IMMINENT IS HERE

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/07/10/imminent-is-here/

Preparing for the killing heat

We have been warned over the years that climate change is imminent, that glaciers will melt and shrink, global temperatures will rise, and there will be other disastrous consequences of throwing bouncers at the environment. We did not pay much attention to those warning us, ignoring them and often labeling them as some kind of a plot…Zionist, Western, take your pick, the usual stuff. Unfortunately, the warnings are now reality. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on water courses is breaking up too early, sea levels are rising and several places in the world such as a hitherto benign British Columbia in Canada and the never-so-benign Death Valley in California are witnessing heatwaves to rival Jacobabad in Sindh, once known as Khanger, the erstwhile heat champion of the world. Welcome to the year 2021, the year many of us might find ourselves inside an overheated oven simply because we neglected to learn how to turn down the heat. Now the world either learns to live with an up to ten-degree Fahrenheit increase in temperatures in the coming years, or people will die on a very large scale. We must heed the warnings, there may still be time. We must do something constructive to combat global warming.

The urgent need to minimize the effects of this warming on our long-suffering population is what this write-up is about. The rich have enough, and although their practices need to be changed, the same practices that have brought about global warming, it is the poor who need most help.

Pakistan is a poor country. Most of Pakistan’s population lives in the rural areas. Most people in these rural areas are unable to afford much by way of housing, so a small house composed of a single bedroom, a courtyard mostly for the cattle, and nothing else, is the norm. A corner of the courtyard serves as a kitchen and the fields as bathrooms.

Because rural areas are mostly fields, little concrete and no bitumen, you can get a little respite from the heat under a tree or in the great outdoors by night. The excessive morality of urban life does not plague the life of villagers, so if they must sleep on charpoys on the roof where the women are visible to neighbours, so be it.

That is not the case in our cities where villagers sometimes move to, so they can find work in fields other than agriculture, pun not intended.

What they discover when they move, however, cannot be an improvement on what they leave behind. Cramped living conditions, filthy and excessively hot, thanks to the concrete and bitumen everywhere; this is what city life turns out to be for the poor. It is not possible for women to sleep on the roofs here, because the tight housing means they can be seen by their neighbours, and nerves are not taught to recover from such sights in our cities.

Many things can and must be done to prepare for the global warming that is upon us, because the resultant heat is beyond human endurance. One is to ensure that houses, however small, are constructed and designed better, to protect their residents against the heat.

To increase the number of trees must be made a priority. Construction and design must be overseen and thermal insulation made mandatory. There are a variety of insulation materials out there. They must be made available and affordable. Buildings must face away from the sun at its hottest. Bricks that are used in the construction of buildings must be designed to hold a layer of air within them. Windows must be recessed as much as possible and shaded against the sun. It should not be allowed to use metal in outside doors and windows because metal emits much more heat than wood.

The older systems of construction such as verandahs and ventilators high up on walls made great sense in our weather conditions. Extremely effective as they are, verandahs are not always affordable given the shortage of space, but ventilators can and must be mandatory to allow the hot air to exit the building, seeing that hot air rises. Attention must also be paid to cross ventilation. In the absence of verandahs, green netting fabric must be provided free of cost to low-income housing as protection against the sun.

The old methods of plastering over construction with mud and clay are a great method of insulation. They should be used as a crucial finishing touch to all buildings, and renewed as required.

There is a greater danger of fire in extreme heat conditions. Fire proofing must be incorporated and fire escapes and evacuation regulations ignored at very great cost to those responsible.

One of the most common means of storing water now are those ubiquitous blue plastic storage tanks mounted on rooftops. It is best if plastic storage is not exposed to the sun long-term. According to the National Geographic, ‘most plastic items release a tiny amount of chemicals into the food or beverages they contain.  As temperature and time increase, the chemical bonds in the plastic increasingly break down and (those) chemicals are more likely to leach’ into the stored item. According to the FDA, the long-term effects build up in a big way. Alternate methods of storing water must therefore be found and used and these must be comparable in cost to the blue plastic tanks, or else they will not catch on.

Measures rarely have a long life in this country, which appears to favour a stop, start and disappear stance until someone suddenly decides to move again. That sporadic lifestyle has become the norm. It has been this way with encroachments for example, when those who encroached around drains and markets were allowed to do so for years until suddenly, the authorities decided to enforce the rules, ruthlessly ousting the long-term offenders in the process. The fact is that those who allow encroachments to take place and to persist are as much the offenders as those who build those encroachments. They should be held equally responsible for infringements of the law.

The same must apply to those who build chicken coops for people to live in, airless, hot ovens that are a crime against anything living – animal, or human.  The problem of course is that those who are less affluent are often not considered to be human by those with wealth in their pockets. That is the biggest problem in every sector of life in Pakistan.

FIGHTING THE VIRUS

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/07/04/fighting-the-virus/

We get vaccinated so we may develop immunity to a given infection, which happens when the vaccinated person’s body learns to make antibodies against the organism that gives rise to that infection. If, however, many or most people around us are not vaccinated, they have no antibodies against an infection and are able to pass on the infection. That means that even vaccinated persons have an uphill task maintaining immunity and it isn’t long before they succumb and get infected, regardless of the vaccination. 

In the case of Pakistan, the Chinese vaccine against Covid-19 that we are getting, while it works, apparently does not have as high a rate of success as some others out there, and even of those out there no vaccine is able to completely prevent the disease. It is therefore proportionately important to take precautions as recommended, such as wearing a mask and avoiding contact with large groups of people, particularly indoors. 

The other aid to immunity, which goes hand in hand with individual vaccination, is herd immunity. This means that when the majority of the population acquires immunity to a disease, even those who do not have immunity are protected because the people they encounter are most of them not passing on the infection. The way to acquire this is to vaccinate the majority. 

This is not happening in Pakistan.

While the vaccination campaign here appears to be better organized than most other government efforts, it has not managed to reach the bulk of the population. Vaccinations are available for all eligible persons but they are not easily accessible; many people have to travel inconvenient distances to be vaccinated. It also means that all or even most eligible persons are not convinced that they require vaccinations.

There are many rumours doing the rounds, dominant among which are those that say that anybody who receives the vaccine is likely to kick the bucket at the end of two years. The other is that the vaccine alters a person’s DNA and should therefore be avoided. Yet another is that the vaccine renders people sterile, which means that it makes them unable to have children. Other rumours say that these vaccinations are a Western plot, a means of controlling the world, and of course there is the inevitable opinion that vaccines go against the Will of God, that had He wanted us not to get covid-19 He would not have created the virus. There are also those who doubt the origin of the virus itself, saying that it is manmade and therefore some kind of a vague conspiracy towards some mysterious end.

Such rumours are of course also rife in other countries, but this is about Pakistan where illiteracy and ignorance kill as many as does this virus and others.

The result of these rumours is something that almost every relatively well-to-do household can report: a reluctance on the part of its workers, the cook, the cleaner, and so on, to be vaccinated, and if not an outright reluctance almost always a complete indifference to receiving the shots. This is also how it is almost throughout the rural population. Also, when someone is willing to be vaccinated, they require someone to register them, since many such persons are illiterate and unable to handle the process. Perhaps the registeration can be done at the desk at the centres rather than online? 

It has now been approximately a year-and-a-half since the first known case of covid-19 was recorded in Pakistan, and we are very far from achieving herd immunity against the disease, even though the rate of infection appears to have gone down.

It is obviously not just this vaccine that has attracted such rumours, others too have suffered because of them, specifically the polio vaccine. Those who administer that vaccine have on several occasions been attacked and even killed. As a result, Pakistan is one of only two countries that has been unable to stamp out that devastating illness. The other is our neighbour, Afghanistan.

The way around this problem is not simple. Illiteracy does not seem to be the only barrier since such views are also not unusual in the United States either. Perhaps it is the quality of education that is at fault? In the US another barrier to vaccination is an inflated sense of personal or civil rights, that makes some people bristle at being made to do anything as a group. That cannot be the case here, since for most people in Pakistan civil rights is an unknown aspect of existence, a great pity in general.

What is most likely driving the resistance here is an ingrained suspicion of ‘The West’, strengthened by our colonial past and the more recent alleged attempts of the US to capture bin Laden via Dr. Shakil Afridi.

The other far greater culprit is likely to be the right-wing conservative segment of society, from where most of the irrational fears of the West appear to stem. They have many platforms, among which the Friday congregation is always a major one. Other than that, word of mouth, and social media are major culprits.

It’s hard to figure out what to do about this. Penalise those who spread such rumours? That just does not seem right. Clamp down on Friday congregations? As impossible as a clampdown on social media.

Penalties are in the hands of those in power, and those in power come with their own views and their own axes to grind. That means there is no guarantee of the penalty being directed at the right targets.

At the end of the day, the only thing that offers any hope is not just education, but a scientific, rational education, one based on proof and facts, which by no means suggests that the humanities should be rejected in academics. Absolutely not. Humanities subjects are crucial, but they should be supplemented with a necessary and hefty dose of reason, fact and science. In the final analysis that is the only way forward, and even that is no guarantee that the population of any given country will do the right thing.

WHERE'S THE DIFFERENCE?

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/06/20/wheres-the-difference/

The USA now has a new Federal holiday, the 19th of June, known as Juneteenth. It commemorates the day slaves– who were mostly Black African, were told in Texas that they were now free and no longer enslaved. Although slavery had been officially outlawed three years earlier by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the proclamation had been larger ignored in Texas and some other States.

In Pakistan people have scoffed at this new holiday, and have called it hypocritical, pointing at the many incidences of racism and violence still occurring in the USA even though its Constitution says that all people are equal.

The fact is that much of what happens in the USA should ring a bell with us here; the maudlin leadership, the police brutality against Black Americans, the murders of George Floyd and Arbery, and the January 6th storming of the Capitol.

Pakistan started out as a secular country. Jinnah stated in the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”

Later in 1956 Islam was brought in as the official religion of the country, and Islam also proclaims very strictly that there is no difference between people whatever race they may belong to.

Yet all of these things have always been ignored. In Pakistan our minorities are still prosecuted, very much so. Hazaras, Shias, Ahmadis, Christians are all targeted, their colonies are destroyed, their women abducted and forced to convert after being forced into marriage. Asia Bibi has taken refuge in another country, and Malala Yusufzai is condemned by all and sundry in the country of her birth because as a woman she is not supposed to say the things she does. We claim to be devout followers of Islam, a religion that condemns racism, gender bias, discrimination and violence in no uncertain terms, and yet we call people names based on their gender, colour and caste, and in the Punjab marry according to caste as well.

Salman Taseer died ten years ago in January, murdered by his own security guard because he spoke against an unfair law, one that goes against the very religion it claims to stem from. He was murdered because he voiced sympathy for this law’s victims. His bravery was never commemorated, yet the man who murdered him lies buried in a shrine near Islamabad that is daily visited by thousands of admirers that include the son-in-law of a former Prime Minister.

Taseer’s death was a loss for the country, because with him we lost a man who had his heart in the right place. He was also a man who spoke out against a law that goes against the state religion of the country.

SIMS AND SALARIES

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/06/13/sims-and-salaries/

Ideally of course things should be organised in such a way that people are able to have their legitimate concerns addressed without resorting to crime. But when a crime does occur it requires punishment. The best punishment is that which is just, and acts as a deterrent for any future crime.

So, what is crime?

A crime is an intentional act that is socially harmful.

And what is justice?

In its most basic definition, justice is ‘the principle that people receive that which they deserve.’ And an aspect of justice is the relationship between a crime and its punishment. Every punishment or penalty must fit the transgression or crime for which it is prescribed, otherwise it is unjust. An extension of this is that the punishment should discourage or prevent other similar transgressions or crimes from taking place.

The current government, like previous governments in this country, can claim a handful of achievements. The vaccination drive against covid-19 is one of them. The drive has been well organised, and many people have been vaccinated, but still many more are refusing vaccinations.

Certain penalties seem to have been prescribed for non-compliance just now. Are those penalties just? Do they fit the crime? And will they discourage or prevent other similar transgressions?  This is why this discussion is taking place.

Those refusing vaccinations are in many cases doing so without knowing a thing about the science involved. They imagine they know better than the medical experts.

For others, vaccination figures low on their list of priorities which in many cases concern where the next meal is to come from, which area to use next when nature calls, how to afford a child’s marriage, and so o Given such matters, fending off an invisible bug seems almost a laugh.

Is not being vaccinated a crime? In other words, is non-compliance with the directive to be vaccinated a crime?

It is, indirectly. Covid-19 is a deadly disease. It has killed millions of persons worldwide and it has had untold economic fallout. An unvaccinated person is much more prone to infection, so is much more likely to die from the disease and is likely to pass on the virus to others. Therefore non-compliance with regards to vaccination against covid-19 is tantamount to self-harm and murder, which are both crimes.

In the case of not getting vaccinated because there was not enough information extended in a fashion appropriate to the audience, or if there are matters to do with basic survival that take precedence, the fault lies with the authorities. Do we have any penalties against them?

The government has come up with some penalties against non-compliance.

According to the news ‘an official’ says that ‘the Punjab government decided on Thursday to block the SIM cards of people refusing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus’. Since then a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Sajid Shah has refuted the report regarding SIMs saying that no such proposals are under consideration. Neither news has been confirmed. It is either yet another U-turn, a hallmark of this government, or the matter is still under consideration, despite the assurance. We will find out.

Meantime in Sindh it seems it has been decided that government servants who do not get vaccinated by July will not be given their salaries.

Should either penalty using SIM or salary be allowed? Are these penalties just or even legal?

The Oxford handbook lists punishments under the following categories: Retribution, Deterrence, Rehabilitation, Incapacitation, and Restoration.

They’re all fairly self-explanatory:

Retribution is the traditional eye for an eye which tends to satisfy the anger that is produced by a crime.  It is open to judgement, to a consideration of what equates what. It is considered to be an effective deterrent – if it is used responsibly, and can be an effective deterrent.

Incapacitation is another traditional penalty which means putting the culprit in a place where no harm can come to others. That means anything from prison to execution, both of which are a huge deterrent to others but like all other punishments, and perhaps more than others, it requires justice and equity.

Deterrence is the knowledge that punishment will occur if a certain crime is committed. It depends on being aware of the consequences of a crime, and like retribution it works if it is used responsibly.

Rehabilitation is not a deterrent. It takes place alongside the punishment and seeks to mitigate the reasons that made that person commit the crime. The reasons may be psychological or financial, or they may be linked to a lack of understanding, in which case education and information are provided. In other words the person committing the crime is helped to find ways of dealing with his or her problems, ways that are legal and not harmful.

Restoration calls for the person committing the crime to see for him or herself the results of his actions, to hear about them from the victims themselves, and then to try and make amends, which may take anything from saying sorry to doing something to resolve the matter if possible, or to at least try and lessen the fallout. It is a positive approach to punishment, and once again, it works only if it is implemented responsibly.

A penalty must have a direct bearing on the crime, and have a relationship to it, and the consequences of the penalty must not worsen the situation.

To return to the matter of SIM or Salary, do either of those penalties bear any relation to the crime. If a man refuses to be vaccinated, do we have a right to starve his family (holding back the salary)? What’s more, since the salary is linked to the performance of a job, if that job has been performed it requires payment. To withhold that payment is morally and legally wrong and also not allowed from the religious point of view.

If people have not been sufficiently educated as to the importance of this vaccination does the fault lie with them?

No.

Will taking away the SIM card on a person’s phone and not allowing him or her to possess another solve this particular problem? Will it force him to be vaccinated if he does not believe vaccination is required? Can he not borrow someone else’s phone? What’s more, in a country where fake documents are the norm rather than the exception, would a fake vaccination document be a surprise?

Will either of these penalties educate people as to the importance of being vaccinated?

The answer is no to all of those.

These measures could have been classified as a deterrent for non-compliance that’s the only one, and once again, in Pakistan there is always a way around.

In a society where punishment is reserved for the certain few, where a certain set of persons escape punishment every time because they happen to have the right contacts, a healthy bank balance and position, can this and other punishments ever be a deterrent, or will it simply produce more resentment, more resistance to what is right?

There are intelligent minds in this country which disappear at crucial moments. You wonder if this is because they are not where they should be, or if they are not permitted to function.

OF A LIMITED UNDERSTANDING AND ITS HARMFUL EFFECTS

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/06/06/of-a-limited-understanding/

It appears that Pakistan’s Punjab is likely to miss the Covid-19 vaccination target, which hardly comes as a surprise.

Arrangements at vaccination centres appear to be more or less satisfactory, although there are cases of overcrowding which are likely to cause a few outbreaks of infection by themselves. There are fewer glitches than anticipated, and those that exist involve mostly the less well heeled segment of society, which again comes as no surprise.

Some of those ‘less well heeled’ people were turned back for the first jab because ‘the due date wasn’t there yet.’ There is no reason for not vaccinating any person when he or she arrives without a date, if, under the rules such a person is legitimately allowed to be vaccinated, that is, if he or she fits the age currently being vaccinated, and is Pakistani. The first dose does not require a specific date, it’s the second one that needs to be three weeks away from the first, with the Chinese vaccine. The authorities should welcome all comers with open arms, whenever they turn up.

The registration website is well designed and easy to use. The CNIC issue date field on the website was a bit fiddly but someone seems to have fixed that problem. Well done.

The hardest part to get around as always is the attitude among some segments of society, the know-it-all anti-vaxxers who put both themselves and people around them at risk by refusing to be vaccinated, and little is being done to get such people to change their mind.

In the rural settings of the Punjab– which are probably no different to rural settings anywhere else– people appear to be quite unconcerned about getting vaccinated. It is in fact a subject that does not seem to feature anywhere on their mental horizon. It would be a good idea to take the vaccination drive to such places rather than expect people who live there to lay down their tools and make the long and difficult trek to a vaccination centre, something that is not likely to happen.

As for other nay-sayers their mind is often made up by so-called religious authorities who present one of the most witless arguments by saying that vaccinations represent an attempt to pre-empt the Will of Allah. That if a person gets ill it is Allah’s Will and if he dies or recovers that too is Allah’s Will. It is not up to us to ‘interfere.’

Well, we all know that everything is Allah’s Will, but if that interference logic were sane it would apply equally to the ditches at the Jang-e-Qandaq (Battle of the Ditch) all those years ago, wouldn’t it, when the followers of the Prophet (pbuh) should have simply sat there waiting for Allah’s Will and not lifted a finger to defend themselves then. No trenches, no digging. That is just one of the millions of examples that proves how ill-considered such arguments are, and how much the people of this country have suffered at the hands of people who present them, and how little they are used to reason.

I remember my henna-haired maulvi sahib teaching me to read the Quran when I was a child. He was a good man, very patient with my errors. Yet when we came to a certain verse which is a particularly beautiful one, he told me that if I were to put a stone with a hole in it into my mouth and then read that verse, all my prayers would be granted. Somewhere along the line he also told me that not stopping at a ‘meem’ would land me in hell. He told me nothing about that verse or any other verse, indeed he knew nothing about that verse, or about any other verse of the Quran. My father, hearing his instructions, asked me to simply learn how to read the Arabic from the teacher, and leave the explanations and meanings to my parents.

And yet my teacher’s limited understanding of the scripture was nothing unusual. Most religious figures in this country today are no different, yet they pass on their flawed understanding to all those willing to accept it, and there is no shortage of those willing to accept it. After all, all education is passed on that way here, be it science, history, or another subject, and how can anyone understand anything if all they’re doing is reeling off a list of elements, dates and something else off another list?

Anyway, this was a somewhat belated attempt to celebrate the annual World Parrot Day this past May 31st. May we succeed in protecting all nature as well as those birds, while at the same time remembering just what parrots are: twits, beautiful ones.

TINY THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/05/30/tiny-things-that-make-a-big-difference/

People tend to remember only the dramatic discoveries and inventions, such as penicillin, the telephone and the automobile. These are without a doubt huge inventions/discoveries, crucial ones, and thank the Lord for them, but life would be hard indeed without some apparently less spectacular discoveries as well, such as the compass, the flush toilet, matches and anesthesia, to quote just a very few examples. We discovered fire a long time ago, but imagine having to rub two stones together every time  you needed a cuppa tea. Or having your tonsils removed without anesthesia, let’s not even think of amputations or anything else. I mean come on, life without the flush toilet…doesn’t bear thinking, right? Yet there are many millions of people today who live without toilets.

It may come as a relief however to know that this write-up will not be focusing on flushes, although it has drawn attention, hopefully, to how miserable life would be without them. Instead, let’s go with the pacemaker, the little gadget that connects to the heart and ensures that the heart beats at a regular, safe rate.

Pacemakers have come a long way and are very much in use now since they were first invented in the 1960s by the Canadian John Hopps. The first one was used in 1962 to help 72-year-old Mr Hintzman with his erratic heart, one that would beat either too slowly or stop altogether.

That first pacemaker looked like a small radio, was about 30cm long and it was powered by a specific household current. Patients hooked onto this would not last half a day in Pakistan, if that, given our erratic power supply.

Pacemakers matured to implantable ones in the 1970s, but they could only be set to one heart rate, lasted just a couple of years after which the four lithium batteries had to be replaced, and they could not store data which meant that if the heart became better or worse there was no easy way to find out.

Today’s pacemakers are about the size of a small pencil sharpener, the battery lasts six to ten years, it also stores data and it is adjustable to the required heart rate as indicated thanks to that data.

What makes these new pacemakers and many other things which are indispensable to life today possible is a little thing called a microchip, the real hero today.

Think a little gizmo about the size of your fingernail, that is a microchip. That pert little thing is one of the most important inventions in the world today.

An article in ThoughtCo. by Mary Bellis tells you about the microchip.

The people who invented the microchip were two Americans, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. They’re built layer by layer on a wafer of semiconductor material, like silicon. Chemicals, gas and light are used to build the layers. Delicate computer circuitry called an integrated circuit is etched upon these layers. It is this tiny piece of something that powers almost everything today, from spacecraft to phones, tracking systems, televisions, bank cards, the above-mentioned pacemakers, other medical devices, and of course once again the ubiquitous toilet. Yes, there is a toilet that contains a microchip which shuts off water in the commode if it threatens to overflow, and hear this, there is now another one developed in Japan that makes intelligent deductions based on the user’s daily contributions to the bowl and automatically sends information to the person’s GP. So if your doctor knows you have diabetes you know who’s been talking.

If we’re grateful for the telephone today, remember it too has come a long way from the telephones made of Bakelite that were plugged into a certain spot and could not be used anywhere but at that spot. No Google, folks, no GPS, no using it in the car and definitely no placing one in your pocket or bag. All those changes came about, thanks to microchips.

Today people go about their daily lives with pacemakers inside them, there are no tubes, wires or anything else to tell that there is one there. Other delicate surgery too is performed with the aid of instruments using microchips and patients are able to lead a much more normal lives subsequently thanks to them.

Most lately in Canada a chip has been developed that once it is installed in the brain, can interact with brain cells, detect seizures and treat people with neurological diseases. The two people involved in this research have been Colin Dalton of Canada and Naveed Syed, also Canadian but originally from Pakistan.

It’s people like these, and Kilby, Noyce and Bill Gates who have made all this possible.

The world would have been a much harder place without them.

NOT IN HIS NAME

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/05/23/not-in-his-name/

“No Arab is superior to a non-Arab, no coloured person to a white person, nor a white person to a coloured person, except by piety.”

Muhammad (PBUH) the Prophet of Islam

What do you say about a country in which 20 percent of the population feels threatened?

The plight of the Palestinians of Gaza is heart wrenching. The Israeli attacks began more than ten days ago, since when the Israelis have subjected the people of Gaza to hundreds of air attacks. Buildings have been razed to the ground and almost three hundred men, women and children killed.

It is good to see the support Pakistanis have shown the people of Gaza, despite this country’s own track record which might have made its people hold back in shame, in keeping with the Urdu saying: hum kis moun say uhhain bura kahain (what right does our own behaviour give us to condemn them?) Or let’s put it this way, it’s great that we are protesting, but other than the handful of people who over time have brought attention to the matter, where is the justice and similar protests for our own people, our own sufferers of discrimination?

According to a report published in 2018 by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, ‘Pakistan is one of the countries most affected by violent religious extremism, despite lying outside the major conflict zones.’

A major newspaper reports that ‘as many as 247 civilians were killed in sectarian terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2017’ alone.

The groups that most often suffer at the hands of extremists in Pakistan are the Hazaras, the Shias, the Ahmadis, and the Christians. Although women should be included in this list, this column is not about gender bias.

Shias constitute about 20% percent of this country’s population. Shias, if you remember are the people who hold the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)’s daughter, grandson and their family in particular reverence.

As many as 4,000 Shias have been killed in sectarian riots since 1987 in Pakistan, over a period of just 30 years.

Just outside Karachi is a graveyard with hundreds of graves. Many of the Shias whose lives ended violently are laid to rest here. Five of these graves belong to members of the same family. Al-Jazeera reports that one belongs to a four-year-old child who was killed in one of the many sectarian riots. His mother is buried next to him. The mother apparently died when she saw her dead son’s body.

The graveyard is surrounded by metal fences and high walls. Even in death…

Most Hazara people live in Afghanistan. The Hazaras also form a significant minority in Pakistan. They live mostly in Quetta. The Hazara community made a contribution to Pakistan via Qazi Muhammad Essa who was a close friend of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He came from Baluchistan and he helped Jinnah set up the Muslim League in that part of the subcontinent. Yet, because most Hazara happen to be Shia, After the Taliban came into being, this community was greatly persecuted by that group, and later also persecuted by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other militant groups. Despite all this, and throughout Pakistan’s existence the Hazara community has made significant contributions to Pakistan. Genl Musa Khan, commander in chief of the Pakistan Army for ten years could trace ancestry to this community as could several other persons in public life today.

The Hazara community has long been persecuted in Pakistan, but since 2001 more than 550 Hazaras have been killed in Pakistan and many more injured. Among these were those men and boys shot in Mastung near Pakistan’s border with Iran as they were traveling in a bus in 2011; their bus was stopped and specifically these men were asked to come out (the driver who was not Hazara and the women were left in the bus), the men were told to lie by the roadside and were shot dead.

The Pakistan Constitution may have been amended in 1974 so that people of the Ahmadiyya community could be declared non-Muslim, but Pakistan is also signatory to the International Covenant to Civil and Political Rights, and to clamp down on its people’s religious beliefs and practices is a violation of its obligations under this Covenant. It is time that the government and the ‘mainstream’ people of Pakistan understood their obligations, and lived according to them, regardless of what India or Israel do.

Since the amendment mentioned above, hundreds of members of the Ahmadiyya community were killed in Pakistan, and in 2010, 86 of them were killed while at worship in Lahore. Many mosques belonging to the community, on land legally owned by it, have been taken over or demolished with no legal sanction. They are discriminated against in education as well as in other fields. In 2008 in the Punjab Medical College, 23 Ahmadiyya students were suspended, three years later and elsewhere, ten more were expelled and five years later, yet elsewhere, two more. Last year alone, five Ahmadi’s were killed in Pakistan only because of their beliefs.

In 2011, mullahs declared Ahmadis ‘deserving of death’ and published leaflets with names and addresses of prominent community members and their businesses.

Access to Ahmadiyya websites has been blocked in Pakistan.

Christians constitute a large minority group in Pakistan and there have been times when they have been targeted like the other minorities, particularly with accusations of blasphemy as a result of which riots break out and people die. One of the best known of those was Asia Bibi who was accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death, although her sentence was later overturned. The then Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer who criticised the blasphemy law was murdered by his own security guard Mumtaz Qadri. Although Qadri was later executed on the charge of murder (he murdered the Governor, didn’t he? Other murderers in such cases are never apprehended and the acts continue), his burial place is now a shrine for his many admirers.

So to return to the criticism of Israel’s actions, that criticism is absolutely justified and very necessary. Any person, group of country with half a conscience must condemn their despicable move against the Palestinians.  Yet, given the treatment of minorities in this country, Pakistan’s criticism of Israel is pretty ironic, don’t you think?

There is a saying, an anonymous one, that says that when we point a finger at someone else, our other three fingers are pointing the other way at ourselves. And when we look at ourself, just what do we see?