ZH

THE question of devolution of power to the grass roots is often

missing in the discourse on democratic transformation. It,
however, goes to the credit of the PTI that it has focused on this
extremely critical issue. Notwithstmoreover

ing some concerns about its viability, the passage of the Punjab
Local Government Act, 2019, marks the most serious attempt to
bring governance closer to the people. An elected and empowered
local government system is vital to the democratic process.

Despite being a constitutional obligation, the local government system has

never been a priority for democratically elected governments in the past. In
fact, every effort has been made to render local bodies ineffective. Even those
political parties that have been championing the cause of provincial autonomy
are not willing to devolve power further down.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising that we did not have functional local

governments for several years after democracy returned to the country in
2008. That included the full tenure of the PPP government (2008 to 2013)
and the

three years of the PML-N government. It was only after the intervention of
the Supreme Court that elections were held in 2015. This was the first time in
Pakistan’s history that local elections were conducted on a party basis.

The local government system has never been a priority

for democratically elected governments in the past.
However, the provinces did little to facilitate the process of making the local
governments truly functional. The truncated powers under the new legislation
enacted by the PML-N government in Punjab and the PPP in Sindh had
rendered the elected local bodies ineffective. The local governments had
nominal powers and few funds at their disposal to carry out development
work. Matters improved somewhat when the Supreme Court intervened again,
ordering the provincial bodies to speed up the transfer of authority to the new
elected local bodies.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD
Ironically, the local government system was much more powerful under
successive military governments, though for reasons other than strengthening
democracy. Notwithstanding some flaws, the local governments enjoyed much
greater administrative and fiscal powers under Gen Musharraf’s military-led
dispensation. Instead of improving upon it to make the system more
democratic, the PML-N and PPP governments disempowered them. There
were heavily centralised power structures in both provinces.

Although the PTI’s experiment in KP may not have been a great success, there
has certainly been a sincere effort to strengthen the local government system.
It is apparent that the decentralisation in KP is much broader than in the
other provinces. The province has devolved power beyond the district, tehsil
and union council levels of local government to even the lower tiers of village
and neighbourhood councils.

There is, however, still a lot of room for improvement in the system to make it
much more effective. Political and bureaucratic hurdles need to be removed in
order to make the system work more smoothly. It remains to be seen what
kind of changes are made by the provincial government.

Undoubtedly, the latest local government law for Punjab envisions far wider
and more radical reforms. Elected neighbourhood and village councils with
powers to decide and supervise development work in their areas are likely to
give the people greater control over their lives. It may also lead to the
weakening of the existing power structure.

The new system promises to devolve 30 per cent of the annual provincial
development budget to the local governments. It is a move in the right
direction that could help reduce regional disparity. Surely, it will take some
time for the new order to take root, but it is a first, and significant, step
towards involving people in development work. The centralisation of power is
one of the major reasons for the backwardness of some regions.

One of the most radical provisions in the act is the direct election of town and
city mayors. This system exists in most democracies but was never
implemented in Pakistan. It certainly makes sense. Direct elections will
strengthen participatory democracy. Taxation powers and control over
development work will indeed make the office of mayor effective.

Surely we have a mayoral system in a few big cities in Pakistan, but without
much authority as the real administrative power is with the provincial
governments. Cities with millions of people are more or less run by the
provincial minister for local government.

The extensive devolutionary process proposed in Punjab’s new law may bring
a radical shift in existing power dynamics. Instead of MNAs and MPAs, the
elected mayors will be controlling development in their areas. Thus the
reservations of some lawmakers within the ruling PTI and outside over the
reforms are understandable.

A major question is whether or not the Sindh government will also be willing
to change its existing local government system to devolve power to the grass
roots. Accumulation of power including municipal jobs leaves the local bodies
non-functional.

Karachi is a glaring example of how the concentration of power by the

provincial government has left little authority for the elected authorities of the
country’s largest city with a population of 20 million. Even the responsibility
of solid waste collection has been taken over by the Sindh government.

No wonder Karachi has become the most mismanaged city, resulting in the
complete collapse of essential municipal services. The situation in other
metropolitan centres, like Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana, is not very
different. This state of affairs has widened the political fault lines in the
province. The PPP’s resistance to devolving power is likely to make the
situation worse.

While being the main architect of the 18th Amendment that turned Pakistan
into a truly federal state by giving greater autonomy to the provinces, the PPP
is not willing to comply with one of its most important clauses relating to
devolution of power to the local governments. It prompts questions about the
party’s democratic and progressive credentials. Its policy on devolution of
power to the local level is dictated by vested interests.

Meanwhile, although the new law in Punjab is indeed a radical move, much
more is needed to strengthen and revitalise the devolution process critical to
achieving as many layers of democratic governance as possible.

The writer is an author and journalist.

zhussain100@yahoo.com
Twitter: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2019

RZ

THE month of Ramazan has begun and Muslims all over the world are fasting. From the
far-flung near Arctic towns in Norway and Iceland, to the tropical locales of Indonesia and
Malaysia, local customs, special foods and spiritual regeneration are all front and centre
for fasting Muslims. So it is nearly everywhere except next door to Pakistan, in Xinjiang,
China’s predominantly Muslim province.

One post on the website of the Food and Drug Administration of Xinjiang says “food service
places will operate during normal hours in Ramadan”, and more importantly, “During Ramadan
do not engage in fasting, vigils and other religious activities”.

According to the Save Uighur website, “China is the only place in the world where Muslims are
not allowed to fast. Uighurs and Muslims have been forbidden from fasting for the last three
years.” Other reports point out that Ramazan restrictions apply in particular to schools and
government offices.

Religious freedom and Islamic solidarity have both been

forgotten when it comes to standing up to China.
According to a report in the New York Times, China has imprisoned a million ethnic Uighurs in
vast internment camps. In one, at the edge of a large desert in western China, hundreds of Uighur
Muslims are forced to participate in a high-pressure indoctrination programme in which they
must learn Chinese and job skills and essentially delink themselves from their religious identity.

This is only one of several internment camps currently operated by the state, all of them fenced
in and guarded by armed guards. One man from the camp said that he had been rounded up for
reciting holy verses at a funeral. After three months at a camp, he and others were asked to
renounce links to their previous lives. Many of those who have been sequestered in these camps,
all of which include some sort of brainwashing element, are expected to offer up similar
renunciations.

The crackdown on Uighur Muslims is linked to a large surveillance programme that is being
tested by the Chinese government. In Kashgar, the main city in Xinjiang and one with a vibrant
Muslim history, cameras and surveillance are reportedly found everywhere.

The goal obviously is to replace human intelligence of spies and snitches with technology.
Regular checkpoints force the Uighurs to show their national identity cards and undergo
questioning by guards who are armed. Sometimes the police take Uighur phones in order to see
if they have installed the compulsory software that allows the government to monitor their calls.
At other times, what the police erase makes no sense (one man complained that a police officer
had erased the picture of a camel), but in all cases they have the power to decide whether or not a
person will be allowed to proceed through the checkpoint.
Nor is this the only means of controlling and monitoring the population. The government
controls internet and telecommunication already, which means that anyone saying anything
against it, or even someone seen to show excessive allegiance to one’s faith, is at risk.
Neighbourhoods in Kashgar have ‘monitors’ that are assigned the task of monitoring several
families to ensure that they are not violating rules such as secretly fasting despite its prohibition.

With China’s growing power in the world, not least in Muslim countries like Pakistan, few are
interested in speaking out about the inhumane and unwarranted crackdown on Muslims. Many
Muslim countries owe large sums to the Chinese and any kind of vocal opposition or taking up
of the Uighur issue will likely hurt their chances of continuing to attract China’s money to their
own shores.

The United States, in its most Islamophobic moment to date, is similarly uninterested. US trade
talks with China concluded last week without even bringing up the issue of the Uighurs and the
religious repression that makes up their lives.

Religious freedom and Islamic solidarity have both been forgotten when it comes to standing up
to China. The few who are still trying are the minority. A Turkish activist recently tried to
initiate a campaign to “fast from China” via which Muslims who are fasting would abstain from
using and buying Chinese goods such as mobile phones, clothing and electronics. It is unknown
how much attention his campaign, which follows the hashtag #FastFromChina, will attract in the
future.

Others, such as groups of American Muslims have been trying to draw attention to the curbs on
fasting in China by travelling to the country and observing Ramazan there. Because they are
Americans, China cannot crack down on them for fasting and they hope that their public fasting
in China will draw attention to the millions of Uighurs who cannot fast in their own country.

Pakistan itself gets more and more indebted to Chinese loans, Chinese-built infrastructure and
technology by the day, the hour and the minute. It is perhaps because of this that none of these
efforts to speak out for the Uighurs have gained any traction at all in a country that is so
geographically close to where such egregious abuses of religious liberty and freedom are taking
place.

This month, Pakistanis are freely fasting (even while forbidding non-Muslim minorities from
public consumption of food and all restaurants shut) but few seem to have spared a moment to
consider the fates of the people who, just like them, would like to observe the tenets of their
religious faith.

Self-absorbed and turning away, none of Pakistan’s religious scholars, or television anchors or
military brass or civilian ministers, seem to be interested in speaking up about what is happening
next door. If they do not have the guts or the gumption to do the right thing, then what can one
expect of ordinary Pakistanis who may be fasting but yet are not quite interested in doing the
right thing so others may do the same?

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2019

AR

\THERE is a PPP controlled by Mr Asif Ali Zardari, and within that

party, the hopefuls cannot help locating another party, which is
waiting to work, or is already working, under Mr Bilawal Bhutto-
Zardari. Then there’s a whole PPP inside the PTI that Mr Imran
Khan falls back on when he is desperately looking for agents to take
his message of change forward.

From time to time, we hear the grumbling of the original PTI against the
prime minister giving too much importance to these PPP-ites as well as
technocrats, but so long as it all serves democracy, there’s little real reason for
anyone to be perturbed.

The political parties in Pakistan have grown in their own ways in peculiar
circumstances. If earlier they had factions, today they have entire parties
within parties that are catapulted to prominence by a wave or by necessity.

Like now when Mian Nawaz Sharif’s party, it is being said, has taken over the
PML-N. It has been put in charge because the Shahbaz Sharif party had not
been able to come up to expectations. As is quite the norm these days, the
change of command from Shahbaz to Nawaz has been accompanied by a royal
clamour in which Mr Shahbaz Sharif is being painted as someone who has
caused irreparable damage to the PML-N — without, of course, endangering
his permanent place as an important member of the dynasty.

A whole new setup, that has PML-N stalwarts operating

from a variety of party posts, is in place now.
Mr Shahbaz Sharif had managed to take command of the party with a
promise. His leadership signified a PML-N will to relocate patrons among
Pakistani kingmakers so that the party could be cleared as a hopeful among
power-seekers in the country. The decision had been taken after apparent
deliberation within the party and the Sharif household. It led to — or was
preceded by — the resistance-duo of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz
allowing themselves to be turned into a spectacle of sorts by deciding not to
speak on any issue.
The onus of leading the party towards a compromise rested entirely with the
Shahbaz Sharif party within the PML-N. This right plank within the party
appeared to be doing quite well until recently. Its strategy was credited with
achieving results such as getting Mian Sahib out of jail, even if temporarily,
and providing Shahbaz Sharif himself an opportunity to don his favourite
headgear in a climatically more accommodating and freer London. But then
something snapped and there had to be a quick change in strategy, and a
change within the party.

What could it be? At the risk of sounding repetitive, it is said that there is a
danger lurking that could destroy the PML-N as well as the two parties that
coexist inside it. In recent times, Prime Minister Imran Khan has been seen
flaunting his new local government system, which itself has emerged from the
old system born and then ruined during Gen Musharraf’s time. It was
invented by the general’s reconstruction bureau and then mutilated by
Musharraf allies jealously guarding the old centralised order against any
progressive advance of a new grass-roots level, pro-people alternative.

The system is back in Punjab wearing new clothes and enjoying the
encouragement of a new father figure in Prime Minister Khan — just as many
relics of the Musharraf era, including the politicians prominent at the time,
have returned to the national stage.

A similar local government system had earlier been installed in Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa with some of the regular observers in that province saying they
were not impressed. In Punjab, however, the new arrival could lead to creating
quite a lot of space for the PTI to work in and snatch from the PML-N’s
control.

It is not clear how the PML-N would have gone about it had its attempt to free
Mian Sahib for medical treatment abroad succeeded. Could it have still opted
for a change of guard under the Nawaz-Maryam duo, or persevered with its
strange silent politics? The party may say that it is not important now to
answer this question.

What is easy to guess is that Mr Shahbaz Sharif’s flight abroad and the reality
of Mian Sahib having to go back to jail made it all the more simple for the
PML-N as a whole to make the decision. The party decided to cap this phase —
or start a new chapter— with the ‘triumphant’ return of Mr Nawaz Sharif.

A whole new setup, that has PML-N stalwarts operating from a variety of party
posts, is in place now. It is ready to work under the re-energised leadership of
Mian Sahib. More precisely, party insiders have been quoted as assigning a
pivotal role to Ms Maryam Nawaz in proportion to her promise before she
suddenly fell silent for what is a very long period for anyone with ambitions to
redefine national politics. A lot has changed since, and the challenge is even
bigger.

The method, PML-N voices say, is going to be different and effective.

However, the goal, they will know, will be the same as the one pursued by Mr
Shahbaz Sharif who had many members of the new Nawaz Sharif team, which
has been given the party reins, working for him as well. Since the aim remains
the same and there’s no real talk of a split, the two parties in the PML-N will
likely merge once the patrons have been sufficiently won over.

It is a bit like these wrestling bouts we see on television involving two pairs of
grapplers pitched against each other. While one member of the team fights it
out in the middle of the ring, his partner can use the time to catch his breath.
Quite often the climax is marked by both the fighters in the team letting loose
a barrage of blows on their opponents or — as is often the case with these
mock power shows — pretending to do so. The outcome is decided long before
the final punch is delivered.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2019

MA

PAKISTAN’s long, close and turbulent relationship with the US has

had a pervasive impact on this country’s history. The last phase of
that relationship, the ‘war on terror’ alliance, ended in August
2017, when Donald Trump announced a punitive policy towards
Pakistan, suspending high-level contacts, freezing Coalition
Support Funds repayments and demanding Pakistan’s cooperation
on Afghanistan.

Read: America suspends entire security aid to Pakistan

Over the next 18 months, America’s initially coercive demands on Afghanistan

became progressively realistic, eventually asking Islamabad to help start direct
talks between the US and the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan has delivered on this request. Several rounds of US-Taliban talks,

held mostly in Doha, have reportedly led to draft agreements for withdrawal of
US troops from Afghanistan and to prevent Afghanistan’s territory from being
used as a base for global terrorism in future. However, the Taliban have
refused to talk to what they call the ‘puppet’ government in Kabul or to accept
a ceasefire until US troop withdrawal is under way.

The US has not offered Pakistan any tangible concessions in exchange for its
assistance. Contrary to earlier assurances that Islamabad would have no
responsibility for the talks’ outcome, it is now asking that Pakistan play an
important role in achieving a successful conclusion of the ‘peace process’.

US demands have been extended to the eastern front. During and after the
Pulwama mini-crisis, US pressure was ratcheted up — directly and through
the UN and the FATF — to demand actions against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammad and the inclusion of JeM’s Maulana Azhar on the UN
Security Council’s ‘terrorism’ list.

America’s new hostility towards Pakistan is due mostly to

its emerging global rivalry with China.
Islamabad has seen it in its own interest to comply with the demands to
proscribe the activities of the LeT and JeM. It has also continued its
cooperation on Afghanistan. However, this may not prove sufficient to restore
friendly ties with the US.

America’s new hostility towards Pakistan is due mostly to its emerging global
rivalry with China, in which India has been chosen as Washington’s strategic
partner whereas Pakistan is listed on China’s side of the power equation. The
recently announced US South Asia Policy is predicated on India’s regional
domination.

Read: Pakistan wants ‘proper ties’ with US like its relations with China

If Pakistan is to establish an equitable relationship with the US, it will have to

build the capability to resist India-US military, financial and domestic
pressure. To do so, it needs strong and nationally-oriented governance and
China’s unreserved cooperation.

Pakistan is well placed to resist military pressure. The Pulwama mini-crisis

demonstrated two things: one, that Pakistan can defend itself by conventional
means; two, that nuclear deterrence worked once again to moderate military
behaviour on both sides. Yet, India is embarked on a major arms acquisition
and modernisation process which Pakistan will have to continue to neutralise
if not match. Most importantly, Pakistan must disabuse India of any
presumption that, under a US umbrella, it could ‘test’ Pakistan’s nuclear
deterrence or resort to a pre-emptive strike against Pakistan’s strategic assets.
A Pakistani ‘second strike’ capability will eliminate this danger.

Pakistan’s financial defences are vulnerable. The nation needs to come

together to implement the politically difficult yet vital tax and other measures
required to ensure a sustained balance in the country’s fiscal and external
accounts. For the longer term, Pakistan should join the nascent efforts of
China, Russia and some other countries to construct alternate or
supplementary arrangements to the US-dominated financial system.

Likewise, Pakistan is not fully equipped to fight the ‘hybrid’ war being waged
by India and others in Balochistan, ex-Fata, sections of the media and politics
to destabilise the country domestically. Using all the tools of modern
technology, Pakistan must develop a sophisticated intelligence, counter-
insurgency and political action capability for defence.

‘Defensive’ measures do not imply systemic hostility with the US. There are
vast areas for mutually beneficial cooperation which can be promoted as long
as the US does not threaten Pakistan’s core interests and positions, especially
its rejection of Indian domination and support for Kashmiri self-
determination.

Counterterrorism, regional arms control and global non-proliferation are

identified issues for continued cooperation. Trade and investment are the
most promising areas to build a future Pakistan-US relationship. The US is
Pakistan’s prime export market. Pakistani exports are held back due to lack of
competitive capacity. Pakistan’s current industrialization drive should target
production for exports to the huge US as well as Chinese and Asian markets.

Similarly, even though US official assistance to Pakistan will be minimal and

conditional, Pakistan should make a concerted effort to invite US private
investment into the vast and untapped economic opportunities that exist in
almost every sector of the Pakistan economy, including the SEZs and the
privatisation programme. Apart from finance, such investment will bring
advanced management techniques and production technologies to Pakistan.

Pakistan and the US also agree that there are vast opportunities for regional
economic cooperation and integration, although their respective regional
priorities are not yet fully convergent.

Despite the new Cold War, the US may find it expedient to cooperate with
China and Pakistan to stabilise the Afghan economy in a post-settlement
scenario, including through Afghanistan’s integration into CPEC, and
collaborative execution of several agreed transnational projects, such as the
TAPI and CASA-1000 ventures.

Pakistan’s revived relationship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE offers another
avenue for indirect economic Pakistan-US cooperation. Significantly, Saudi
and UAE investments in the energy and petrochemicals sectors, besides
potentially building Pakistan’s bridges with US corporates, will also link them,
via oil and gas exports, to China and Central Asia through Pakistan.

Hope resides in the possibility that the US will perceive the economic
momentum in Asia, unleashed by the Belt and Road Initiative and Asian
economic integration, as a strategic opportunity rather than a challenge. US
participation could transform the Belt and Road endeavour into a globally
beneficial enterprise.

Indeed, faced by global threats of climate change, poverty and nuclear

annihilation, and offered the alternative of a cooperative, knowledge-driven
future of growth and prosperity, the US, China, Russia and other powers,
including India, ultimately would be wise to opt for ‘win-win’ cooperation
rather than ‘lose-lose’ confrontation.

The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2019

ZS

THERE is finally some good news for Prime Minister Imran Khan
and all those who care about saving every mother’s life. According
to the State of World Population 2019 report released on April 29,
Pakistan’ s maternal mortality rate may be down today at 178 per
100,000 — compared to 276 10 years ago, and 375 per 100,000
births in 1995. This is no small achievement and demonstrates that
when policymakers and health practitioners make up their minds
about a priority, change can happen in a relatively short period.
What seemed immovable — women delivering in homes and not
healthcare institutions — may in fact have turned around in the last
decade. The default now, if women and families can afford it, is to
deliver in institutions.

Today, as the world celebrates Mother’s Day, spending millions of dollars on

cards, gifts, and flowers, it is worth reflecting on our values regarding women’s
lives. Twenty-five years ago, Dr Sadiqua Jafarey, a leading professor of
gynecology and obstetrics, conducted her seminal research on ‘mothers
brought in dead’ from within a 10-kilometre radius at the Jinnah Hospital,
Karachi. The study chilled many, exposing the large numbers of pregnant
women dying simply because transport and money could not be arranged in
time, and laying bare the truth about how cheap these mothers’ lives were
held.

The National Committee on Maternal Health was founded in 1994. And in

2007, for the first time, a national maternal mortality survey was launched to
assess rates of death and causes through verbal autopsies. Twenty-five years
on, the considerable attention to maternal health has paid off: skilled birth
attendance during delivery has almost doubled from 39 per cent to 69pc.

But does this good news mean that we as a nation have become more caring
towards our mothers? Have we finally lived up to the idea that paradise lies
beneath the feet of our mothers? Or is it a case of business interests coinciding
with value changes at home? Notably, Balochistan, where maternal mortality
is highest, has experienced the least progress: skilled birth attendance is still
in the 36pc range. This is not unrelated to the less-developed private sector
there.

On Mother’s Day, it is worth reflecting on our values

regarding women’s lives.
Whether business or improved values have driven it, the change is positive.
More money is being spent on maternal care, and there are large increases in
antenatal visits and institutional deliveries. Our only hope, and worry, is that
women should not be drawn into institutions only to receive poor quality of
care, ie unnecessarily face infections, Caesarean sections, and other related
risks. It is worth noting that in an in-depth maternal mortality study in 2014–
15, the Population Council found that most maternal deaths in Punjab and KP
were occurring because mothers in life-threatening health conditions were
being shifted from one ill-equipped facility to another, resulting in the death of
many on the way or upon arrival at the last referred hospital.

And it is also important to remember that one of the major factors in maternal
deaths, apart from skilled deliveries, is the number of pregnancies and
deliveries women undergo and the associated health risks. If we do not care
about the millions of unwanted pregnancies in Pakistan, we will continue to
see women dying or suffering from lifelong ill health brought on by
complications resulting from repeated pregnancies. Unfortunately, it will not
be possible after a certain point to reduce maternal mortality without bringing
down fertility rates.

While lowering fertility, at least to eliminate unwanted pregnancies, seems

common sense and makes policy sense too, it remains one of the hardest
issues to tackle in this country. Pakistan continues to have the highest fertility
rates in Asia, with women having almost one child on average in excess of
their desires. The unmet need for family planning remains high, largely due to
the reluctance of a health sector that is open for business to do institutional
deliveries but offers a closed shop for family planning advice, information and
services. Is this negligence, apathy, or a value-laden reaction against the use of
contraception? The answer lies in all three reasons, but the apathy is
inexcusable. We cannot expect to reduce the risk of maternal deaths without
expanding access to family planning and reducing unwanted pregnancies.

There is another related question we must ask ourselves on Mother’s Day,

because the answer reveals much about our values. Do we exalt only
motherhood and mothers, or is there also a place in our hearts for the well-
being of girls and women in other situations? To understand the urgency of
this question, we need only turn to the alarming statistics emanating out of the
Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-2018, which show that one out
of four women experience violence in marriage, and even more worryingly,
over 41pc say they think the violence was justified due to a fairly trivial set of
reasons, like making an error in cooking or stepping out without the
husband’s permission.

And these figures are for violence within marriage; they do not consider the
violence women experience in other situations at home, or outside and at the
workplace — the latter is a key factor in the low participation of women in
employment. Clearly, Pakistanis need to care more for women, not just as
mothers but for the value they bring in every capacity — to each home, to each
family, and to society.

We must act on changing the very foundation of how we regard the rights of
women and children. Every young girl married while she is a mere child, every
woman who experiences an unwanted or mistimed pregnancy, every girl
denied education or a chance to work outside the home due to fear of violence,
and all those women and girls who face violence directly in the home and
outside ought to be of as much concern as each valuable maternal life saved.
Any society that does not pay attention to these aspects of human life is one
deserving of pity.

The writer is country director of the Population Council in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2019

Arifa noor an

POLITICS consumes its own. And this self-cannibalism is hard to

witness, though it dominates the national political scene at the
moment.

On the one side, we have the government at the centre headed by the PTI,
which is breathlessly outing the ‘chors’ and ‘dakoos’ on the other side of the
aisle. They were and are corrupt and they didn’t just loot the country but also
drove its economy into the ground, allege the tabdeeli wallahs.

The rhetoric is never-ending and by now most of us know it by heart.

On the other side is an equally angry opposition, which has its own equally
popular narrative about a party propped up artificially and brought to power
through an unfair election. Be it the few times Shahbaz Sharif made his way
through a speech on the floor of the National Assembly, or the more articulate
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari thundered (he now does that regularly), they never
forget to mention a ‘selected’ prime minister and the unfair means through
which he and his men (and a few women) came to power. Even for the others
on their side, the government and all those within enjoy no legitimacy.

And so the parameters of the debate have been decided, and this is all we hear
— in parliament, in talk shows every night and even in newspaper headlines.
Social media carries the same discussion forward — only in a cruder, louder
form.

In order to provide the people a choice, different political

parties attack their rivals, their policies and more.
This perhaps in a way is what adversarial politics is all about. In order to
provide the people a choice, different political parties attack their rivals, their
policies and more.
Consider the debate in the US around election time or just next door in India.
Not only do the attacks get harsher, they are vicious and downright personal.
The BJP has dredged up the decades-old Bofors scandal to attack the Congress
party while Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s abandoned wife and his
education (or the confusion around it) is a part of the discourse as well. Even
Priyanka Gandhi’s choice of clothes has not been spared.

The personal attacks were part and parcel of the Pakistani election scene as
well but, since then, politics has taken an uglier turn — if it’s even possible.
For now, the government and the opposition are questioning the very
legitimacy of the other.

Isn’t this what their narratives are all about? The PML-N and the PPP are not
fit to govern because they are corrupt. The money-laundering stories — about
the fake accounts allegedly used by Asif Zardari and by the Sharif family — are
detailed and horrific.

The legal cases will take time and their results are hard to predict, but in the
meantime, the details being leaked through the media have and will continue
to make their impact. They will continue to convince those watching or
reading that the accused are guilty. The damage has been done, as it was in the
case of Nawaz Sharif when the Panama stories came out. To some extent, it is
now irrelevant whether he is eventually convicted or not (after the appeal
process is exhausted); many simply remember that he wasn’t able to
effectively explain how the apartments were acquired.

The PTI faces a similar credibility crisis. The controversy over the elections
and its continued discussion has more than tarnished the party’s image. So
obvious was the manipulation of the election process that many now
completely disregard the support base of the party.

It’s debatable how successful the party would have been in the election but, if
you hear the opposition’s account, the PTI is just a usurper with no legitimacy
or support whatsoever. And Imran Khan made so many compromises (such as
accepting the electables and the corrupt into the party) that he now has
nothing new to offer as he once promised. He is in power because the
establishment wanted it and he is simply a puppet while the real decisions are
being made elsewhere.

And in this heated war of the words in a polarised political scene where one
side is taking down the other, no one realises the damage being done. The
entire political process and all those within it are being discredited.
In our noisy parliament, politicians are either thieves, or puppets or lotas (now
the technocrats are the hitmen of the international financial institutions). No
one has been left untainted; there are no honourable ones among the
politicians.

What options does this leave the voter with? Discredited individuals and a
system that doesn’t honour the citizen’s choice. Why should the voter continue
to exercise his or her choice?

The disillusionment will eventually harm the system. We have seen this
happen in the past and what it does.

In a system such as ours, where the power balance already doesn’t favour the
political class, the war of words will simply strengthen the perception that the
former cannot govern and the establishment will gain legitimacy.

Our representatives are not oblivious to this. Recently, in a speech in

parliament, the PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi warned that if the members
of the National Assembly didn’t do more than attack one another, other forces
would take over. Last week, Sherry Rehman from the PPP also pointed out
that politics was being made controversial.

But their sane words were lost in the cacophony of verbal attacks. For the
game of politics has to be played, regardless of all else. Such is the nature of
the beast — it consumes itself.

However, in all this, it is not just the politicians who need to introspect. Some
of the blame has to be shared by the ‘media’.

In our haste to fight the good fight and pick the ‘right’ side, we too have
become a party to this self-destructive process. And the price will have to be
paid by us, as well as the political class, if this slide does not stop.

The writer is a journalist.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2019

JN

SOMEONE taunted Narendra Modi if he would hang himself should

the Congress get more seats than he had prophesied. It was a rude
thing to say to a prime minister, almost at par with words Modi
himself has used to attack former prime ministers and current
opponents.

Some say Modi is getting desperate with each passing poll and, therefore,
apparently losing the plot. His comments in an interview about cross-border
air strikes are cited as examples of an exhausted mind.

Modi apparently told his air force to ignore their worry that a sudden cloud
cover on the flight day was a deterrent to the strikes. He was asked to change
the dates. He said the clouds could help the Indian planes dodge enemy radar.
Cartoonists had a field day. One showed Modi sitting in the cockpit of an air
force plane on the tarmac, announcing: Let’s go by road. They would think we
are a bus.

Also read: 'I am the original': Modi lookalike hits campaign trail

But the desperation is dominating the opposition camp as well. If they don’t
win this election, most if not all of them could be decimated. Therefore, they
must defeat Modi in these elections with all the resources at their command.

However, the opposition is a fractious lot. The Congress is undermining the

left in Kerala and targeting potential allies in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh as well as
West Bengal. In Delhi, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have lacerated
each other with gashes so deep that neither feels safe against Modi. In Kerala,
Rahul Gandhi has personally taken charge against the left.

Some say Modi is getting desperate with each passing

poll and, therefore, apparently losing the plot.
If religious fascism does get entrenched for this or that reason after the
elections, would the communists and others of their ilk get another chance? Or
would they go underground to work on a better plan than the one that led
them to the current pass? Or will they disperse and change their call sign as
happened in Pakistan with their comrades under Ayub and Zia.

Rahul Gandhi could have grabbed control of the game from the very start, not
by pitching himself as potential prime minister but by stepping back as
Mayawati did when she helped Akhilesh Yadav (and herself) defeat Modi’s
men in crucial by-polls in Uttar Pradesh. It was Mayawati who energised the
opposition and the nation in one stroke and also went about shoring up
Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Without her support in Amethi, Rahul would be struggling. That’s

camaraderie. Gandhi could have won many blessings by shepherding the
alliance from the rear, instead of permitting his perpetually ambitious cohorts
to eye power. His Congress manifesto had everything to become a glue for the
opposition, an alliance of regional groups consulting with him as they did with
leaders who did not seek office before him.

The good news for the fractious opposition is that the statistics of 2014
elections works to their advantage. The good news for Modi is that the election
commission has kept its promise of not making the voting machines as
transparent as the opposition wants them to be. In other words, the surge in
support for Modi in 2014 cannot be bettered in 2019.

In Uttar Pradesh, for example, is it agreed that votes, which went to the
opposition in 2014 and 2017 assembly elections and later in three by-polls in
which the BJP was evicted, would remain with the opposition? If so, the BJP
faces a near rout in the most populous state. In West Bengal, where the BJP
hopes to cover its losses in the Hindi heartland, much depends on the
behaviour of the floating votes of the communist-led Left Front.

The Times of India says that the BJP is getting help from the communist
cadres, which could be a troubling development for Mamata Banerjee, and
also for communist sympathisers.

BJP president Amit Shah did say during an election rally in the state that the
communists were more agreeable than Banerjee. Would the kiss of death
damage the opposition’s chances of unseating Modi? The BJP got 17 per cent
votes in West Bengal in 2014, which was reduced to 10pc in the assembly
elections of 2016. Modi would need an increase of 25pc to 35pc to catch up
with Banerjee’s 46pc.
Would the left oblige the right as news reports suggest? Is the hatred of a
secular opponent more deep-seated than the fear of fascism? One hopes the
reports are based on spurious inputs, and that the left would not abandon its
commitment to fight Modi regardless of its differences with their regional bête
noir. The alleged left support to BJP seems like fake news.

The BJP is hoping to gain from Odisha too where the Naveen Patnaik-led
ruling party swept the 2014 polls, grabbing 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha and 117 of
the 147 assembly seats, propelled by a big jump in its vote share. Will Odisha
defy the national trend by yielding to the BJP whose vote share hovered
around half of Patnaik’s party? Amit Shah says he would win 23 plus seats in
West Bengal and 12 to 15 in Odisha. The bold claim has sent the opposition
into a tizzy about voting machines.

Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh had given

saturated support to Modi in 2014. Will he better that? It remains difficult to
imagine an increase. Are the southern states ready to embrace Modi? The
desperation to win has its reasons for both.

Neither Modi nor Amit Shah would want to see police officer Sanjiv Bhatt
released from jail. He knows too much about too many dodgy things in
Gujarat. They wouldn’t want a fresh inquiry launched into the mysterious
death of Justice Loya nor the Rafael deal stalking BJP. Both sides are fighting
a grim battle. One is riding the tiger. The other is facing the beast.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2019

SM

THE aim of current policy planners to establish a ‘national uniform

system’ in education to ensure that all students have access to
education and employment is worthy, and requires the attention of
academic scholars and researchers. However, this policy raises
several questions, a key one being: why should Pakistan adopt a
uniform system when it is common knowledge in academia that the
education offered in a country such as ours should celebrate
diversity and embrace multilingualism?

Pakistan is a multilingual and multicultural state. Urdu, though it is the

mother tongue of only a small portion of the population, is the official national
language. English, a legacy of British colonisation, remained the second
official language until 1973 and continues to enjoy a higher social status than
Urdu. Research has shown that English is the language of power; it is used in
higher education as a medium of instruction; and is the official language in the
upper levels of administration, executive, judiciary and civil services.
Meanwhile, our regional languages — mother tongues of a large population of
Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, and Balochi speakers — remain ‘minority’ languages;
they have a lower status, and play no significant role in education and
officialdom.

Recent research reveals that the quality of education in private schools is

higher, as students display creative thinking and problem-solving skills at
various levels of education, as opposed to public school students who are
made dependent on rote learning. Primary schooling should allow the use of
students’ mother tongues to enable conceptual understanding and cognitive
development. The current mode of instruction in a second or foreign language
is not only confusing for children but also gives rise to subtractive
bilingualism. The most serious consequence of mass failures in English in
board and university examinations is due to students’ lack of written English
fluency in higher education.

There are some major language policy failures that are responsible for the
fractured system of education. Unfortunately, efforts made by various
language commissions have resulted in failure. Other important factors
include unstable political governments; resistance of elitist forces to change
the status quo so that power is not distributed; as well as pressure groups who
thrive on English-language teaching and assessment.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

There is a close nexus between language in education and

language in employment.
The arguments put forward for the current elitist policy, adopted by Pakistan
and many former British colonies where English is a medium of instruction or
taught as a compulsory subject, is based on the following assumptions: (i)
national development (especially in trade and business) is linked with
competency and fluency in English; (ii) positive attitudes towards, and high
motivation to study in, English among all stakeholders, from students and
teachers to policymakers and administrators; (iii) fluency in English makes it
easier for graduates who studied in private, English-medium schools to access
white-collar jobs than for those who studied in public, Urdu-medium schools;
and (iv) English is considered an asset as a link language for international
communication.

Research informs us that these assumptions are highly contestable and do not
justify the importance and spread of English. All developed countries take
pride in their national language and have high ethnolinguistic vitality. Also

, if the significant investment that has already been made into English as a
mode of instruction has not borne fruit, why should more funds be drained for
it?

The display of positive attitudes and high motivation among students to study
in English is mainly due to instrumental reasons, such as access to higher
education and employment. As for learning English as an international
language, it is useful and serves as a link language globally. As a former
colony, Pakistan inherited English from its British colonial masters. Keeping
in view speedy technological advances and other instrumental reasons, I agree
with the argument ‘why throw the baby out with the bath water’.

However, there is no reason to offer it as a medium of education, when

competency in English offered as a subject from grade one can achieve this
objective provided there are updated programmes and trained bilingual
teachers. Research findings also revealed that students and employees had
highly positive attitudes towards Urdu. It was rated second after English in
terms of language as a medium of instruction, as well as being the working
language of their workplace.

Research informs us that there is a close nexus between language in education

and language in employment. A critical problem in Pakistan is unemployment
among graduates. There is a huge gap between the demand and supply of jobs
in the country. The spread of English as an international language led to the
belief that the employment sector in particular would require English in
formal and informal communication, and is widely considered the lingua
franca at the workplace.

In terms of the impact of the spread of English in former British colonies, a

nationwide grant-funded research study on language and Pakistan’s
employment sector revealed that, in the majority of public- and private-based
institutes and organisations, applicants for white-collar jobs are required to be
fluent in English for recruitment and upward mobility.

To end this polarisation, I strongly recommend that bilingual education be

matched by bilingual employment. Legislation should be passed to make all
public-sector employment institutions and organisations bilingual. It would be
applicable in all respects. Applicants for all types of jobs at various levels,
including senior management, would be provided a choice to take their
entrance tests and interviews in either Urdu or English. Both languages should
be the official languages of Pakistan, and employers should also be competent
in Urdu and English. Lack of fluency in English should not stand in the way of
promotions to senior ranks.

The writer is former VC of the Lahore College for Women University and is
currently professor of English at the Lahore School of Economics.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2019

AN

IF you are a Pakistan cricket fan, the last few months have made for
painful viewing. After being whitewashed by Australia, the team
was recently decimated by England in a series meant to prepare it
for the upcoming World Cup.

Since the last World Cup, England have emerged as the most explosive side in
the sport, having blown past scores of old records as well as expectations of
what is possible in cricket. By contrast, Pakistan has spent 16 of the last 18
years with a losing record against the top six sides, and, despite the
miraculous Champions’ Trophy win two years ago, remain one of the weakest
sides in the game.

Indeed, Pakistan cricket is in a slump that has been a decade in the making,
ever since terrorist attacks in Mumbai and then Lahore turned its players into
pariahs. This slump is itself a dip from a steady, inexorable decline that some
would trace back to the turn of the century, while others might well trace back
a decade earlier as a talented side fell prey to fixing.

But you wouldn’t guess that from the visceral, agonised reactions of the team’s
supporters. Somehow, despite the fact that Pakistan has crossed the first
knockout stage only once in the last 20 years in World Cups, the fans remain
resolutely expectant. They still expect nothing less than a glorious victory, and
they still find ways to get shocked when the team performs exactly as its
ranking suggests it will.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

In the face of despair, why wouldn’t we seek to create

hope and meaning in our cricket team’s chances?
Ever since I crossed over to writing on the sport instead of being just a fan, I’ve
often wondered how and why we continue to remain so entitled to
expectations of victory. I find myself surprised at how we still look forward to
World Cups and expect the impossible. I find myself asking how we keep
having hope when there is little reason to have any.

It’s been two weeks since the first death anniversary of someone beloved to
me. It feels crass to bring up death in the trivial matter of sports, but growing
up as a man in this patriarchal society, cricket was one of the only ways I
learnt how to relate to my emotions. It was how I learnt to process the
bewilderment that emotions can cause, and it is why I still find it as a pathway
to process what I feel.

Death brings up a lot of emotions. Death is also perhaps the greatest reminder
of the limits of control, the limits of comprehension, the limits of meaning.
When you lose someone close to you, you lose so much of your ability to hope,
to believe, to feel complete. And yet, perhaps the cruellest thing about death is
that even though your world feels like it’s over, the world doesn’t actually end.
And as you sit through the moments after tragedy, slowly but surely, you start
creating meaning yourself. You make meaning in the way you choose to
remember, and in every moment that you remember.

As the days pass, you use meaning to try and build around your pain — some
make a buffer, others make a bridge. But despite the inherent unknowingness
of death, you still choose to create meaning. Even as you know deep down that
all this meaning is a sandcastle that the waves of time will eventually swallow,
you create meaning nonetheless.

Creating meaning, finding hope, telling yourself you’ve found an answer — all
this feels almost ridiculous in the face of death’s finality, and yet it is also the
only response to it. Our lives are but an incomprehensibly tiny moment in the
infinite vastness of this universe, and the meaning we create today won’t
outlast us. But that doesn’t stop us from creating meaning anyway, because
finding meaning in the blank nature of death is perhaps what living is.

Life is already cruel, but in our country and society, it finds ways to be crueller.
We are a country that has been at war with itself for over a decade, and in
many ways for much longer than that. We are a society whose inequity is
entrenched deeper and deeper each day. We are a people who struggle to find
our own identity. We are a nation that often hates itself and feeds on its own
citizens.

In the face of such despair, why wouldn’t we seek to create hope and meaning
in our cricket team’s chances? In the face of constant instability and
insecurity, why wouldn’t we choose to embrace the comforting binary of
victory/defeat? In the face of a life that often seems to offer such little
meaning, why wouldn’t we choose to find meaning in the random actions of 11
men playing a sport that they might not be good at?

Most experts would agree that Pakistan qualifying for the knockouts would be
a surprise. But such predictions based on rationality also miss the point. The
fans aren’t looking to analyse this experience. They are looking to create
meaning, to create hope, to create a paradigm where things make sense, even
when they know they don’t.

And so, let me wish good luck to our team — a team on which we project our
own needs, our own insecurities, our own meanings and our own ways of
finding hope. And even (or especially) if it doesn’t do well, it would have given
us a way to briefly make sense of the incomprehensible. Ultimately, in
moments big or small, finding meaning in what seems meaningless is all we
can do.

In loving memory of Emad Syed Naqvi (1993-2018).

The writer is a freelance columnist and has previously worked with

ESPNcricinfo, Islamabad United and the PSL.

Twitter: @karachikhatmal

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2019

NSanya

FOR several years, bonfires were lighting up in small towns and

villages of Sindh; bonfires turned to bushfires, and bushfires are
now rapidly engulfing the forest. Brave firefighters are battling the
conflagration. The fires typify the three lethal viruses: hepatitis B
(HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV), and occasionally, the bacterium that causes syphilis. All are
capable of being transmitted through almost similar routes, ie
sexual intercourse, blood, and from pregnant mother to child.

Until recently, Pakistan was rated as low burden (0.1 per cent) for HIV, but
with recent recognition of the outbreak in Sindh, the statistics are likely to
change to unpalatable numbers. Sadly, Pakistan also ranks highest in the
world in hepatitis burden, with some areas reporting 25pc of the population
infected with hepatitis viruses.

Pakistanis have a penchant for receiving injections and drips as a quick fix in
lieu of healthy nutrition and lifestyles, encouraged and instigated by both
licensed and unlicensed medical practitioners. The messengers of death feel
no compunction in reusing virus-contaminated needles and syringes, razors,
scalpels, dental equipment, or ear- or nose-piercing instruments. Even a
miniscule drop of fresh or dried blood can transmit millions of virus particles;
transfusion of a single unit of infected blood will inevitably hasten the disease
attack.

Many lessons can be learned from this outrageous

negligence of healthcare in Sindh.
For decades, Larkana has been a hotbed of intravenous drug users (IDUs),
among whom an astounding 27pc are infected with HIV. Moreover,
unlicensed and unsupervised blood banks in the city either do not screen
donors’ blood or use substandard kits for testing, thus eluding the true state of
infection. The deadly combination of IDUs and their blood donated to
commercial blood banks is one of the bridges for the infection to transfer to
the general population.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD
The recent spate of HIV cases emerged when it came to the attention of HIV-
trained paediatricians that an unusually high number of children — whose
mothers were uninfected — were being referred to their centres. This led to an
uproar among infectious disease (ID) experts, who approached the chain of
command at the National AIDS Control Programme in Islamabad, which is
mandated by the Global Fund to provide diagnostics and treatment for HIV
patients, funnelled through provincial programmes into centres established in
high burden areas.

The Sindh AIDS Control Programme sprung into action and, through urgent
meetings with local officials in Larkana and Ratodero, organised a joint
investigation team in tandem with DG health Sindh, NACP, WHO, Unicef,
People’s Public Health Initiative, Expanded Programme of Immunisation,
Lady Health Workers, and clinical ID experts from the Medical Microbiology
and Infectious Disease Society of Pakistan (MMIDSP) to investigate and
control the epidemic. A short- and long-term strategy was rolled out to suggest
and implement interventions.

Community leaders and media were engaged, and urged to do HIV reporting
in a humane and empathetic manner. The media was advised to help
destigmatise the disease and respect the privacy of victims by not sharing
names, photographs and medical reports. The video of the affected doctor that
was circulated on social media was declared as distasteful and against human
rights, and the offenders were duly admonished.

The objectives of the JIT are to identify the epidemiologic factors for the
outbreak (ie demographic and risk factors, suspected exposure and sexual
behaviour) that would help to estimate the magnitude and determinants of
HIV; to explore additional contacts and sites for its potential transmission; to
determine the chain of transmission of infection; and to formulate appropriate
and effective recommendations to interrupt itstransmission.

Blood screening of sections of high-risk population was carried out in Taluka

Hospital, Ratodero. A preliminary report from the Sindh Directorate of Health
Services survey screened 4,656 persons and identified HIV in 186 persons
over only 12 days — a shocking 3.9pc. Of them, 108 (58.4pc) were male;
children aged two to five years old were, sadly, highest at 102 (54.8pc).
Treatment centres are in the offing; unauthorised laboratories, blood banks
and clinics have been closed; and the public is receiving awareness sessions on
disease prevention. Screening camps have been established, which will likely
detect more hidden diseases in other towns and cities. This is only the tip of
the proverbial iceberg.

Many lessons can be learned from this outrageous negligence of healthcare in

Sindh.

First, awareness of cause is the best way of preventing any disease. Registered
or unregistered healthcare workers should desist from giving injections and
drips for profiteering, and patients should understand the serious
consequences of receiving unnecessary jabs. Health authorities should have
strict vigilance of blood screening in blood banks. People should be made
aware of how engaging in unsafe sexual activities increases the risk of
acquiring sexually transmitted infections.

Second, early diagnosis of any disease makes for better treatment outcomes.
Stigmatisation, lack of confidentiality, and (as we have seen in several studies)
missed diagnosis by inexperienced doctors makes for worse prognosis and
outcomes. Medical curricula in most ‘boutique’ medical colleges do not
incorporate the subject of ID that is so essential in Pakistan. Hence, HIV, its
diagnosis, prevention and myriad associated complications are overlooked
until the terminal stage of disease. The specialty of ID incorporates the largest
spectrum of clinic diseases and infection control. The MMIDSP is a strong
body that has played a pivotal role in managing the current outbreak; its
members are ready, able and willing to help the government rewrite the ID
curriculum and hold teaching sessions anywhere in the province to train
physicians who have never received the benefit of didactic and practical
training.

Finally, the onus is upon local municipalities all over Pakistan to improve
sewage and solid waste management, which is the source of Pakistan’s health
woes. We must stop firefighting. Rather, we must prevent fires. Our people
deserve good healthcare, not disease and misery.

The writer is an infectious disease specialist.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2019