of course as well as following the cricket match?  And just what allows us to point fingers at racism when it takes place anywhere else in the world?

THE QUESTION OF WHODUNIT

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/10/16/the-question-of-whodunit/

Forensic medicine, which is the application of medical science to criminal investigation, is a fascinating field, and one of its most vital aspects is employing DNA to identify those involved in crime, particularly in cases of assault and death. It is a technology that has been in use since 1986, and then, in that first case it was responsible for proving that someone had not committed a murder.

The first time DNA evidence led to a conviction was in 1987 in the UK, and in the USA In 1992 two other DNA analyses led to a conviction and an exoneration. This technology is now used throughout the world, and some countries have set up databases so that when a crime is committed the DNA samples recovered from the scene can be compared with samples belonging to known offenders existing on the database, while a search is conducted for other persons potentially involved.

The rules, such as those of sanitization surrounding the collection of these samples are vital, and stringent.  In other words, success greatly depends upon the care with which this technology is used. The same applies to many other things. It can be dangerous for example to eat food or medicines that have been improperly stored, and plants sicken or die if housed under inappropriate conditions, as do animals and humans. There have been innumerable cases where surgery has gone badly wrong because of ineptitude, carelessness, or inattention to hygiene. We still have surgery, despite this, because if it provides the only chance of recovery, not having it would greatly increase the odds against survival.

So, coming back to Pakistan and the use of DNA as evidence here, the case of gang-rape at the Mazar-e-Quaid immediately comes to mind. In this re-trial of the case registered in 2008, the judge in his verdict stated that: ‘the evidentiary value of a DNA test is not acceptable in a case falling under the penal provisions of zina punishable under the Hudood laws, which had its own “standard of proof.”

In short, DNA evidence was not accepted in this re-trial of the three accused men accused of the crime.

It is important to reiterate that The Hudood Ordinance does not accept DNA evidence, while Pakistan’s other legal stream, the PPC (Pakistan Penal Code), which is a colonial legacy, does accept such evidence.

An observation made in the verdict in this case was most interesting. It said that ‘The court pointed out that the clothes of the victim produced in court as evidence were not sealed.’

And that is probably one of the crucial points when assessing whether or not DNA evidence should be taken into account in Pakistan.

While DNA evidence is invaluable in determining responsibility in criminal cases, it can only be so when and if such evidence is obtained and stored in conformity with the guidelines. Even when the guidelines are followed it can still point, in a few cases, towards the wrong person. If those guidelines are not adhered to, that evidence would definitely be unacceptable.

This is the reason why some people wonder if using the Pfizer covid vaccine in Pakistan is a desirable option, given its stringent storage requirements of extremely low temperatures, since it is an unfortunate tendency in this country to ignore guidelines, a tendency fostered by ignorance, and in the case of storage requirements by Pakistan’s regular power breakdowns.

In the case of the evidence produced in this Mazar case, the clothes the victim wore at the time the incident took place were produced in court in a bag that was not sealed. Which means, that even if DNA samples were taken at the time, they stood a great chance of being contaminated by conditions if the bag was not sealed to make it impervious to them. It also means that these samples– clothes, with or without DNA evidence, could easily have been tampered with at any stage. So, even without the stipulations made by the Hudood Ordinance which were legally binding on the judge, it is worth considering whether or not to accept such evidence.

Science is an invaluable asset. It is also worth understanding that certain guidelines that were gifted to us are powerful reminders of the principles behind matters involved, so they should not and do not forbid better and newer methods. However, if there is a great chance that the methods are implemented incorrectly, as they very often are in Pakistan, should such methods be admissible? Or should we first ensure that attitudes towards guidelines first undergo a sea change?

WHEN THE ONLINE EXPERIENCE REPLACES REALITY

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/10/10/when-the-online-experience-replaces-reality/

When something gains such a massive presence in people’s lives as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have— as the entire being on-line experience has— it’s a good idea to be a bit wary and examine the phenomenon a bit more closely to see what effect it is having on us.

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social platforms with a billion users at a time when WhatsApp had two billion users, and Facebook two and a half billion and rising. So, few people would not know that these media platforms had a bad week recently, that not only did they shut down across the world, but that when they did come back, it took a while for them to run smoothly again. It seems in fact that even some Facebook employees were shut out of their offices, since their security cards would not function.

Even those who are not on one or all of these platforms would have heard about the outage from friends and family, and what they heard would have sounded as though they had been deprived of food and water, so important have these platforms become. If you’re addicted to Facebook for example, it is no relief to be forced to spend that time with anything else, not Tumblr, not Tik Tok, not Twitter. They’re no replacement.

For many people social media means entertainment alone, but for as many it stands for the ability to connect with friends and family, and view them and their lives in far-away places, in an age where friends and family are spread out all over the world. And now, during the pandemic, it means the ability to shop online since isolation has become a way of life for those who are able to keep themselves isolated. For businesses it has become a lifeline, particular now that fewer people are visiting shops and malls and other places of business.

But what lies in the online experience for children, who we see glued to the screen even more than adults?

It’s not just Facebook we are talking about, or Whatsapp or Instagram, it’s the entire online experience. Children these days go online for the fun of being there, for the ability to have someone to ‘play’ with without having to coax them to do so first.

Entertainment is available online for the asking so long as someone can access a screen. All those games where you shoot someone, run a race, almost anything you like. It is the place to be, also because online is where the adults are, and children have been copycats ever since humans were born.

Yet being glued to the screen for long periods for children is even worse than it is for adults, since it means that not only could they access all the wrong content, they are giving up active time to sit on a couch, necks bent, staring at something presented by someone else. No physical exercise, no imagination required, no creativity. It leads to obesity, eye strain, and problems with sleep.

One hears it all the time, but it’s a valid concern: there was a time when children played, using their hands and feet and the rest of their bodies, outside, in the fresh air. They jumped, and chased, and fell. They made stuff with their hands, and went camping and climbed trees. None of that is the case anymore. And the result is not good.

There are non-physical problems too.

Children who spend too much time in front of the screen are less able to handle reality, less able to handle social interaction, since their one aim when any human interaction takes place is to get back in front of that screen as soon as possible. They miss out on the give and take and become increasingly less able to pick up social cues. They are likely to become impatient, because they are used to instant solutions, and might be subject to depression when forced to spend time with other humans.

The onus now is on the parents to find a solution. Governments need to butt out of this matter. No amount of ‘banning’ and controlling as our authorities try to do, will prevent those who want to access something from accessing it. Our world is no longer a tiny, isolated space that can be controlled. It is parents who need to place curbs on how much time their children spend in front of the screen, parents who must provide their children with interests when they are not in front of it.

Children need attractive alternatives, activities and other creative things to compete with being online. Unless this is provided, we are set to be a nation of zombies, glued to a shining rectangle, and in the case of a predominantly illiterate nation a set of people with the ability to click but not to understand. The recent downtime for FB et al and the reaction to it should serve as a warning for what the consequences can be.

Social media and being online for work and play is here to stay. There is no way it can be pushed back into the box. The most we can do is regulate the amount of time we give it at home, and this must be done.

A DIRE NEED FOR PALLIATIVE CARE

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/10/02/the-dire-need-for-palliative-care/

It is time morphine was made available in hospitals for pain relief

“All of medicine, not just cadaver dissection, trespasses into sacred spheres. Doctors invade the body in every way imaginable. They see people at their most vulnerable, their most scared, their most private.”

Paul Kallanithi

Hospitals in Pakistan cater to most fields of medicine, cardiology, oncology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, but the crucial field of palliative care is sorely neglected, in fact it barely exists. It is said that the ratio of palliative services to population in Pakistan is 1:90 million, which is a staggeringly woeful picture.

What is palliative care?

Palliative care is the help offered to a patient when his or her disease no longer responds to curative treatment, in other words at a ‘terminal’ stage, where the disease is considered likely to lead to death. That is when palliative care and hospices are required.

Of all other fields of medicine, palliative care is the one that caters most holistically to a patient.

Palliative care includes non-medical care for the dying person, it caters to a person’s physical as well as emotional needs, such as providing religious facilities where required, addressing the patient and his family’s questions and concerns, and generally making that period of life as easy as possible.

Palliative care takes into account a person’s quality of life, and works towards making death as peaceful, as dignified and as painless as possible.

At a certain stage, such care is ideally provided in the patient’s home, when the role of the family takes on even greater importance, but that depends on the individual situation. In a poverty-stricken country like Pakistan this might not always be possible, therefore adequate facilities must be available in hospitals, and professional training, equipment, and personnel provided.

There are the usual set of people who say that death is not the concern of hospitals and medical professionals. Those are generally the people who also say that since it is God who determines the manner of death, everyone else should stay out of the matter. Again, these are generally the same people who fail to rationalize religion, who in fact imagine that reason contradicts faith.

God is certainly the one who determines the manner of death. However, if humans must stay out of that matter, then we should all also stop taking medications and going in for surgery, since ‘all of medicine trespasses into sacred spheres,’ yet no one expects this.

There are other misconceptions.

Palliative care is sometimes confused with euthanasia, when in fact these are two very different things. Euthanasia is the practice of actively ending a person’s life to minimize suffering. Palliative care does not end life, it strives to make the living easier and the ending – when it comes, less difficult.

Paul Kalanithi, an American neurosurgeon who opted to work in palliative care until he himself died of metastatic lung cancer, was 37 at the time of his death. His book on this subject, When Breath Becomes Air, is worth a read. Obviously, after a certain point Paul was unable to write himself, and then the tale was taken up by his wife. One of the most remarkable features of the book is her description of the way Paul dies. The quote at the head of this piece is taken from this book.

One of the most important requirements of palliative care is morphine, which is used to minimize pain and help the dying person move forward with the least possible suffering. Unfortunately, that is another misconception, that allowing morphine into mainstream medical care is the same as encouraging drug addiction. That is highly incorrect. To equate the two is like equating breathing polluted air with suicide. You need to prevent pollution, which would minimize deaths related to it. In the same way, the manner in which morphine is dispensed needs to be controlled, to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

Morphine, a crucial narcotic, is not available in Pakistan. At least not legally, not even in hospitals.

Morphine is an extract derived from the opium plant. Also made from the opium plant is heroin, which is used as an addictive substance.

It is time morphine was made available in hospitals for pain relief.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium. Its opium harvest accounts for 80 percent of the world supply. So now, instead of simply batting our eyes at the new Taliban leadership, authorities in Pakistan should look at importing opium, the most abundant and useful commodity produced in their country, instead of importing the Taliban brand of religion. And then to use this opium to make morphine, to help all who need this narcotic in this country.

Palliative care is probably a difficult concept for our authorities to understand, the fact of making death easy for its people, when they seem to find it so difficult to make it easy for them to live, but it is well to remember that we all have to experience death, which is an integral aspect of life, and not all of us can be airlifted to another country and treated in foreign hospitals when the time comes.

ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH vs MISWAK

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/18/electric-toothbrush-vs-miswak/

A letter addressed to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was recently leaked to the public. Iftikhar Khan has given the details of the matter and of the resulting furore in a National Daily.

It is known by now that NADRA wished to hire the ECP to develop an online voting system and electronic voting machines, for which it offered to pay a very large sum. The details are contained in a letter in which an outstanding factor is the language. You’d expect the commission that runs the national election system to express themselves significantly better than it does in that letter, but more importantly, you wonder why NADRA is paying the ECP to set up a voting system. Shouldn’t the ECP be worrying about that matter (as tf points out in the letter), since elections and all things related are their job? But perhaps the ECP has not managed to get its act together after all these years.

A slight digression at this point, to speak of a matter that should concern the ECP and which has to do with their ‘getting their act together’:

Local Government Elections in the Cantonment Boards were recently held in the country. In these elections the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) was defeated in several major cities. The Prime Minister was not pleased, and he has asked the PTI’s chief organizer and its Secretary General to find out why this happened.

There could be several reasons for this defeat, several come to mind, but one that comes to the forefront, personally, is a canvassing letter received from a PTI candidate prior to these elections, in which voting slips containing voters’ relevant information – ID card numbers, address, name etc., were clipped to the outside of the envelope, displaying all that information for anyone to read.

1. If a voter must elect someone to represent their interests, would a person capable of allowing the above be the right person? He would no doubt excuse himself by saying that he cannot be expected to keep an eye on every small detail and worker, in which case will he be able to do so when in office? After all, the Right to Privacy of Data and Information is a major concern, and even the Constitution of Pakistan grants that right to the citizens of the country. Pakistan is also signatory to several International Covenants, on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which both uphold the right to privacy, and to the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights which also upholds the right to privacy. A representative who is unable to prevent his department from committing such flagrant breaches of civil rights has a problem; maybe such ‘small’ things explain the PTI’s losses.
2. When an attempt was made to contact the ECP regarding this infringement of the right to privacy of data, it turned out that the ECP’s inbox was full. So much for that.

An online voting system and electronic machines are good ideas. But before we invest in expensive electric toothbrushes, it would be a good idea to get our heads around the concept of oral hygiene itself, to understand why it is important and how it works, and its impact on a person’s overall well-being. It might be a better idea to make the humble miswak work until an electric toothbrush is feasible.

For a society that has little idea about the importance of elections, and almost no idea about the rights of the electorate and the duties of the elected, an expensive voting system seems to be overkill.

In a democracy it is possible for any person who gains the majority vote to act as representative of the people, but perhaps there should be some scheme to educate these elected representatives before they take office, a scheme that teaches them about things that count and are more important than the salary, the prestige, flagged car, guards and such gimmicks and publicity. They need to know how to get the job done, for heaven’s sake, to have some idea of the basic laws of the country. The PTI has been outstanding in this matter, with the Chief Minister of a major province, personally appointed by the Prime Minister himself, being as clueless a person as any, with his patron often not far behind.  There are many other people’s representatives in the same league, persons who have abused, cursed and slapped their way through their tenure, and have lived to tell the tale without being removed from office.

It seems that politicians across the board ignore important things, and matters directly related to their job; they cross the floor when it suits them, pay attention to gimmicks alone, and spend valuable time bad-mouthing the opposition and little else.

The Minister of Railways for example, recently recommended that such institutions as the ECP should be “set ablaze,” a recommendation to arson, made at a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, no less.

In such an atmosphere, do we really need a voting system that costs Rs 2.4 billion, and voting machines that will most likely be kicked out of service, literally, when the predominantly uneducated populace of the country cannot get them to work? Or perhaps they will be set on fire, as recommended by the Minister for Railways himself?

It has been the ultimate tragedy for this country that there are so many obstacles in the way of accountability and justice. Some might say accountability and justice do not exist. That makes it hard to achieve any progress, or to justify spending money in ways such as the above. These roadblocks need to be addressed before anything else.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/12/enough-is-enough/

The Wazir Khan mosque case is disturbing

We believe religion to be a powerful thing, and it is; we believe it is meant for all time, and is looked after by the Divine Being Himself. The religion of Islam was handed down to man thanks to the extreme dedication and incalculable efforts of some extremely courageous individuals; in our hands it is meant to be a manual for life, for all humankind. Why then is the attempt to distort it, and make it accessible only with great difficulty, one of the greatest ambitions for so many humans? Should it not be accessible, so that everyone, Muslim, non-Muslim, men, women and children, they can all access it, easily, without first scrubbing between each toe, and heaven help you if you miss a corner?

For those who dispute the claim that it is inaccessible, check out almost any mosque in Pakistan to see how many women are allowed in. By contrast there are many mosques in the USA, notable among them a mosque in Virginia– and there are others around that country and the rest of the world, where that place of worship is used as a community centre as well as a place for prayer, as it should be.

Men, women and children visit that mosque in Virginia to learn languages, computers, and other subjects. Young people use the main hall as a basketball court, and when it is time for congregational prayers, these young people tidy up and leave the room, perform ablutions before returning, many of them, to join the congregation and pray. It would not otherwise be easy to get as many young people to put in an appearance at a mosque.

It is also not just men who pray here; women do too, although so as not to offend the sensibilities of those prone to take offence, they pray separately, in a gallery upstairs. Tolerance is one of the very important aspects of religion. The Imam of the mosque is a pleasant man. Women can obtain an audience with him just as much as men can, and neither need to make changes to their attire when they do. This is a mosque that would attract followers, a mosque that can achieve much.

This rant was kicked in motion by the criticism leveled at, and even an arrest warrant (a bailable one) issued against a couple of actors and singers who filmed a video in the beautiful Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore. They have been accused of  ‘desecrating this mosque.’

The Wazir Khan Mosque is a heritage building, a beautiful one, built nearly 500 years ago. It was recently restored by the Aga Khan Foundation and the Norwegian Embassy. What is wrong with using this as a background for a video, the theme of which is nothing offensive, if making it does not disrupt congregational prayers? It is likely, in fact, that seeing this beautiful mosque in the background people will ask “where is this beautiful place?” and make a point to visit it when they are in Lahore.

\Religion needs to be taken out of the hands of those who exist with their heads in the sand. We live in a difficult world, one that was never very easy. To make it possible to exist in this world it is important to realise that women, humour, technology, laughter, literature – as well as crime, men, vulgarity and tragedy, they all stem from the same source, the same Divinity, the source of all pleasure and hardship. The hardship exists as a test for us, not a battle zone.

There were a couple of lines doing the rounds of social media recently which said: ‘Religion is what we do after the prayer is over.’ Doesn’t that make a great deal of sense?

Prayer reminds us of Him, the Being we pray to, and of what He wishes us to do, and He certainly does not wish us to kill, exclude, destroy and mock. His wishes, as stated in the Holy book are to welcome, help, include, love and be just with everyone, not just with one segment of society, or with the segment that can pay for it. Having prayed to Him, that is what we must seek to accomplish.

Instead of disapproving of a mosque being used as a background for a video, lets be happy that this beautiful place of worship was considered worth it. If that video contains dance and music, so be it. Laughter, eloquent movement, and beauty, these were all created by the same One Being. There is no inherent crime within any of these things.

Are we so weak and spineless that a video can make us change our convictions?

If one must condemn beauty and music, then let us examine the Wazir Khan Mosque itself. It is hardly an austere building. It is a beautiful mosque, a hymn to the Creator who is worshipped within its walls. If beauty is a crime, why was this mosque allowed? Why do maulvis perform nikahs at weddings where women wear beautiful clothing? At weddings where in fact, very often, too much is spent on that clothing and on those events to the point of vulgarity and waste, making such weddings almost a crime in a world where so many people lack the basics of life? That is the real desecration, is it not?

A mosque does not stand apart from the life around it. They are each part of each other. The must lend each other a hand. Similarly, religion is meant to be incorporated into one’s life, to help us deal with it, to be adapted around changing times keeping the main principals in view. That is the only way it can hold any meaning. We desperately need to take ours back from the hands into which it has fallen at present, where it is being strangled to death. We must stand up and say: Enough.

A LIVER TRANSPLANT FOR AN ALCOHOLIC

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/04/a-liver-transplant-for-an-alcoholic/

Does the Single National Curriculum solve anything?

Last month, on the 16 August, the Prime Minister launched the first phase of the Single National Curriculum (SNC), which is supposed to ‘guide the youth of the nation in one direction to achieve success.’ It is said to be an important step towards providing the growing generation of Pakistanis an equal opportunity for a good quality education across the board.

This curriculum has apparently now been implemented from classes 1 to 5 across the country, except as yet in Sindh. It is planned to implement the SNC among the higher classes by stages. The directives that go with the SNC apparently include teaching certain subjects, including science, in Urdu.

As with so many other initiatives in this country, this is a ‘virtuous’ idea, but a sadly impractical one, not one likely to survive the initial zeal of its initiators; it is an initiative that provides great press at first glance, but is certain to share the fate of sundry other initiatives stemming from the same source, rather like the gymnast who decided to swing impressively from vine to vine in the jungle, in the same way as he swung on ropes in the gym, only to find that vines growing in the wild were less hospitable than the ropes in his gym, so he immediately lost interest and looked around for other interests to push.

The fact is that ‘equal opportunity’ is an unknown commodity in this country, where it seems to be the aim of most citizens to make sure that no such aberration gets off the ground. It is also a fact that simply plonking down a syllabus is not going to cut any ice. What we need, very badly, is an overhaul of the national brain, which seems to bank on inequality. Equality is not something our feudal systems and elitist society appreciate, nor something our begums look kindly upon. There is also the sad fact that equality, in Pakistan, where women are fighting for existence, invariably applies to men only.

It is unlikely that the private school system, which under the SNC is permitted to teach students extra material/books of their choice– but must also teach the SNC books, will take much notice of either that rule, or those books, always presuming that the SNC books are worth taking notice of. We cannot seriously imagine, that the parents of children who expect their progeny to gain admission in expensive universities will take the SNC seriously, or allow it to be used for very long, and we know who calls the shots. What is far more likely to happen is that since all schools are to be examined to ensure they are using the SNC, expensive private schools will teach it so as to ‘get it over with’, and then move on with their own system. The schools that do take the SNC seriously will become the ones to be mocked, and they would be the ones already suffering from that attitude. It will end up as the same gap with a few additions to contend with.

What with the disruptions due to the pandemic, the last thing children need is sudden changes, and further disruptions.

The good thing is that the SNC is to be implemented in all streams of education (Pubic, Private and Deeni Madaris); that latter is the best aspect of the whole venture.

The number of deeni madaris (religious seminaries/schools) in Pakistan rose sharply in the 1980s. These schools are particularly popular among the poorer segment of society, because in addition to providing literacy they also provide lodging, which includes food. These schools are the only option many parents have of providing a good meal and an education for their boys, a question of ‘one down, three more to go’, if they have four children to feed.

These religious seminaries teach little beyond their version of religious studies, which judging by what is seen when you pass the open door for some of them involves much rocking backwards and forwards sitting cross-legged at a low table. Apparently, a few also teach logic, philosophy and mathematics, with the aim of furthering the understanding of said religious subjects. It also appears that most militant extremists once attended these schools, as indicated by the profile of suicide bombers. The SNC can therefore only be an improvement as far as the curriculum there goes.

Is the SNC really likely to close or narrow the gap between the various systems of education in this country? Wouldn’t it be a better option not to mess with the ‘better’ education wherever found, and improve what is taught elsewhere?

The English language is a factor at the crux of this issue. It is indisputable that so long as one segment of society is taught in English, and the other poorly taught and in Urdu, ne’er the twain shall meet. But is for example teaching science in Urdu a rational alternative? Tell me, what do you call a telephone in Urdu? Or is there a word for Sodium Nitrate? Or pertussis, or syncope? According to maulana google, syncope in urdu means ‘hum ahangi’, which is translated into English as ‘harmony’. But that is not at all what syncope means in English, it means fainting or losing consciousness. So how do we propose to teach this subject in Urdu?

I know we are proud of the fact that the first doctors, chemists and astronomers were Muslim, but there is no such thing as a ‘Muslim language’; in Pakistan Urdu is the national language, yet only a small percentage of Pakistanis actually speak it; and what is equally of note is that Urdu has not kept up with the developments in science.  Is there any point in teaching a subject in one language (that few people understand), loaded with words belonging to another?

What, moreover, do we do about those children who may have a single curriculum if they go to school, but who are unable to go to school, because they work? What do we do about people who employ children in their homes, factories and other businesses? What do we do about families that are unable to manage without the earnings of every single one of their members, and so their children work too instead of attending school, about parents who consider education to be overrated and a waste of time, about children who do not attend school because there is no school where they live?

Those are the issues to take care of before a thing such as the SNC can be implemented. It may have been set in place with the best will in the world, but that will tend not to last very long here. What do we do about this?

Just as sufferers of cirrhosis of the liver are never given a liver transplant if they continue to be alcoholic, the people of Pakistan are desperately in need of education, and a better one, but there is little point in going through the expense of putting a new one in place if it is almost certain to be rejected before long.

- A

CONTROLLED BY A SPECTRE

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/08/22/controlled-by-a-spectre/

Ever since its inception figures in authority have used the spectre of India to scare the bejesus out of the people of this country. It is high time we realised that the problem lies not with India but with us.

According to Forbes, ever since 9/11, the US has spent more than $2 trillion against Afghanistan. That is $300 million a day, every day, for two decades.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports in 2020 that India’s military budget was the third largest in the world behind the USA and China. About Pakistan, SIPRI reports says its military expenditure has gone up to reach $10.3 billion.

What have any of these countries achieved against their targets?

Pakistani society is mired in values that are in dire need of change. Its tribal areas in the north and Baluchistan are where militants have the greatest support, where women are most oppressed, where education has suffered much more than anywhere else, and all else is affected as a result. The reason behind this support for militants is probably the myopic, patriarchal structure of these societies that view change as a threat to their existence. As a result, the regressive, so-called religious views of militants are welcomed, and there is of course the fact that many of them hail from these regions.

It is not as if things are any different elsewhere in the country.

Why, when it is these attitudes that need to be changed are we so focused on some indeterminate threat from across the border?

India cannot be ignored, of course. We have had several wars with our neighbour, and border skirmishes take place on a regular basis. But it must be borne in mind that the society across the border is little different to ours, it contains almost as many uneducated minds, as much poverty, just as much religious bigotry and the same degree of religious intolerance. Why, instead of following the same route do we not try to follow another that is more likely to lead us down safer paths, down avenues where our people can discover their strengths, and actually make progress? Why cannot we adopt a rational policy towards our neighbour instead of one reminiscent of the belligerent hero of a Punjabi movie?

It is a crime to spend what money Pakistan possesses on beating the drums of war. That money needs to be spent on measures that will lead to greater, deeper, more long-lasting change. Measures such as education.

According to statistics gathered in 2017, Pakistan’s total literacy rate was then just around 59 percent. That means that half the people of this country cannot read. They cannot read their names, their history, a summary of their goals, or tot up their financial records. That means that almost half the people of this country can be led by the nose to believe just about anything, even something that is far from reality and far from their interests.

The figures also indicate that just 47 percent of the women of this country are literate. It means that more than half of those who nurture this country’s future lack what it takes to turn them into thinking, informed individuals; they are unable to impart to their children the knowledge that literacy is able to provide, because they are unable to decipher the alphabet themselves, unable to read to their children or teach them to read.

The fact that only about 71 percent of men too are literate serves to underline the attitudes prevalent in society, where it is considered more important to care for and educate one gender at the expense of the other, where one gender is more privileged than the other.

The figures gathered in 2017 indicate that far from narrowing, this gap has been growing at a steady pace.

It is past time we recognise the importance of social change versus war. If this country fails to recognise this, then nothing can rescue this nation from the pit into which it is sinking deeper by the day, and war – which is meant to be a last resort when all else fails, will further destroy us.

Our funds must go to support education on an urgent footing, much like a war effort, only this war would be fought against ignorance. We need schools that actually exist, not just on paper, and teachers that really teach rather than simply draw a salary.

They must go towards controlling a population that has already outstripped its resources, a population the size of which should be controlled before it outstrips those resources beyond redemption.

Funds should go towards changing the mindset that says that population control is unGodly, that says that education is unnecessary, or only for males. A mindset that considers it acceptable to attack women physically and verbally, that considers women to be fair game, to tease, ridicule or control.

They should go towards providing justice and accountability, to raising an awareness against the vulgarity, display and ostentation that plagues our society.

Not until these things are achieved will the people of Pakistan be able find a secure footing, both within their country and in a world where societies like that of the Scandinavian countries have progressed so much, and provided their people with what is rightfully theirs, with what is their due. Let’s choose our priorities and aspirations carefully before it is too late.

THE CULT CULTURE

 https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8105796839443061496/3980351365977412465

Will the Taliban cult gain recruits here?

A cult is a group whose members share one or several ideas, ideas which may be based on a certain interpretation of religion, spiritualism or philosophy, or a belief in a particular goal or personality. A study of specific cults or the phenomenon in general is interesting, and has been of great interest to sociologists.

The word ‘cult’ reminds one straight away of the Manson Family, or the Rajneesh Movement, but these are just some of the better-known cults, whose members included some people who were in the public eye, for example Bernard Levin, Parveen Babi, Mahesh Bhatt, Terence Stamp, Arianna Huffington, Vinod Khanna, Prince Welf Ernest of Hanover… associated with the Rajneesh cult; and Sharon Tate, Phil Kaufman, Deanna Martin (daughter of Dean Martin), and Squeaky Fromme (who attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford), associated with the Manson Family.

There are both religious and secular cults out there, and even anti-cult cults, destructive cults, political cults, doomsday cults, polygamist, racist, and terrorist cults– and others, all over the world. Why do they occur? Why, in some cases, do they attract so many followers? And what can be done to prevent people from joining the harmful ones among them?

Cults are attractive because they present an illusion of peace and comfort (which are often overlapping states) by promising things that are rarely attainable by the means suggested by the cult. For example, you have to work for peace. You cannot attain it, inner or outer, by means of violence, or meditation. As for comfort, people who have the means, those who are relatively well off, they do not lack comfort in their lives. That means that it is predominantly those who yearn for it because they do not have it who are most attracted to cults which offer some version of comfort that could be attained by means such as violence, sex, drugs… Some cults also create the illusion that comfort is possible regardless of one’s finances– which it can be to an extent but not to the extent that it is promised.

Cults satisfy the human desire for definite answers, by compartmentalizing things, events and people as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ rather like Snowball’s summary of the difference between animals and humans, in Animal Farm: ‘Four legs good, two legs bad.’ Simple. The problem is that life is not as black as white, and answers to problems can only be attained by means of reasoning, and a certain amount of education. So, once again, it is the uneducated who are more drawn to such conclusions.

Cults are even more attractive to people with low self-esteem, who may yearn to belong to a group, have friends, be accepted, or be involved in something ‘big’. A result-oriented educational system that does not cater to the individual is likely to give rise to many adults with low self-esteem.

Cults are made particularly attractive for potential or new recruits, who are surrounded by a very deliberate and flattering response to their presence, in an attempt to lure them in, regardless of academic performance, financial status or appearance. How many organisations in any society can boast such a thing?

Members generally do not realise that this friendly, exciting thing that they signed up for, this group that holds out so many promises and has suddenly provided them with a feeling of belonging and many friends and colleagues, is actually a cult.

Cults promote an ‘us versus them’ mentality, which is already a major factor in societies like ours where the huge gulf between the haves and have-nots promotes this attitude. They’d have no problem at all gaining recruits here.

It is easier to join a cult than to leave it. Penalties for trying to leave one can include death for the person and his family. This grim fact can help the organisation achieve a frightening sort of power that is attractive to some people.

Many cults are able to provide the excitement that is so craved by young people, not very different to what must have been experienced by the band of Scarlet Pimpernel followers.

Cult leaders are good at mind control, and possess the ability to get people to do exactly what they want. They are masters at enticement, promising what might be completely unrealistic, making it appear within easy reach. They are also good at self-projection, often projecting an image that is powerful, and quite unlike reality. One of Manson’s followers for example said later on that Manson never had to say that he was Jesus. It was just ‘obvious’ that he was the closest to Jesus that this follower would ever witness on earth.

So, here’s a profile of those who are likely to be attracted to cults. It may be something of a generalization but it’s likely to be not too far from the truth.

Most people who are attracted to a quick, often militant, extremist solution to the ills of the world and for their own problems are likely to be those who are not given to rational introspection, who perhaps have little time for it, and although there are many exceptions, who are less educated. These would be people who have learnt the hard way that striving and hard-work does not pay.

They are willing to give up their comfort zone, perhaps because there ain’t much of it anyway, and because they find that it gives them a sense of purpose to take up arms for a given cause. The sense of belonging and adventure that goes with the undertaking proposed by the militant extremist group might also make life worth living for them. They are willing to take by any means what they consider to be rightfully theirs. And because cult leaders excel at holding out elaborate promises, we have the promise of paradise and all its lures, reachable by some extreme short-cuts. It sure beats a life-time of being on one’s best behaviour.

It may seem as though we in Pakistan are relatively free from cult culture, but that is not true. With the militant extremists gaining power in Afghanistan as rapidly as they have done, we would do well to worry. Very much.

It is unrealistic to ascribe the ascent to power by the extremists in Afghanistan to violent means alone. There is after all the question of where the manpower to wield those arms comes from. And now that they are close to gaining Kabul, we in Pakistan must realise who our real adversaries are, and they are yet another powerful cult, and ours is a culture very much attracted to power and cults.

There is a large segment of society attracted to militant extremism in Pakistan. It is important to pay attention to why that is so. And to the solutions, which have little to do with armed intervention.

Some suggested solutions would be a more widespread and better education, and more facilities for the young where they can participate in activities and expend their energy, both mental and physical. A big aspect is to provide them with a better, more rational approach to religion. And a society in which hard work pays off, even in the absence of ‘contacts’ in important places. A society in which there is no compulsion to bribe, extort, and fight for what is rightfully yours.

IS THIS HOW IT SHOULD BE?

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/08/07/is-this-how-it-should-be/

When the poor suffer, it's par for the course; when the rich suffer, it's a tragedy.

If you are a woman living in Pakistan, it might be an idea to brush up on a spot of self-defense. We are all familiar with the reasons, which are borne out by a survey conducted about three years ago by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. That survey concluded that Pakistan is the sixth most dangerous country in the world for women, with India the first, and the USA the tenth.

These results should not come as a surprise for a country with a regional history of ‘honour killings’ (it is high time that phrase was changed) dating back thousands of years, a practice that thrives to this day.  These ‘honour killings,’ as a result of which women, who are accused of adultery, are killed by the men of the family to maintain the family’s ‘honour’, are just one among the many forms of violence committed against women in Pakistan. In other forms, women are routinely abused, injured and killed, following domestic violence and rape.

The clerics seem to be making the situation worse in every way. There’s little point in enlarging on that theme. As for the Prime Minister of the country, he has had this to say regarding the prevalent attitude against women in this country: “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact, it will have an impact on the men, unless they’re robots.” The prime minister said, “I mean it’s common sense.”

It is not just the Prime Minister who holds such views although not everyone has such a penchant for speaking without first weighing their words; he also has liberal access to air-conditioned environments where he lives with his walking tent. No, this mindset is easily available across society where people believe that despite the heat, and despite the amount of work they must do, women must cover themselves from head to foot at all times– leaving men to go exactly where their lecherous minds take them.

There are thousands of such incidents against women that never make the news, and only a fraction that are prosecuted, and action is taken in another fraction of those.

It all starts pretty early in a woman’s life. To speak of a handful of recent cases, there was the case of a six-year-old girl who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed in Karachi last month. Her body was later found dumped in the garbage.

Also last month was the case of a little girl, a student of Class 8, who was abducted and sexually assaulted by a group of men in Rawalpindi. She, mercifully, was rescued.

And last month, a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped and assaulted for about three days, but she too was rescued.

There was also a 15-year-old girl raped in Toba Tek Singh in June, and in May there was the case of a bride being gangraped by four men in Multan.

Again, last month, a Filipina, who had come to Pakistan to earn some money, was raped in Lahore.

A young couple was stripped and assaulted by a man, with other men present in the room. A video was recorded showing this.

These are only some of the cases that made the news, and they took place within a period of two months. It is the tip of an iceberg that goes way down.

Some activists stand up on behalf of these abused women, prominent among them Asma Jehangir who is now no longer with us. The rest of society, much of it, condemns it, but it has become a way of life, something that a large segment of the country takes for granted: women are property and can be dealt with as the male segment of society wishes.

There are however some cases that catch the limelight. Such as the recent tragic, and terrible murder of Noor Mukadam, which hit the news and social media like a meteorite on fire. As it should. May God help her family in this time of extreme need.

There is no need to go into the details. The victim lost her life in circumstances which will never be forgotten. The thought of what her family must go through is painful beyond endurance. The person responsible for her murder should face justice.

The point of this column is that nothing speaks of the massive gulf that exists in this country as this tragic case does.

There is that huge segment of society, where hundreds if not more, every single year, women lose their lives to murderers, rapists and other predators such as male members of the family. A fraction of these cases make the news as pointed out above. The rest not only do not make the news they go unreported because of that sickening sentiment ‘Log kiya kahen gay’ (what will people say).

For the very, very small number of cases such as Noor’s, her awful fate made the news like only the cases of our ‘elite’ manage to do.

Why do other victims never get as much coverage? Why do they never produce as much outrage as this crime did, when in terms of tragedy they are all on a par with each other? Where are the processions, petitions and outrage on social media for them?

This outrage stems from a fraction of the literate segment of society, and you wish that this segment was equally outraged across the board.

One can live with one person getting away with affording a better sofa than the other, or getting a better higher education than another, but we are talking about a person’s life here. The life of a mother, a daughter or a sister. A human being who lived and breathed and loved and worked. One of God’s Creations.

Justice is meant to be blind. The law should apply across the board. But does it? People are concerned that when a person from a well-to-do family commits a crime, he or she gets away with it. They’re trying to prevent that from happening in this case. But how about when the victim is poor, destitute and friendless, perhaps old, or belonging to some other religion…and once again, poor.?

We need justice for such people in Pakistan too, but there doesn’t seem to be any…what is being done to change this?