Faisalabad blast
March 9th, 2011
There are few cities in Pakistan that have been spared the wrath of the extremists. Until yesterday, Faisalabad was one of those that had been relatively peaceful. A car bomb that exploded at a CNG station, killing at least 25 people and destroying a PIA building and gas station, has shattered that calm. Although it is not yet known who was responsible for the blast, given the sensitive location of the attack — near several military and government buildings as well as the ISI office — it is fair to assume that the Taliban or one of its affiliates is behind the bombing.
The attack comes just a few days after Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif complained about the use of the term ‘Punjabi Taliban’. Sharif claimed that the term was being employed to sow interprovincial discord and blamed Interior Minister Rehman Malik of concocting it as a way of undermining the PML-N. The fact that his words were followed so swiftly by yet another attack, should give Shahbaz Sharif food for thought and, perhaps, force him to eat his words. The fact is that there is a group of connected extremist groups operating out of Punjab, all of which have now allied with the Taliban. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammed, Harkutul-Mujhahideen and Harkutul-Ansar have all been increasingly active in the province, particularly in southern Punjab. Most of these militant outfits are offshoots of the Sipah-e-Sahaba, which itself has seen a resurrection in recent years. That this nexus is behind the Faisalabad bombings is likely. That they have been responsible for militant attacks and the spread of extremism in Punjab is beyond any doubt.
Meanwhile, the PML-N-led provincial government has adopted a head-in-the-stance posture. The government is seemingly uninterested in tackling the Taliban menace, preferring instead to wage war against its political opponents. The PML-N is staying true to its ideological roots by trying to appease or even co-opt religious elements in the country. It is not that the PML-N supports the terrorists. It just doesn’t have the same level of vitriol for them that it reserves for the PPP. If that attitude doesn’t change, the battle against extremism in Punjab will be lost.
Educational emergency
March 9th, 2011
The state of crisis of education in Pakistan is well established. Survey after survey has highlighted the terrible state of public sector schools, the poor design of curriculums and the poor output of teachers. With a literacy rate of just 51 per cent, Pakistan has also slipped lower and lower on the list of countries ranked according to their attainments in education.
A shocking new report by the Pakistan Education Task Force, a body set up in 2009 by the federal government to offer recommendations on how to implement education policies, brings home the true scale of the emergency we face and its consequences for the future of the country. It states that despite the right given to education for all by the Constitution of Pakistan, this target will not be attained during the lifetime of anyone alive today. Balochistan, at the present rate of a growth in literacy, will not attain this target till 2100. The cost of not educating people is the equivalent of one flood every year and one out of every 10 children of school-going age in the world who are not in school are in Pakistan.
The study is an important wake-up call. While the emergency seems almost insurmountable judging by the figures, it has also been stated that it can quite easily be overcome by increasing the education budget by 50 per cent. We need to declare that education is our foremost priority. This would be the logical follow-up to the good work done by the government in setting up a task force with many experts on board dedicated to exposing the truth. Beyond all matters of security, beyond the question of national defence on which we spend so much money, it is this that will determine what kind of future awaits Pakistan and what it will bring for the people of the country, who could gain so much if a place in the classroom was ensured for every child, regardless of gender, ethnic group or geographical location.
Controlling acid crimes
March 9th, 2011
There are currently at least two draft proposals currently before the National Assembly, recommending steps to control acid crimes. The Acid Control and Burn Crime Prevention Bill 2010 was tabled over a year ago and focuses on controlling the sale and production of corrosive substances. Another Bill was tabled by the Acid Survivors Foundation in June last year. Tragically, there seems to have been little progress in moving these forward.
Contrary to popular opinion, many of the victims are men and even children, but women, of course, remain the prime sufferers. According to NGO figures, 46 per cent of victims are women, 36 per cent men and the remainder children. In 2010, there were at least 115 attacks against women. Girls as young as 10 or 11 have been targeted, most often to extract revenge from their families over matrimonial issues or other disputes. The notion that women are ‘property’, who must conform to a specific pattern of behaviour appears to be a factor in many of these attacks. As is the case with other crimes, especially those perpetrated against women, the failure to punish the culprits acts to encourage under offenders. Long delays in courts, even when an assailant is apprehended, adds to the problem.
It seems obvious that we need urgent action, given the degree of physical and emotional suffering inflicted by such attacks. As is proposed in the legislation lying before parliament, tighter controls are needed on the sale of acids. The laws that exist need to be enforced. This had indeed happened over past decades but, as with so much else, the state’s ability to continue to do so has slipped. We live in a highly brutalised environment where incidents of the kind reported from time to time in the media take place with increasing frequency. The issue is one that needs to be taken up by our legislators without further delay.