Felling trees
BANNING the sale of timber in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is one of the most laudable steps taken by the PTI government. Pakistan’s rate of deforestation has been rated by various environmental bodies as being amongst the highest in the world, and already the country looks set to miss the MDG goal of 6pc forest cover by 2015. According to official numbers,
forests constitute 5.2pc of the land area of Pakistan, although some dispute that figure, arguing it is in fact much lower. Even by official figures, if Pakistan were to meet its MDG target for forest cover, it would need to create forests on an area six times the size of the city of Lahore in the next 10 months. Clearly, the scale of our deforestation problem is massive. One consequence of the ban on the sale of timber in KP has been the smoking out of those elements who are connected with the timber mafia.
One legislator belonging to the Qaumi Watan Party has spoken out angrily against the ban, arguing that sale of timber is an important source of revenue for the provincial government, and provides jobs for “thousands” of people. This reasoning is absurd.
Forests play a crucial role in our ecology. They are the lungs of the atmosphere, help renew arable land, inhibit landslides and provide an ecosystem that sustains life and biodiversity on a huge scale.
The ban on timber sales should be replicated in other provinces, particularly Sindh where the depletion of mangrove forests accounts for the largest share of total deforestation taking place in the country. Furthermore, the ban should be extended to cover the allocation of forest lands for non-forest uses, such as housing colonies, an issue in which Punjab tops the list. Elements such as the QWP legislator deserve to be ignored in the process.
Anti-rape bill
FEW would argue that Pakistan’s societal realities are such that render it a deeply hostile place for women and children in particular. Nevertheless, slow though it may be, in terms of legislation some progress is being made to address this concern. Forward-looking legislation is, in fact, a first step towards changing norms and reducing rights violations. In recent years, several laws have been passed and procedures laid down that offer extra and targeted protections, such as those against honour killings and underage marriage. Others bring into the ambit of the law those transgressions that otherwise tend to remain in the shadows, such as sexual harassment at the workplace. And last week, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice approved the Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill of 2014. This is meant to amend sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedures, 1898, and the Qanoon-i-Shahadat Order, 1984 in order to improve the chances of rape victims getting justice.
The bill may be a slim document, but the changes it envisages are significant. A clause is inserted, for example, in Section 218 of the PPC making defective investigations worthy of punishment, and in Section 344 of the CrPc requiring that once a rape case has been taken cognisance of by a court, it shall be decided upon within six months. The new bill gives added protections to victims. For instance, disclosing through the media or via some other route the identity of a victim without the latter’s consent would be deemed an offence. It also provides for in-camera trials. An insertion in the Qanoon-i-Shahadat law says that if the question of consent comes up and the victim claims that she did not, “the court shall presume that she did not consent”. Article 151, clause 4 of the same legislation currently reads: “When a man is prosecuted for rape or an attempt to ravish, it may be shown that the prosecutrix was of generally immoral character.” The new bill requires that this clause be omitted.
These are all welcome changes, and the bill deserves smooth passage through the Senate and the National Assembly. Past this will come the real challenge: that of ensuring implementation. Too often, notwithstanding the laws on the books, victims of various crimes, and in particular of rape, find the path to justice impeded by entrenched prejudice and a lack of sympathy at even the level of the police station. In addition to the laws, the whole culture surrounding rape needs to change.
Curricular concerns
THE curricula taught in Pakistani schools, especially over the last few decades, have been criticised for being exclusivist and helping promote rigidity and intolerance in society. In fact, it would not be wrong to point out that more than the material taught in many madressahs, it is the content of public school textbooks that has contributed largely to the acceptance or condoning of terrorism by a large section of the population. That is why curriculum reform is a key area in the struggle to reclaim the anti-extremism narrative in Pakistan and point it in a more moderate direction. In this regard, the Punjab chief minister’s remarks on Wednesday, in which he said that the syllabi of schools, colleges and seminaries in his province would be reformed as part of counterterrorism efforts, should be welcomed. Shahbaz Sharif said the steps would be in tandem with other efforts, such as cracking down on hate speech and the misuse of loudspeakers.
For a holistic, integrated counterterrorism and anti-extremism effort, it is essential that the curricula taught throughout Pakistan are carefully examined to root out any references or biases that may promote hatred of or belittle different sects, religions, communities or nations. After the 18th Amendment, the onus is on the provincial governments to shape their respective curricula. The provinces have used their devolved powers differently where textbooks are concerned; for example, Sindh, especially in the lower grades, has made progress in removing gender bias and hate material from books. The previous ANP-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had made similar changes, also guided by Musharraf-era curriculum reform guidelines. But in the recent past, the PTI administration of KP — apparently under Jamaat-i-Islami pressure — has tried to revert to the old lessons or reverse the changes.
Hence clearly, more efforts are required at the national level to produce curricula that are progressive and provide genuine learning opportunities to young students. The Punjab chief minister mentioned that material on religious tolerance and restraint will be included in textbooks. While education is now a provincial subject — and should remain so — there are certain themes which all federating units may want to adopt in their respective course books. These include tolerance, compassion and other humanistic values. What must clearly be avoided are the glorification of war, overt religiosity and excessive militarism, as well as the ‘othering’ of minorities that has long been a mainstay of our children’s textbooks. Indeed, several generations have been brought up on myopic curricula, and the damage done over decades will not be undone overnight. However, for a clean break from extremism and to help create a more tolerant polity, curriculum reform efforts must be long-lasting and overseen by academics of repute. The stress must be on learning, not imparting ideology. Most of all, the state must resist pressure from obscurantist quarters that are bound to resist any educational reform initiatives for their own selfish interests.
Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015