Editorial: Women endangered in Pakistan

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Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, speaking at the 6th convocation ceremony of Lahore College for Women University on Saturday, said that “a nation cannot progress without active involvement of women in all walks of life”. He also safely quoted Mao Zedong: “Women hold up half of the sky. To take over the sky and to rule the earth requires a significant contribution from women”.

Across the oceans in the United Kingdom, Information Minister Ms Sherry Rehman, while addressing the Oxford Union Society, proudly highlighted “the political progress” of women in Pakistan, saying their representation in politics was higher than in some developed democracies. A reference, of course, was made to Pakistan being the first Islamic nation to have a woman as prime minister.

Of course, it would have been impolite to mention that Pakistan was also the first Islamic state to cruelly assassinate Ms Bhutto, not to mention the many years in exile she had to endure for survival. The quotation from Mao was also neither here nor there. In Pakistan, the Taliban are robbing the women of their patch of the sky, which is already very small given the on-going transformation of the country in favour of extremist views. It is, of course, praiseworthy that we have a lady speaker in the National Assembly — a great improvement on the old male incumbent — and that a “dictator” got the parliament to admit more women on special seats, but the parliament frequently says things about women that the world hears with disbelief.

The latest news is not that the girls in the Tribal Areas can no longer get education, it is that the rest of the country is fast imitating the “model” Islamic order of places like Swat where girls’ schools have been bombed and some lady teachers have been put to death. The latest news is that in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, restaurants have banned entry to women “apparently after being pressured by religious elements”. Quetta restaurants already had separate rooms for lady customers; now they have put up a placard saying: “For gentlemen only. Women not allowed”.

If the lot of the women were getting better by the year, Pakistan wouldn’t have worried. But the fact is that with each passing year, the situation is getting worse. Our parliament in the past failed to pass a reasonable law against honour-killing — which is another way of killing women — now government ministers say burying them alive as a “social custom” should not be punished. In the Tribal Areas, women have become invisible. In Sindh, an increasing reliance on jirgas has intensified the persecution of women through karo-kari.

The “Islamic world” is not getting better either. Where partial democracy is allowed — as in Kuwait — women are actually threatened with disenfranchisement. Expat Muslims are becoming tough through their clerics. Australian Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd has asked a cleric there to apologise for saying that a Muslim could beat his wife and subject her to sexual coercion. If more women embraced hijab on their own, it would not matter so much. The problem is that, if the slide continues like this, Pakistan might go under a despotic order mandating the agenda of the arch-reactionaries and orthodox.

Pakistan’s backwardness might exacerbate because Pakistan is unable to improve its female literacy rate. If our politicians get rid of the local governments, the “dictated” induction of women into the local councils might actually go away too. We accept that Ms Bhutto was a remarkable leader and that the PPP is pro-women. But Pakistan is not living up to her ideals and legacy.

Second Editorial: Our ‘drone attack’ problem

President Asif Zardari has again expressed concern over the American drone attacks in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas to US Ambassador Anne W Patterson on Saturday, saying, “These attacks can affect Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror”. The “concern”, which can also be called a mild warning, has been renewed because of the change of guard in Washington and the appointment of a special envoy to the region, Mr Richard Holbrooke. Pakistan’s parliament has a “unanimous” resolution on the subject asking the government to get the US to stop the drone attacks.

The drones began to fly when President Musharraf was in power. The early hits were publicised negatively in Pakistan and the government didn’t want to be openly associated with them, so it expressed “concern” without saying too much to the Americans. Some briefings actually revealed that the drone attacks were called in by the Pakistan army. That line didn’t last beyond Musharraf’s time and one federal defence secretary under the PPP government actually lost his job after stating that drone attacks were actually going on with the tacit consent of the army.

The question arose: was there an agreement between Mr Musharraf and the US on the matter of the drones? The army denies the existence of any such agreement; Mr Musharraf has himself denied that he ever let the Americans do it. But the fact is that on his watch nothing was done to stop them. The Americans have handled the Pakistan army with utmost care in the post-Musharraf period although there were statements from some quarters in Washington that the Pakistani side tended to “forewarn” the Taliban-Al Qaeda elements of the coming attacks and therefore the drones had to ply without Pakistan’s knowledge.

There is national consensus in Pakistan against drone attacks. These attacks may be targeting terrorists whose elimination goes in Pakistan’s favour, but its side-effects are not good for Pakistan. The Pakistan army thinks it curtails the effect of its own efforts to pacify the Tribal Areas. This concern should be addressed because the army is getting results from its operations in Bajaur and Mohmand. President Zardari has brought up the subject again after probably hearing that the latest attacks were carried out with President Obama’s clearance.

There are two kinds of “do more” pressures on the PPP government. The US asks it to do more while knowing the limits of Pakistan’s response to global terrorism. The opposition in Pakistan also asks it to “do more” in the way of getting the Americans to stop the drones. Both policies of “do more” are unrealistic.
Daiy Times