MANIPULATIVE ADVERTISING

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/02/18/manipulative-advertising/

Advertising is not meant to be simply inane jingles and cavorting models, although it often is; there is supposed to be some serious psychology behind the exercise, and only then can a product be sold. The best advertisements keep in mind the target audience’s psychographics, which define consumers according to their ‘personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests and lifestyle.’ Effective advertising in short figures out what makes consumers tick and aims its message squarely at that. Therefore ‘Ae Khuda mere Abu salamat rahain,’ which sells life insurance using a jingle sung by a sweet little girl, would have listeners saying ‘amen’ every time in a society where emotion takes a firm upper hand.

Some of the best advertising in the world such as Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ puts its finger right on the ‘dukti rug’ of not being able to get started on a challenge. Just do it, it says. Don’t think about it, run that marathon, jog an extra mile every morning, just do it. And the audience does, or at least wears Nike while it thinks about it.

But there is also the less innocuous advertising, such as the commercial that pushes the New York Times broadsheet by means of images of Syrian refugees, images that speak of “fear, desperation and hope”. The commercial asks viewers to “think about how bad it must be in their country” that ‘they’ put their families in such precarious rafts (shown) to seek a life elsewhere. “The truth is hard to find,” it says. “The truth is worth pursuing.” And, it says, the New York Times does that. Here the bleak, tragic lives of refugees are being used to make money. Here is manipulation at its most sickening because the words ‘refugees’, and the images of laden boats of broken, shattered humans including children resonates with viewers, particularly in the West. Such manipulation, apparent only when one thinks about it is enough to make a person not buy the New York Times. Ever. This angle would not have worked as well in a third world country where we are used to seeing broken, shattered humans including children all around us with our own eyes. Here, there are other things. Here what works is the weepy sort of emotion of the sort in the mere abu commercial. Here everything – including religion — is infused with generous helpings of that sentiment, if sentiment is a behaviour pattern that is strong and fixed, ‘typically based on emotions and beliefs, and often disconnected from reality, reason or logic.’ Once that connection is made religion is used ruthlessly.

Somewhere where DHA meets the Cantonment in Lahore is a wall of five posters, showing five shaheed army personnel who laid down their lives to keep the country safe for which the country definitely owes them a debt of gratitude. Each poster has the sentence ‘Join the army’ underneath. There can be little doubt what that plays on. In a country where religion makes people tick, where along with everything else religion is infused with sentiment to the extent that all reason has been knocked out of it, joining the ranks of martyrs is likely to be a huge inducement. There is little one can say to counter this sentiment in Pakistan. It would be resented, it would be misunderstood, it would not be tolerated.

In one of his articles some years ago, Dr Khalid Zaheer, a religious scholar speaks of the definition of a shaheed, saying that there is ample evidence in the Quran to say that the status of a shaheed is one to be bestowed on a man by God alone

In one of his articles some years ago, Dr Khalid Zaheer, a religious scholar speaks of the definition of a shaheed, saying that there is ample evidence in the Quran to say that the status of a shaheed is one to be bestowed on a man by God alone, not by his fellow humans. He points out that in Urdu, Hindi and Bengali, the term ‘shaheed’ is used to honour a person who dies in a war or an accident and has no relationship with the actual religious meaning and with what the Quran says.

But who knows this.

So, what does this advertisement say except that it places the employer in the exalted position of being able to grant its employees access to heaven? Heaven is not the place for mines and bombs, guns, mortar and explosions. It does not generate amputees, widows and orphans. You are not required to defend your borders or your country in heaven. This is glorifying war, and it places the armed forces where they become untouchable. The public ought to resent such manipulation. It would be much better to simply say ‘Your Country Needs YOU’ as the Allies did during the World War. That at least says it as it is. Our country does need us. In every way.

MEOW?

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/02/11/meow/

• The legal fraternity in Pakistan needs to grow up

In Karachi, a car driver – a woman — was recently charged with killing a cat in a road accident.

It seems that the woman’s car hit the cat in Defence Housing Authority. A witness to the incident who happened to be a lawyer, asked the woman to have the cat’s wounds treated but the woman refused, upon which the lawyer reported the matter to the police. The police refused to lodge an FIR. They also gave their opinion of the matter, that the lawyer was as culpable since he too had not treated the cat’s wounds.

A local court took up the case. A case has been registered against the woman. She has not been arrested as yet, and it is not known if she has been fined.

Section 429 of the Penal Code under which the case has been registered says “Whoever commits mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering useless, any elephant, camel, horse, mule, buffalo, bull, cow or ox, whatever may be the value thereof, or any other animal of the value of fifty rupees or upwards, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with both.”

Since the cat could easily have been worth much more than fifty rupees if it was a pet – it is unknown if it was a pet or a stray — the prescribed penalty could apply to the person who injured it, since it is hard to establish whether the accused meant to ‘commit mischief’ or was merely driving without mischievous intent.

One supposes the court had to take up the case since the busy witness insisted on pushing it. He probably felt frustrated with the endless parade of dead animals with which the roads in Pakistan are littered and this hapless lady was the only one he managed to nab as is generally the case with women. Or he had nothing else to do.

You wish there was some other mechanism to settle such matters rather burdening already burdened courts with them, but there does not appear to be such a mechanism. The striking aspect of this was the argument rather surprisingly put forward by the police – of the lawyer being equally culpable. He was not legally responsible since he did not kill the cat in the first place, but from the humane point of view the lawyer certainly shows up as a hypocrite. But he gets away without a stain on his character.

A local court took up the case. A case has been registered against the woman. She has not been arrested as yet, and it is not known if she has been fined

Instead, his action elicited quite an approving response, probably from persons who read the newspapers only for the weather and miss the fact that the country this incident took place in is the one where most of a family was shot dead on the road by anti-terrorism personnel. Also, that the city the incident took place in is one with a high incidence of car theft, homicide and kidnapping for ransom. No doubt the lady was supposed to leave her car and kneel beside the injured cat on a road where cows, donkeys, humans and vehicles alike wander around in such a way that to avoid one it is often necessary to hit another. And while she knelt beside the cat someone would have swiped her car, or/and her bag, very possibly shot her or worse, or obtained a nice fat sum after kidnapping her.

Undoubtedly, kindness to animals is a considerable virtue, but kindness and justice to humans takes precedence. When the latter exists, the first generally follows.

It appears to be the fashion to take up a cause at random ignoring all other factors that contribute to it. It was in this vein that the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the one mercifully now retired, took up the cause of providing water for the nation. That reference may appear to be a departure from the subject at hand, but it is not because the retired CJP too ignored factors contributing to the water shortage and concentrated on the image boosting project. Just as the lawyer appears to have taken up cudgels in favour of animal rights. Wow. Kind man and all that.

Such cases are not simply silly or irritating, they are maddening. How can a cat, accidentally killed, even enter the judicial horizon when the persons who falsely accused Asia bibi remain at large, for example?

A news item appearing a year ago says that there are 1.87 million cases pending in Pakistani courts. It says that the superior judiciary is inundated with political petitions which consume much of its attention at the cost of other cases.

The legal fraternity in Pakistan needs to grow up. Considerably. And while it is doing that it might clear some of the backlog it is faced with, starting with the cases that involve humans.

GENDER INCONGRUENCE

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/02/04/gender-incongruence/

• There is little point in a ruling unless it is enforced

The ICD, International Classification of Diseases, is the ‘standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes,’ directed and coordinated by the WHO. It contains a section dealing with the preference for a gender other than the birth gender, also known as transgender. The WHO uses the term ‘gender incongruence’ instead of transgender.

Right up to very recently the WHO had classified gender incongruence as a pathological condition, a mental disorder. But now, the WHO has made an important amendment which has been welcomed by many human rights organisations, and medical practitioners.

The Coordinator for the Adolescents and at-Risk Populations team of the WHO has stated that with a better understanding of the matter they have realised that gender incongruence “wasn’t actually a mental health condition,” and that classifying it as such was “causing a stigma.” “So, in order to reduce the stigma while also ensuring access to necessary health interventions, this was placed in a different chapter.”

Gender incongruence in the ICD 11 will now be found in the chapter dealing with sexual health, which may come as a shock to a society such as Pakistan – and other similar societies, where transgender persons are still considered an abomination and treated as such.

Naturally, change takes time, particularly change as radical as one that would permit transgender persons to live the discrimination free life to which each human, and each citizen is entitled. But it is certainly helped along by changes such as the above.

Pakistan contradicts itself in the matter of transgender persons. Persons who do not answer to the gender of their birth are both treated with contempt and held in awe. They are rarely refused alms because it is believed that their curses are effective, yet they are invited to perform, sing and dance at weddings because it is believed their presence brings good luck.

Pakistan possesses a legal Act to protect the rights of transgender persons which was passed into law by the president in 2018. Under this law Pakistanis may identify as whichever gender they prefer

Pakistani society is divided between the more educated and the conservatives who almost unilaterally condemn intimacy among individuals of the same birth sex. And yet there is a small group called the ‘Tanzeem e Ittehad e Ummat’ which in 2016 declared transgender marriages legal under Islamic law.

Pakistan’s laws themselves are confused since they are a mixture of colonial laws (the Penal Code), the Hudood Ordinance which was enacted in 1977 and was part of the ‘Islamisation’ of the country, it prescribed extreme punishments for various things among them same-sex acts. And then there is are some newer laws which are more enlightened.

As listed in \https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Pakistan: in 2009 a Supreme Court ruling said that transgenders were entitled to equal benefit and protection under the law. It called upon the government to protect transgender persons from discrimination and harassment.

The following year once again, the Supreme Court ordered the full recognition of the transgender community, including the provision of free medical and educational facilities, microcredit schemes and job quotas for transgender people in every government department.

In 2017, the Lahore High Court ordered the government to include transgender people in the national consensus.

In February 2018, a Senate committee determined that transgender people could inherit property without being required to have their gender decided by a medical board.

Pakistan possesses a legal Act to protect the rights of transgender persons which was passed into law by the president in 2018. Under this law Pakistanis may identify as whichever gender they prefer. That preferred gender will then be stated on their official documents. A transgender person is given the right to inherit property and run for public office. Sexual discrimination is forbidden under this law and the government is obliged to provide the same assistance to transgender persons as it must to cisgenders.

Yet in Kohat in Pakistan, earlier this month, a transgender person died because the hospital would not send a doctor to treat him. And earlier, in 2016, a young transgender woman Alisha was taken to a hospital in Peshawar after being shot several times. She bled to death in that hospital while doctors debated which gender ward she should be taken to. In both these cases it is striking that the prejudice that led to the death of two persons stemmed from the same community of professionals which in another country made a historical amendment to the way transgenders are categorised.

It is hoped that in the same way as the new WHO categorisation is likely to help remove the stigma surrounding transgender sexuality, its recent Supreme Court rulings will make a difference in Pakistan. But they are unlikely to do so unless transgressions are punished. There is little point in a ruling unless it is enforced.

QĬNG CHÌ SĀ DÀN

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/01/28/qing-chi-sa-dan/

If Adam and Eve had been Chinese they would have eaten the snake rather than let it live to plague their descendants. Imagine, if you can: no Hitler, no Robespierre, no Henry the VIII, no general at the helm of affairs in Pakistan for eleven ghastly years, and in the United States there’d be no…you got it.

Also had Satan met that fate, the Pakistan cricket captain would not have been tempted to say what he did at the One Day International against South Africa last Tuesday. This may seem to be overreaching it a bit, and one certainly does not mean to stick Sarfaraz in the company of the likes of Hitler and the general with peaked eyebrows, but it does refer to what lies behind what he said. Because what Sarfaraz said – he almost definitely does not realise it — was only the visible, or rather the audible fragment of an infinitely much greater malaise.

Sarfaraz may not have said what he said directly to Phehlukwayo, but he said it aloud. Being couched in Urdu his words were loud enough to be heard by his teammates and countrymen who, as per Sarfaraz’s experience, would have found these sentiments funny, and snickered along with him. Sarfaraz, as representative of Pakistan, as the captain of Pakistan’s team, should give his responsibilities conscious consideration and not with as little thought as tying his shoelaces or flicking off a mosquito. He has shamed the country, and in the eyes of his young fans given racism the stamp of approval. Because what Sarfaraz said was racist, there is no two ways about it. He ought not to be let off the hook by giggling PCB officials pretending to be stern. Instead, the hero of so many young cricket lovers ought to be seen to be reprimanded seriously, even though his mental processes are also the fault of the attitude of the country in which he was raised.

Racism is more than alive in Pakistan, it is thriving, institutionalised and even encouraged.

Racism is what destroyed Asiya bibi’s life, what took Shama and Shahzad to their gruesome death, what led to the death of some six million Jews during the Holocaust. What could be more satanic?

What Sarfaraz said should not be treated as ‘mere’ words, or one stands in danger of trivialising the contributions of people who used their thoughts couched in the most effective language to influence the thinking of entire generations, people such as Faiz, Nazrul Islam, Ramakhrishnan, Walt Whitman, Fahmida Riaz, Plato, Marx, and Manto. We stand in danger of treating their writings as ‘mere’ words.  As Oscar Wilde said, “Men are the slave of words,” and also that “Language is the parent, not the child of thought.” He meant that words are important, and they influence the way we think.

In his striking talk on the subject of genocide Stephen Fry points out that all genocides in recent history had one thing in common: “each example was preceded by language (words) being used again and again and again to dehumanise the person that had to be killed”

As we condemn Donald Trump’s racist language, we should also condemn it when we hear for example Imran Khan’s comments made a couple of years ago on “so called foreign players,” who he said were “picked up from Africa or wherever” and called “foreign players.” The current PM of Pakistan was then speaking of the international players who were picked to play the International Super League final in Lahore in 2017.

In his striking talk on the subject of genocide Stephen Fry points out that all genocides in recent history had one thing in common: “each example was preceded by language (words) being used again and again and again to dehumanise the person that had to be killed.” So, the Nazis, knowing that not all Germans would support the wholesale slaughter of Jews started calling Jews ‘apemen’, ‘rats’ and ‘vermin.’ Is that not similar to when people from East Pakistan were called ‘bhookay Bangali’ or worse in the lead up to 1971? Remember the genocide at that time? Compare it to Donald Trumps remark about ‘shithole countries,’ when speaking of immigrants to the United States.

In the light of such examples, how funny does anyone find Sarfaraz’s words? Of course black Africans themselves call themselves ‘black’, and black is no longer a derogatory word in Africa and in the West, but it is definitely derogatory in Pakistan, let’s make no bones about that.

All cricket captains, past and present, all public figures, all those with a following should face the consequences when they use words in such a way. Pakistan needs to know that kala (black), langra (unable to walk), mota (overweight) are not to be used in lieu of abuse, that in itself these are not words of abuse, but are made so by contemptible minds. We need to understand that racism is wrong. It is cruel, condemned by all religions, and by all persons with any respect for humanity.

By the way, the simplified Chinese word for Satan, is Sā dàn. And ‘please eat’ is: Qĭng chì. I’m not sure at all sure if ‘Qĭng chì Sā dàn’ is the right way to say ‘please eat Satan’, its straight from Google translate, but for the purpose of this column right now it is meant to say, rather indirectly, please stop racism.

THE UN-BREATHABLE AIR

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/01/21/the-un-breathable-air/

• Burning crops is not the only source of pollution

There are several reasons why you’re having a problem breathing in Lahore these days.

The air over Pakistan is always polluted, but for several months in winter the quality of air becomes almost unbearable and has been getting steadily worse over the years.

It is due mainly to the practice of residue crop burning.

Residue crop burning takes place at any time of year, and in many places, but it takes longer to disperse in winter due to various meteorological factors. The effects are however most apparent in winter in the region in and around Lahore where the smoke forms a noxious blanket smothering the residents, affecting both health and visibility.

Residue crop burning occurs when one crop is harvested and the fields prepared for the planting of the next major crop. That is in turn harvested in summer, around April-May.

When a crop is harvested a stubble remains. The next crop in the recently harvested field can either incorporate this stubble, for example by seeding directly into the previous stub, or it can be planted after removing the stubble, in a clear field. To clear the field is a time and labour consuming process in the absence of mechanisation. The residue is therefore burnt.

It was once the practice in more leisurely times to allow stubble to remain in the field for a while before another crop was planted. This allowed what remained of the crop to degrade and pass its nutrients back into the soil. The next crop was nourished by the old nutrients, in addition to what the farmer fed it after it was planted. But things have changed and burning is now perceived to be an integral aspect of preparation a field and has become common practice in Pakistan.

Burning stubble does more harm than good. Preventing farmers from burning the crop is important for both agricultural as well as health reasons and requires an ongoing educational campaign. There appears to be none at present.

At present Pakistan is self-sufficient in the staple crops of wheat, sugar cane and rice, but while wheat is important, sugar cane and rice use too much water and are not crucial to a healthy diet

Crop residue burning has significantly raised greenhouse gas levels. Smoke travels surprisingly long distances. The smoke produced in the Indo Gangetic Plains is able to carry over and across the Himalayas. People all across this area breathe in this smoke and fumes and suffer from respiratory illnesses, particularly the young and the elderly. In addition to humans, wildlife living, nesting and feeding off the area also suffers. Their food sources and nesting sites are destroyed. These fires can be particularly disastrous for animals that nest on or close to the ground, and for those animals whose young are less mobile. Other harmless creatures such as bees and rodents that are ecologically valuable also suffer.

Burning crops is not the only source of pollution. There is also the pollution from factories and that produced by other practices, such as the burning of trash.

According to an article by Rachel Lew in July of 2018 in BioEnergy Consult, ‘more than five million people die each year in Pakistan due to waste-related diseases where roughly 20 million tons of solid waste is generated annually. Karachi, the largest city in the country, generates more than 9,000 tons of municipal waste daily. All other major cities, Islamabad, Lahore or Peshawar, are facing enormous challenges in tackling the problem of urban waste. The root factors for the worsening garbage problem in Pakistan are lack of urban planning, outdated infrastructure, lack of public awareness and endemic corruption.’

You wish the powers that be would concentrate more on these issues, because with effective waste management and better controls over agricultural practice many of the problems faced by this country would be addressed simultaneously. Farmers need to be provided with guidance as to what to grow, with better seeds to help them grow it, and with a more effective chain of production that provides buyers for producers. Knowing which crop is more efficient to grow at which time in the year with the least consumption of water would impact positively on the water shortage faced by Pakistan.

At present Pakistan is self-sufficient in the staple crops of wheat, sugar cane and rice, but while wheat is important, sugar cane and rice use too much water and are not crucial to a healthy diet.

If the authorities come down heavily on crop burning and the burning of trash, it would impact very positively indeed on the air quality and the health of the nation.

TOO MANY WALLS

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/01/14/too-many-walls/

• Not enough bridges

It’s an ageless process, building walls in an attempt to protect oneself from perceived or real external threats, which does not justify the proposed wall between the US and Mexico. It simply identifies it as one of the many walls by means of which man tries to keep ‘his’ possessions from leaving him, not just money but also rank, privilege, power and beliefs. Rulers stoop to anything to extend their tenure, including building walls to please an electorate. Some people justify shooting Malala to stop her from speaking about women’s education, because educated women are seen as a threat to men. Or they murder Taseer to punish him for speaking up against the inhuman laws that set up a wall between people. There are those who killed Shama and Shahzad Masih because Shama questioned their bonded labour status. In other words she was seen as a threat to the feudal system of society that exists like the blind monkey behind a high wall.

At the end of the day everyone dies and only deeds live on.

Zia ul Haq’s tenure ended, but not quite the way he had planned, but his legacy of religious extremism — the Taliban he fostered, and their trail of murder remains. Malala found away through her wall away from her tormentors, setting an example of courage in the next ten years of her life for other girls. Taseer lost his life, but even his critics during his life respect him after his death for his act of bravery. As for the children of Shama and Shahzad, they are receiving an education, which is the best way out of bondage. May they grow up to be happy and make a positive difference to the lives of their community.

Progress is often understood to be just about material things and on the personal level alone, when really,it is limited by the very walls that were put up to protect it, like the frantic beating against the wall of a man inside a cylinder. Real progress is about an attitude and is a shared process, moving towards a time when there is no need for guns, when men do not need to push down their women to maintain their superiority, when a belief system is secure because its strength rests on its enduring values and inclusion, not petty acts of force and exclusivity.

Societies can be educated out of its limited mindset, which although necessary is a long-term process. Meantime there are other things that would help. Such as immediate repercussions for certain things, such as maltreatment of employees. You see such treatment every day in organisations and homes, persons treating the ones reporting to him/her with astounding rudeness.

There must be rigid fines and imprisonment for discrimination. In some parks in Defence Housing Authority in Lahore, persons belonging to a less affluent background are expected to produce an identity card before they are allowed in

This society is also rife with cruelty against women and children, who because they are physically weaker live under all sorts of restrictions. No human being can prevent another from getting what is rightfully theirs, education, or employment. Those who do try to prevent these things should be made to face consequences.

There must be rigid fines and imprisonment for discrimination. In some parks in Defence Housing Authority in Lahore, persons belonging to a less affluent background are expected to produce an identity card before they are allowed in. Why? These are public parks belonging to all of us. The government itself is guilty of horrific discrimination with advertisements specifying non-Muslims only for cleaning jobs in some of its institutions. Muslims, apparently, do not clean as well as non-Muslims. Strange, isn’t it, given the stress on cleanliness in the religion?

“Men build too many walls and not enough bridges” said Joseph W Newton, a Baptist minister. It is not the Taliban and their brethren who generate peace and goodwill but foundations like the Malala Fund, an NGO that deals with the education of girls, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that promotes healthcare and education around the world, the Edhi Foundation, Medicine Without Frontiers, the Aurat Foundation, the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme… these are the groups that build bridges. Not IS or ISIS, the various Lashkars or al Qaeda. And not several groups that have received electoral sanction in Pakistan despite their extreme right wing leanings. We need to perceive the difference.

ADOPT A MADRASSAH

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/01/01/adopt-a-madrassah/

• Good, although these ‘business enterprises’ will need to be monitored

The PTI manifesto states as part of a promise to transform education that it will ‘map out and register all seminaries across Pakistan including information on finances and introduce literacy and mathematics teaching as formal subjects within the madrassah curriculum’.

It is one of the PTI’s many promises that is yet to be acted upon, but if the promise is made good it would have far-reaching consequences, becausemadrassahs are the breeding ground from which terrorists are picked.

Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski along with several Muslim countries funded those very same terrorists via Pakistan, to help drive out the Soviets. ‘Foreign money helped establish hundreds of madrassas in Pakistan’s cities and frontier areas. These turned out thousands of Taliban who joined the mujahideen in the anti-Soviet campaign’. (BBC July 2010)

Since the end of the cold war, the Taliban and their ilk have been acting on their own agendas and have grown into a scourge for the world, and definitely for their host, Pakistan.

Madrassahs are the ‘schools’most accessible to the public in Pakistan and other Muslim countries, and with exceptions, theyare at the root of a dangerous riftin society that leads to terrorism.That rift is a chasm between the haves and have nots, the‘good’ guys and the ‘bad’ ones who dress in Western clothes and adopt the ‘Western’ or ‘worldly’ curriculum. Recreation for madrassah students appears to be stints at the local mosque where with mikes turned on high they test the range of their fledgling male vocal cords, their voices rising on Allah and falling flat on Akbar followed by a desperate squeal from the mike. It would be funny if it were not a manifestation of such a serious problem.

The manifesto also promises to promote sports by providing playing grounds sports complexes and gymnasiums

Learning mainstream subjects is considered ‘bad’ in the madrassah stream of education. The attitudeturns out a large number of students who, to their resentment and anger, spend several years being ‘educated’ to find themselves still unqualified to compete for jobs in a market composed of young people with a more all-round learning. It is these young men who become imams at mosques or carry on as teachers in madrassahs with the greatest exposure to vulnerable young persons. Or they get other low paid jobs.

In a recent initiative to facilitate their pulling out of Afghanistan, and therefore“eager to persuade the Tailban to join the Afghan peace process, the United States is offering them a safety network that includes job opportunities (Anwar Iqbal).”

American foreign policy is best viewed askance. Yet in honest hands this initiativemay well be the only thing to turn the extremists away from violence, even though it sounds like offering the sphinx a cookie. It is hard to imagine the Taliban queueing at job centres, so one presumes the idea involves some other, more creative, approach.

Still, somethings need to be kept in mind. Such as whoever is disseminating this particular brand of religion will resist change if prevented, because their role as fount of this brand of wisdom bring them power, and they will resist all efforts to take that away. The clergy in every religion has been prey to this weakness.

This brand of religiosity is taken on board as easily as it precisely because poverty encourages it. Unless something is done to break the poverty its hold upon people will remain. It takes little effort to visualise persons, even large groups of persons being persuaded to commit acts of violence in return for support for their familiesand/or for a twisted conviction of the rewards offered for such acts in the afterlife.

People need jobs, but all young peoplealso need access to recreation. In the absence of recreation youngsters play on the street, or mess around ‘one wheeling,’ or teasing girls. Because that too is ‘recreation’, and so is joining a groupcalled the ISIS or the Taliban. When it comes to losing their lives the desperation of poverty kicks in and forces them to commit violence and even destroy themselves.

In their manifesto the PTI have also said that they will focus on restructuring syllabi and mainstreaming madrassas by providing them with proper educational facilities. This, as the manifesto points out would entail teacher training, including the establishment of special Islamic teaching academies (good, unless it turns out to be more of the same thing) with diplomas for teaching. ‘Another component of mainstreaming madrassas’ the manifesto says ‘would be a public private “adopt a madrassah scheme” where the business enterprises in the local area are given tax benefits etc for adopting a madrassah, upgrading it, and offering apprenticeships to its graduating students’. Once again good, although these ‘business enterprises’ will need to be monitored.

The manifesto also promises to promote sports by providing playing grounds sports complexes and gymnasiums.

Let’s hope that if this ever materialises students from the madrassahs are able to work off steam right there instead of becoming part of the violent juggernaut otherwise known as violent extremism.