THE POLIO STORY

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/08/29/the-polio-story/

While Covid-19 takes its toll in Pakistan; polio, the disease that has been around much longer, has made a comeback. The WHO also extended its travel restrictions to Pakistan earlier this year for the same reason.

Not that polio had ever gone. According to the WHO newsletter the number of cases of polio declined from 306 in 2014 to 54 in 2015, 20 in 2016, 8 in 2017, and just 12 in 2018. However, in 2019 the polio eradication programme witnessed a significant spread of the virus and reported 144 polio cases across all provinces. So far in 2020, 7 cases have been reported from various provinces.

And who knows how many are out there that have not come on record?

If that does not sound like too many, keep in mind that one infected person in turn infects around 200 others. It is crucial that this disease is entirely eliminated if we are to gain any kind of victory over the terrible disabilities it causes.

Pakistan and Nigeria are the only two countries in the world where polio remains a threat to the population. Those children and adults you see on the street with wasted, useless limbs, most of them are victims of this dreadful disease which once threatened the entire world.

Polio is caused by any one of three viruses, type 1, 2 and 3. All of them must be eradicated, in fact two of them virtually have been by means of vaccines. Once upon a time there was no vaccine to combat the disease, and although many people recovered from the infection, many did not. Those who did not became disabled for life and some of them died.

There was a polio pandemic in the early 1900s.

In 1955 the first polio vaccine developed by Dr Jonas Salk was used, and another developed by Dr Alfred Sabin was used in 1961. The world owes much to these two men.

By 1988, when it was estimated that 350,000 children around the world had fallen victim to polio, the WHO became one of the founding members of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative which organised mass vaccination against the disease around the world. Organised teams went from house to house dispensing polio drops to vaccinate children against the disease. It took the concerted effort of parents, the Rotary Club, political and religious leaders and organisations to bring the world to the stage where Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria remained the only three countries on earth with reported cases of polio. This year, Nigeria went off that list when Africa was declared polio-free. It now remains for Pakistan and Afghanistan to achieve what even the poorest countries in Africa have managed to do, free their people from this threat.

Unfortunately those very people who helped eradicate polio around the world hamper that achievement in Pakistan. Our leaders appear to be more interested in ‘nabbing’ each other and working towards re-election and their own self-interest than helping the people they were elected to serve. Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease which spreads person to person contact, via the faeco-oral route, and even by contaminated food and water. The neglected sewage systems in Pakistan’s cities, such as those that have led to large scale flooding in Karachi, are certain to lead to a greater incidence of this and other diseases. The virus has already been detected in these areas and in other areas where the water is contaminated.

As for religious leaders, they have, many of them, prevented this country from reaching several of its goals. The eradication of polio has sadly been just one of those goals.

Covid-19 has now added to the hindrances in the way of polio eradication because parents are wary of going to clinics and hospitals to have their children vaccinated, in areas where workers cannot visit, or in the case of families who prefer to visit their personal physician for the purpose.

A year ago today a terrorist commander in North Waziristan threatened women polio workers. He ordered them to stop doing their job or suffer the consequences. As a result more than 40 polio workers quit their job in that area. One of the reasons behind this suspicion is the fake vaccination programme funded by the CIA. That fake programme led to the discovery of Osama bin Laden in his hideout in Abbottabad, but it left behind a deep suspicion of such programmes in the minds of the local populace. That undercover action has since led to the death of workers, and of victims to polio.

There are other hindrances, such as if an area is not easily accessible. Pakistan has no shortage of such places. And then there is terrorism.

Aside from the incident in North Waziristan mentioned above, a couple of years ago two polio workers were killed and three others kidnapped in Mohmand Agency. Earlier this year in 2020 two polio workers were killed in Swabi. The reasons have been distrust of the vaccination based on traditional and religious biases.

Indeed it takes courage to take part in this programme in Pakistan, yet most of the polio workers are women.

The Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme newsletter applauds these workers, one of whom is a middle aged woman living and working in Karachi. She not only supervises the vaccinating teams but moves around on a large four-wheeler bike. You have to be a woman living in Pakistan to appreciate the courage it takes to do each of these things. She says she belongs to the area she works in, and because of this the people who live there, but belong mostly to the tribal areas of Pakistan and are distrustful of the vaccination programme for all the reasons given above, trust her and she is able to accomplish what a stranger might not have achieved.

We need to eradicate this disease from Pakistan. But like with most issues we need greater attention paid to the matter by the country’s leaders, a rational, aggressive, sustained and organised programme which needs to be supported by security agencies to protect those who are employed to do this job. We need greater funds so that these people can be better paid, and we must make sure that the vaccines that are being delivered are of a high standard. We also need education programmes that will allow the population to appreciate the terrible consequences of hindering these eradication programmes. Which government is willing to do this?

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/08/22/innocent-until-proven-guilty/

Social media─ informative, wide-ranging, crossing boundaries: both national and social; influential, entertaining, fast moving─ social media has brought about a change which little else aside from science can match. We now have instant access to every kind of information from every part of the world and this information influences our opinions and impacts our choices, political and social. We can communicate freely with the people of other countries, we can laugh in the midst of disaster at the antics of ‘covidiots’ or anything else that makes us laugh.

Yet the flipside is that this information we obtain may be unproven or even false, often enough. It may be manipulated and that too it often is either because the one who places the information online has not attempted to verify it, or because the incorrect information plays into the hands of the person who provides it.

The jokes on social media may be funny and lighten the mood, but they may also be cruel and hurtful to a group of persons.

Choices based on information provided by social media therefore stand a good chance of being flawed─ on the other hand they may not. Information provided by social media is no different to that disseminated by publications, but it is much more readily available, even for those who cannot read. We have yet to come up with talking newspapers outside of Harry Potter, but audio clips and videos on social media speak even to those unable or unwilling to read for whatever reason.

Information or misinformation, we now have the ability to pass it on it at the touch of a button, and oh man, does it get passed on… far and wide into places it would never have penetrated before. The information is simply there, right or wrong, which means that what would normally not have left the suburb, the city or at most the country is now available to anyone anywhere.

Everyone knows a great deal now about the American President for example, down to his shower-head preferences. We know about the best horror books and movies from around the world, and the fact that a 76 year old teacher from Malakand is looking to pursue higher studies. This huge cache of information has its own positive and negative side effects. Let’s take a look at one kind of information.

Geoffrey Rush was one of the luckier ones. The Australian actor, one of the few actors to have won an Academy, an Emmy and a Tony was accused by Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, of sexual harassment, of ‘behaving inappropriately towards a former theatre co-star.’ Following a case that declared Mr. Rush not guilty, he was awarded a defamation payout worth 2.9 million Australian dollars in recompense.

On the other hand the actor Jeremy Piven, one of the stars of the television show Entourage, was unable to withstand similar accusations which still hang over him.

Piven took lie detector tests which did not indicate he was lying. There was no case which proved him guilty, or otherwise.

Social media has given rise to movements such as ‘Me Too’ which is a dynamic and forceful effort against sexual harassment and sexual abuse ‘where people publicise allegations of sex crimes committed by power or prominent men.’

Piven has said about the ‘Me Too’ movement that it “puts lives in jeopardy without a hearing, due process or evidence”. Writing about this comment,  the British journalist Brendan O’Neill suggests that the presumption of innocence is being weakened by this movement.

So what is the presumption of innocence until proven guilty? This presumption is written into the constitution of almost all civilized nations today. It is also included in Talmudical and Islamic law, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 11 which states that “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.”

If one looks at the ‘Me Too’ Movement in this light it shows a few flaws. While it is a laudable effort and an empowering movement the fact remains that it accuses but does not attempt to prove.

This column is not about believing the accuser or the accused. It is about understanding that an accusation that is never proven remains just that: an accusation, and as such it hurts both the accuser and the accused. In Piven’s case, following the unproven accusations against him CBS ‘pulled the plug on Piven’s series Wisdom of the Crowd and the only jobs he tends to get are as a stand-up comedian.

Being the victim of sexual harassment is a terrible matter. Not to be able to speak of it, not to be able to defend oneself against it, the mere memory of it tears at the victim to the point of driving some to suicide. Yet, society that fails to support women also fails them when they are victims of harassment. Unless it is a case of rape in which case there might be DNA evidence, plain sexual harassment is hardly ever provable, not unless there are video records or public misogynistic statements by the accused. Or perhaps he might have a previous proven record, which still does not prove that he was at fault in another case but at least it indicates a predilection.

As for the victim, to accuse takes immense courage and is admirable, anywhere but particularly in this society where women face harassment as a matter of course, almost every day of their lives.

Yet an unproven accusation can rebound upon the accuser. You question the need for such an accusation when the accuser is aware that there is no proof.

There is at present the case of Ali Zafar and the accusations of sexual harassment made against him by several women. He is a man without a history of such behaviour or any incriminatory statements on record. The accusation remains what it is, an accusation. And he has just been awarded the Pride of Performance for his musical performance. If this award is withheld because of the accusation made against him─  which women’s rights activists are urging should be done─ it would be an injustice, and against the presumption of innocence under the law. There are instances of awards being taken away after being conferred. This can always ben done if necessary. Meantime, congratulations Mr. Zafar.

Please remember what was said above that this is not about believing the accuser or the accused.

At the end of the day it comes down to what the English jurist William Blackstone is quoted as saying, that “It is better than ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.”

It is therefore the responsibility of the State to ensure that attitudes toward women change, that they are much more respectful than they are. Pakistan lags far behind in this matter. For the State to ensure that it is possible for everyone including women to stand up for their rights, and to point out injustice when it is done to them. But above it is important that the law considers everyone innocent until proven guilty.

BACK IN THE BONDS WE WERE FREED FROM

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/08/15/back-in-the-bonds-we-were-freed-from/

Legend goes that there was once a small fishing settlement on the coast of the Arabian Sea. It was home to a community of fishermen and their families, one of them a fisherwoman named Kolachi. It is unknown whether Kolachi was born there, but she settled in that fishing settlement, started a family and in time the settlement was named Kolachi Jo Goth which in Sindhi, the language of the people of the area, means ‘The Village of Kolachi.’

Kolachi Jo Goth grew into a small walled city with two gates, Kharadar (salt gate) and Mithadar (sweet gate), referring to the seawater and freshwater that those gates faced. Under the British the gates were torn down in 1860. Even without the gates, however, the names Kharadar and Mithadar survived to identify those localities where the gates had been, at the core of a newer, larger city called Karachi.  Kolachi Jo Goth itself disappeared long ago.

A few hundred years later the city became home to another woman, this one born on 14 August 1947 in Bantava in the State of Gujarat now in India. Her name was Bilquis Bano. Later, her family moved to Karachi in Pakistan– the country that shared her date of birth.

Karachi had morphed into the capital of the province of Sindh, the largest city of Pakistan and its commercial hub. It is also now the seventh largest city in the world, but that is beside the point, except to stress the fact that Bilquis lived in this city which had a population of– at that time- over seven million.

Meantime Abul Sattar Edhi who was also born in Bantva lost his mother in 1947, the year Pakistan came into being. Edhi’s mother had encouraged him to be charitable ever since he was a small child by giving him one paisa to spend in school and another paisa to give in charity every single day. After her death Edhi and his family moved to Karachi. Edhi worked as a pedlar and sold clothes here until, in 1951, with donations from the Memon community to which he belonged, he laid the foundations of his philanthropic empire with The Edhi Trust, starting with a small dispensary in Mithadar in 1951. Whichever of those over seven million people needed its services, was free to avail of them as well as anyone from the rest of the country.

The dispensary grew and more nurses were needed. Edhi hired some. Bilquis Edhi was one of these nurses. She went through a six-month training programme to learn the basics of midwifery and healthcare, after which Edhi put her in charge of the nurses at the dispensary. He was not blind to her interest in her chosen profession, and her dedication to charity. She in turn admired him for his dedication and his faith. In time the two were married when she was just 17 and he about 20 years older. The couple was blessed with two sons and two daughters, and the country was blessed by their joint efforts to serve its people and to alleviate their misery.

The Edhis also set up the Edhi Foundation entirely funded by private donations, its goal to help anyone regardless of status, ethnicity or religion, and Edhi renamed his Trust the Bilquis Edhi Trust. Every single day of their existence the Trust and the Foundation set up by Edhi and run by him and his wife, and when he was ill by his wife and their children, has ‘made a difference and changed lives forever.’

The Foundation grew to include shelters for destitute women and children, dispensaries, food kitchens, a volunteer fleet of ambulances which is the largest in the world, rehab centres and other services. It also donates and helps wherever needed around the world. Bilquis Edhi and her husband were partners in these ventures every step of the way. They lived among the people they were helping, and dressed like them, not in a fancy house in an expensive neighbourhood.

In 1986 the Edhis were awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. The citation with the Award mentions how the Edhis took no government assistance, and no salary for their work, and lived a life of service to humanity in the true spirit of Islam.

And yet not everyone thought so.

Edhi was very often most severely criticized for his undiscriminating service to humanity, because he helped people regardless of who and what they were. He came under fire from terrorists as well as far-rightwing persons who felt this service should be restricted to Muslims alone. Some political figures resented his popularity too, and his selfless devotion to welfare. Edhi responded to all these by saying that ‘people had become more educated but not yet human,’ and he and his wife carried on with their work.

Abdul Sattar Edhi died in 2016 of renal failure. His last wish was for his organs to be donated; because he had been so ill however only his corneas were able to be donated.

His charitable organisations are now run by his wife Bilquis and his son Faisal.

Pakistan has therefore been blessed in many ways, by several men and women among whom the Edhis stand out prominently, people who serve humanity and make us proud to be Pakistani, Muslims and human beings. Unfortunately it has also been beset by problems that make us hang our heads in shame.

Independence day, the birth day of Pakistan as well as of Bilquis Edhi, is a good time for us to muse on both: on what Islam really means and what it means on to people like those who criticized the Edhis for their undiscriminating service to humanity. It is time also to think of Jinnah’s famous speech where he said that people were free in this country to go to their temples, their mosques or any other place of worship. Are people really free to do that in Pakistan?

Think also of what was said almost 1500 years ago by someone whose name now has so many appendages after it that only his words need to be quoted, that “ All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black or a black any superiority over a white except by means of piety and good actions.”

Independence Day is a time to appreciate the contribution of the women of Pakistan, predominantly women like Bilquis Edhi. To weigh this against the harassment women face every single day in this country in the name of religion and tradition, Malala Yousufzai standing out as a representative.

The 14th of August is the day of the birth of this nation. But it should also be the day we assess how- having been born, we mean to carry on, truly free as Independence Day suggests and as Islam meant us to be, or back in the bonds of oppression, ignorance and cruelty– the ones it tried to free us from.

CHILDHOOD DENIED

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/08/09/childhood-denied/

Back in 1999 the members of the International Labour Organisation signed Convention 182 which concerns the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, a child being defined by any human being under the age of 18.

The Convention was ratified over time by various member countries, and by Pakistan in 2001. Tonga, the last one, ratified it on Tuesday 4 August 2020. It may seem like a long time, but no convention has ever been ratified so fully and so swiftly by all members.

Ratification expresses a state’s consent to be bound to a treaty. It grants states time to seek approval for the treaty at the domestic level, and to enact the necessary legislation so that the convention or treaty can come into force and be able to work.

The United Nations provides for four basic principles regarding children (child being defined as any person under the age of 18). Pakistan has long been signatory to this:

1. Non-discrimination: which means that every child has certain rights regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, language, ability, or any other status
2. Devotion to the best interests of the child, which must be taken into account when making any decision or taking any action affecting children.
3. To ensure that every child’s right to life, survival and development is made possible and secure.
4. Respect for the views of the child which must be taken seriously and considered when arriving at decisions.

Convention 182 on the other hand seeks to improve a child’s life specifically by eliminating the worst forms of child labour such as ‘slavery, or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; child prostitution, illicit activities such as the production and trafficking of drugs and work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.’

“It means all children now have legal protection against the worst forms of child labour,” said Guy Ryder, the Director General of the ILO.

An AFP report however goes on to say that Mr. Ryder was under no illusions that ratification amounted to implementation.

And that is the probably the pivot around which the welfare of humankind revolves: implementation. Countries which are doing well socially are those that make attempts to implement policies as opposed to those that pay lip service to them.

The problem with the current government in the USA for example is the same, that having stated the aim to ‘make it great again,’ its policies are designed to lead it in the opposite direction, a case in point being its efforts to declare the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) unconstitutional. For now the Act stands. The current government tried to get rid of the Act which lowers health costs. Without it medical facilities in the USA can legally deny treatment to anyone who does not possess health insurance. And more than 27 million Americans are uninsured. That they are not denied emergency care is despite this government, not thanks to it, due to a bill passed in 1986.

To return to Convention 182 however, and the plight of children, what are the chances of its implementation in Pakistan?

According to information provided by the ILO, the Labour Organisation has carried out successful initiatives as per its child labour programme in various areas of Pakistan. These areas include industries where children are largely employed and which are particular dangerous for children, such as those that manufacture soccer balls, carpet weaving, the surgical tools industry and the glass bangles manufacturers, deep sea fishing, leather tanneries, domestic work, coalmines, rag-picking, auto-workshops, and brick kiln sectors. ILO has also responded to rehabilitate child labour in the earthquake-affected areas. In all these ILO interventions, thousands of child labourers, girls and boys, have been rehabilitated through the provision of non-formal education and related services.

Despite all these efforts and the efforts of individuals to improve the life of the Pakistan child “‘about 3.3 million of children in Pakistan are trapped in child labour, depriving them of their childhood, health, education, condemning them to a life of poverty and want” (UNICEF).

There appears to be no effort whatsoever on the part of any of the governments of Pakistan, certainly not the current one, to make a difference to the lives of these children.

Convention 182 depends on the laws of each ratifying nation for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, on the worker’s organisations in each country and plans of action and necessary measures to implement such plans.

In Pakistan it is illegal to employ a child under the age of 15. Yet the practice is so common as to be ubiquitous. Promises have been made to fix this but as yet nothing has been done. There has been the case just last month of seven-year-old Zahra who was employed as a house maid in Rawalpindi. Zahra was tortured by her employers, and was eventually beaten so that she died in hospital of her injuries.

Children in this country are working under bondage, very much so, they are being used for prostitution and all the forms of ‘worst labour’ listed under Convention 182.

The way to end this is via social education, and by eliminating poverty which is often the reason why these children are forced to work. But none of these measures will succeed unless the government is serious about the issue. Unless the government decides to enforce its laws, to not allow child labour, to not accept bribes or pressure from powerful officials to make exceptions in their case, unless the government clamps down heavily on all persons participating in this cruelty, the ‘make Pakistan great again’ aka its transformation into ‘Riasat e Madina’ will remain what it is, a joke.

We need laws to be enforced or they might as well not exist.

SO WHAT ABOUT THE JAWAB-E- SHIKWAH?

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/07/26/so-what-about-the-jawab-e-shikwa/

So, the Jawab-e-Shikwa, the great poem by Allama Iqbal, poet, philosopher, theorist, and barrister, calledthe national poet of Pakistan and its “Spiritual Father ” for his contributions to the nation, the man whose poetry fired the imagination of the people of this region for more than a hundred years – is it now to read like this?

Ki Muhammad – salAllahu Alaihi wassalum, khatme nabiyeen – say wafa tu nay to hum taray hain

Yeh jahan cheez hai kia, lau o qalam teray hain

Breaks the rhythm somewhat, don’t you think? And yet what is one to do? If you read the whole thing, extra words and all, you sound like Bilawal Bhutto Zardari plowing through a speech in Urdu. If you omit the extra words you stand a chance of being punished, which– if failing to add those words in front of the Prophet’s name is judged to be desecration– means up to five years in jail and up to Rs. 500,000 fine. Thus says the new Punjab Tahaffuz Bunyad-e-Islam (Protecting The Foundation Of Islam) Bill of 2020 which has just made it through the Punjab Assembly. Its Speaker, Ch Pervaiz Elahi recommends a similar Bill be adopted by all the Assemblies across the country.

It makes you wonder what the reaction would be if Muslims in India were required to say, ‘Oh Supreme Being’ every time they spoke of Rama a major Hindu diety. Or to cross themselves every time they spoke of Jesus in a Christian country, or to refer to God only as Yahweh in a Jewish society. Unfortunately, empathy, the ability to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes is not taught in our society today.

There is also the fact that as per this Bill, the DGPR (the Directorate General Public Relations) has been entrusted with the task of checking out printing presses, publishing houses and book stores and confiscating, at any stage, books that infringe the above law. It may also check the records of these places, including their accounts.

The DGPR Punjab is currently under the supervision of Mr Usman Buzdar, the Chief Minister, and Mr Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan, the Punjab Minister for Information and Culture, neither of whose qualifications or talents enable them to judge the contents of a book about religion. What is more the Minister of Information has twice been accused of making unpleasant remarks against religious and other minorities, which itself promotes sectarianism; and of expressing an admiration for the German once Fuhrer. It is doubtful therefore if the victims of this Bill will have a fair hearing until this too, like all other government promulgations, falls by the wayside.

The Prophet of Islam (PBUH) does not require legislation from the Punjab or any Assembly to bear out his character, his worth or his immense achievements. We do not need to speak a string of words after his name to stress the same. Neither are the foundations of Islam so shaky as to require such support. Those who believe in Islam will value its Prophet, and respect every single thing about him. Those who do not will ridicule this latest attempt to enshrine him in words that make it hard for people to speak about him instead of the other way around.

There are many issues waiting to be addressed in this country: there is a dire need to control the further growth of an already unwieldy population, we need to make education– a good education– available to this massive population, and to feed it. There has been an unchecked increase in prices, including for example a more than 60 percent increase in the price of wheat in the Punjab within these last two months alone. We need to drastically improve healthcare including aspects relating to the current Covid crisis we find ourselves in along with the rest of the world, and preparations for any other such crises in the future. We need to somehow rebuild the country after the economic disaster it is facing during this crisis, to protect rights of the citizens of this county and in particular its women and children who face untold abuse every day. We also need to control the various institutions that seem to consider it their job to mind everybody else’s business. This is what the government needs to act upon, leaving God to look after what he has promised to take care of Himself. Asserting the finality of His prophet in such a crude way does not help to unify the people, or to feed them.

The fact that the Prophet is the last one has been said as often as required. Will the Provincial Assemblies of Pakistan and the Chaudhry baradaran saying so too make it any more valid? By allowing people to believe as they will proves the strength of one’s own belief, it does not weaken it. Why must we feel so threatened?

When in one’s childhood we chanted ‘jal tu jala tu ai bala ko taal tu,’ during a blackout, and the power came on in a while, it did not do so because of the chant, but because some transformer somewhere had been fixed and made to work. Unfortunately the people of the country believe it was the chant, and it is in the interests of our leaders not to fix the grid but to feed this belief. It makes life easier. For them, the leaders. They have power generators.

Yeh jahan cheez hai kiya, lau o qalam unkay hain.

For a while.

THE ROLE OF MONUMENTS

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/07/19/the-role-of-monuments/

Roads named after prominent persons, mausoleums, structures, artifacts, columns, tombs, war memorials - monuments all of them, their purpose to commemorate history. You find them in Pakistan and all over the world.

Zamzana, the copper and brass cannon also known as ‘Kim’s Gun’ still remains on the Mall in Lahore in front of the Lahore Museum. And many tombs survive in Pakistan. But statues have been less fortunate.

Lahore was once home to several statues. Almost all of them were damaged or destroyed in riots, and removed.  A prominent daily lists them as those of Lala Lajpat Rai, Sir Ganga Ram, Sir John Lawrence, Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and Dyal Singh. Some of them are now stuck in storage, and a couple taken back to Britain. The statue of Queen Victoria is now in the British High Commission in Islamabad. A statue of Gandhi that was damaged and removed during riots in the 1950s is now with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. So no, we don’t like statues in this country, in part due to the widespread belief that art should not depict human forms, and for the rest because they are easy, visible targets.

Roads have fared even worse. There seems to be a campaign all over the country to rename roads. Two examples are The Grand Trunk Road, a name that resonates with history but which has been renamed after the founder of Pakistan, a bit like changing the name of the Taj Mahal. And Elphinstone Street in Karachi which is now Zaibunissa Street. It is hard to understand why that name was not maintained when the Honorable Mounstuart Elphinstone, a Scottish statesman and historian, was credited with setting up several educations institutions that were accessible to Indians.

In the current atmosphere of Black Lives Matter, monuments, particular statues are being targeted in the USA. Is it right to do this?

Monuments represent a value, or a fragment of history. A time may come when values change or are allowed to be expressed, when heroes are no longer heroes, and then– because monuments occupy a public spot they are targeted.

In the USA these days, in the current atmosphere of Black Lives Matter, statues of Confederate soldiers and generals, colonists and slave traders are being destroyed or taken down, and it is hard to condemn it. A public spot on a public street or on public land, unlike the inside of a museum, is a space that is visible and therefore it is meant for what commands respect. A guillotine that was used during the French Revolution in France for example would not be a popular sight on the streets. However, you can view one at the Police Museum in Paris and see for yourself what a dreadful thing it was, how terrifying and cruel.

Now that people seem to feel free to express their dislike of the roles played by these historical figures, the best place for the statues of Stonewall Jackson, John C Calhoun and Robert E Lee would be a museum, where placards under each of them would talk about their achievements as well as their less admirable actions, how they upheld slavery and severe racial discrimination.

It is important to ensure however that these figures remain where their lives can be examined. Their actions must not be obliterated from scrutiny, as the separation of East Pakistan from the West has been obliterated in Pakistani schools and textbooks. The wrongs committed by these people or during these events if obliterated stand in danger of being repeated, and they must not be.

Reference to Robert E Lee will not be banned in the USA. Books about his life will still be read to see why he was a hero to some and an exponent of slavery to others, and how a person can be a bit of both.

The Smithsonian magazine writes about Lee that: “His own hand probably never drew human blood nor fired a shot in anger, and his only Civil War wound was a faint scratch on the cheek from a sharpshooter’s bullet, but many thousands of men died quite horribly in battles where he was the dominant spirit, and most of the casualties were on the other side.”

Lee’s statues may have been taken down but you will still be able to see them and read about him to understand where he went wrong.

Life is not black and white. The conviction that all is white on the ‘good side’ is the extremists’ point of view, the view prevalent in Pakistan. If we are to combat this mindset we have to accept that it is history can best teach us how to live in the present and prepare for the future. And monuments, because they commemorate history are important – but they are best in the right place.

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A GREAT AIRLINE

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/07/05/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-great-airline/

Once upon a time there was an airline called PIA that was known by the slogan ‘Great people to fly with.’ It really was a good airline.

It is said that that line which became the flag carrier’s advertising slogan was suggested by Pakistan’s sports columnist Omar Kureishi who also worked for the airline. It was echoed by Jacqueline Kennedy when, as the First Lady, she flew from Pakistan to London. When she was leaving the aircraft she hugged the pilot, and when someone asked her what her flight had been like she said they (PIA) ‘were great people to fly with.’

The line-up on the tarmac shows a confident, smart air stewardesses, and a male pilot returning a skirt-clad Mrs Kennedy’s hug. It did not cause the end of his career and the world did not collapse. Those were different times indeed.

A look back at Pakistan International Airlines is nothing but an exercise in bitterness.

The airline that we were once so proud of and that now makes us hang our heads in shame (the story of Pakistan) started life in 1946 as Orient Airways with financial help from Mirza Ahmad Ispahani and Adamjee Haji Dawood, two of Pakistan’s wealthiest businessmen. It was the year before Pakistan came into being, so the headquarters of this fledgling airline was Calcutta (now Kolkata), one of British India’s major cities. Later, when Pakistan came into being headquarters shifted to Karachi. In 1955 Orient merged with PIA and became PIAC (Pakistan International Airlines Corporation). It started international operations the same year.

The young airline achieved many firsts. As Orient Airways it was the first airline with a Muslim ownership in British India. It was the first Asian airline to operate jet aircraft, and in 1964 it became the first non-communist airline to fly to Mao Zedong’s China, and the first non-Soviet airline flying non-stop from Moscow to Europe. Much later in 2005, PIA made the world’s longest flight by commercial aircraft (a Boing 777) from Hong Kong to London. The flight lasted all of 22 hours and 22 minutes.

PIA also provided assistance to other airlines around the world and was mainly instrumental in setting up Emirates, now a well respected airline based in Dubai.

Air Marshal Nur Khan became Managing Director of PIA in 1959 and the following year PIA became a financially profitable airline.

Then came General Zia. Funny how that line is almost always the precursor to an account of a downturn in events. Zia became Pakistan’s Head of State in 1978.

PIA’s crew have had a few changes of uniform, from the first uniform of a hat and skirt to the second design by Feroze Cowasji. The third design was by Pierre Cardin and the fourth by Sir Hardy Amies. The fifth unform was designer by Pakistan’s own Naheed Azfar, and that appeared in 1986. The process of selection began earlier, personally overlooked by the General himself, who along with his wife was himself present and part of the judging panel. He found Azfar’s design too form fitting, nevertheless it became the uniform with a few strategic changes.

PIA’s life has never been easy, what with political interference in its running. In 1954, the Ministry of Defence for some reason took over the running of the airline; it controlled appointments and made all decisions that had previously been the responsibility of the Civil Aviation Authority. From then on the CAA became kind of redundant. Many major airlines stopped flying to Pakistan. PIA had the highest ratio of employees to aircraft in the world and it suffered due to interference by unions in management. It became known for its dirty cabins, bad food, failure to keep to the timetable, and worst of all, unreliable staff.

In 2013 Nawaz Sharif’s government separated the Aviation Division, which had been a wing of the Ministry of Defence, and it became an independent entity. The Aviation Division took over commercial airlines and the CAA.

The move out from under the thumb of the Ministry of Defence was hailed as a major step in the right direction, although subsequent governance seems to have compromised its potential.

The end seems to have come now with ‘dubious licenses’ adding the final nail on the coffin. Who wishes to fly an airline whose pilots have not passed their flying tests? Pakistan’s national carrier has now been banned from airports around the world and its pilots in several countries have been suspended until further investigation into the status of their flying permits.

The bit about dubious licenses is not hard to believe if one places the issue alongside the car driving licenses held by the people of Pakistan. Raise your hands all those who have a kosher license, obtained by taking a test?