A fund now?

The government’s announcement that it will create a fund for the rehabilitation of IDPs and flood victims raises only one question: what took it so long? The military operation in North Waziristan has been going on for months and the IDPs have been suffering in makeshift camps ever since. For the government to now realise it does not have the money to care for them and seek outside help reeks of irresponsibility. One wonders if perhaps it thought the military action would be speedy and the IDPs quickly resettled and thus it did not need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars that it does not have. If that is the case then the culpability of the government only doubles. There have been many previous military operations in the tribal areas and none of them were successful. In fact, IDPs from these previous conflicts are still languishing in camps. The government claims to have spent $313 million on the IDPs and says it plans on providing another $155 million more to care for both the IDPs and flood victims. This will likely not suffice. The destroyed homes of both groups of victims need to be rebuilt, they need to be taken care of while this is being done and given opportunities to restart their livelihoods.

The other danger is that the international community will not be forthcoming with funds. Pakistan lurches from one crisis to another, ranging from natural disasters to terrorism. To the extent, the world is concerned with us it just wants us to take action against militants without caring too much about the consequences for the IDPs. It is up to the state to take the lead. It can start by providing at least a rough outline of when it expects the military operation to conclude so that the IDPs can return home. It also needs to convince provinces other than Khyber-Pakthunkhwa to take in IDPs. If even our own provinces do not help out the neediest of our citizens how can we expect the rest of the world to take notice? Herding them into camps without even basic facilities, where they are still vulnerable to TTP attacks, is of little help to IDPs. Money itself isn’t the issue as much as how badly we misuse the money available to us.

Shackled celebration

The usual rituals of Eidul Azha are being marked, with prayer, the slaughter of sacrificial animals and the gathering of families. At mosques, and during the Haj pilgrimage itself, many prayed for peace in a country that badly needs it. It seems more such prayers will be needed, for while Eid this year will bring its joys it marks also a time when there is much anxiety in a nation that sees political strife, human misery in many forms and a general sense of instability which prevents people from leading the calm lives that most citizens seek – for themselves and for their children. Terrorists have struck repeatedly in the run-up to Eid, leaving in their wake families who will be burying the dead over Eid instead of celebrating the occasion. On Saturday, six persons were killed when an IED exploded on a bus in Kohat. Seventeen others were injured in the blast which it is believed targeted Shias returning home for the festive occasion. In Quetta, a suicide bomber entered a bazaar in Hazara Town, detonating his vest and killing five persons as a persecuted community continued to suffer. Earlier in the day, another blast in a marketplace in Quetta had killed three. Police said a suicide bomber was again responsible and the toll could have been far higher had the explosion occurred in a more crowded section of the bazaar. There were other attacks too, killing at least 10 on Thursday in two separate incidents. In Swat a local ANP leader was killed, along with a policeman caught up in the shooting, again on Saturday. In the homes of all these victims there will be no celebration.

As we gather around tables to enjoy lavish meals or admire ornate new clothes, we should also be thinking of those who will not have the opportunity to celebrate Eid this year, or will be able to do so only in the most muted fashion. These people include the one million displaced by fighting in North Waziristan, who will be marking Eid in camps or in the often cramped homes of host families, even as their thoughts remain focused on their home areas. Other IDPs from other territories, some of whom have been displaced for years, face a similar situation. Notably in southern Punjab there are also the flood victims, many of whom face the hard task of re-building damaged or destroyed homes and attempting to recover from losses to crops and livestock. Reports say these people received only limited help. And gloom will also loom large in the homes of the hundreds of small polio victims afflicted this year by the crippling disease Pakistan has this year recorded 202 cases of polio, crossing the mark of 199 in 2000 and 198 in 2011. This is obviously dismal news. The hike ahead of Eid in the prices spices, of spices, vegetables and poultry will also bring more hardship upon many. We need to consider ways to make the lives of all our citizens a little better; a means to allow them to celebrate each Eid with greater cheer. This is what we should be thinking about on this Eid as we go about the customary rituals and direct attention towards what we can do to make the next Eid a happier occasion for all.

Published in The News, Monday, October 06, 2014

LoC killings

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has convened a National Security Council meeting for Friday in view of the Indian aggression on the Line of Control. Everybody had predicted that good relations would be elusive once the ultra-hawkish Modi took over but even with those lowered expectations, the worsening of ties has been surprisingly quick. The latest round of shelling across the Line of Control by India and Pakistan could be the deadliest yet, with 12 people killed and dozens other injured over three days of continuous firing. India began the ceasefire violations and tensions now have escalated to the point where peace will become ever harder to achieve. Modi has responded foolishly, as expected, to the situation, saying that he is not afraid of Pakistan and giving his forces a free hand to respond as they see fit. From our side, Sartaj Aziz did talk of peace but the shelling from both sides has been so ferocious that it is being described as the most intense cross-border shooting since 1971. The high death toll in an area that has witnessed an exodus of most of its population would suggest that civilians are deliberately being targeted.

For a while, both countries had decided to pursue better relations while setting aside the question of Kashmir. That was never going to be a sustainable model since eventually the status of Kashmir would have to be discussed. Modi, in particular, has taken greater interest in Kashmir than previous Indian prime ministers, even becoming the first leader to visit Kargil. For him, Kashmir is non-negotiable. He has gone even further than India’s traditional position that Kashmir is a bilateral issue. Now he doesn’t seem interested in talks at all. Pakistan, too, is going to be less patient when the Indian leader is someone as controversial as Modi. All of this has led to the current impasse, where violence is being chosen as the best option. This mutually-destructive path needs to be changed. The last time there was tension across the LoC the DGMOs of the two countries met face to face for the first time in over a decade. Something similar may be needed again. We must make progress towards allowing greater freedom of movement across the de-facto border, instead of India and Pakistan moving towards a situation where it will become a no-man’s land.

Rural poverty

A report by the London-based Overseas Development Institute should give all Pakistanis pause about the future development of the country. The ODI found that Pakistan is the only country in Asia where rural wages are actually falling in real terms. The rise in the other Asian countries is easy to explain: as they rapidly industrialise more people are moving to urban areas, thereby reducing the supply of rural workers and leading to an increase in their wages. Pakistan, too, has been urbanising although its rate of industrial growth lags behind most other countries. Our biggest problem is our rate of population growth which, while falling as it is in most other countries of the world, is still significantly higher than it should be. Our fertility rate of 3.3 children per women, according to the report, is far more than the 2.5 in India and 1.7 in China. Put quite simply, the pace of urbanisation is still not high enough to match the population growth in rural areas. Add to that our faltering economy, which has hurt the industrial sector, and the development of the service economy, and the future of rural workers is quite bleak. Having a government that is unable to enforce the minimum wage, the lack of rural labour unions and the continuing, if diminished, political power of landlords and we are left lagging behind the rest of the continent.

Our high fertility rate has consequences beyond just the wages in the rural labour sector. The much-talked about youth bulge in the country will lead to continued lower wages in every sector. The competition for jobs is fierce and workers have little opportunity to organise and unionise. The inability to plan for the future of this population, beyond laptop and loan schemes of dubious effect, could lead to greater instability in the country. The possibility of an increase in our already high unemployment rate is frightening and could even cause greater alienation, which may manifest itself in violent ways. The only way to deal with this impending crisis is to spur economic growth that leads to the creation of more jobs and to provide existing workers with greater rights. The present government, which has shown greater care for the needs of big business and agriculture than of its employees, will need to change tack before this crisis becomes unmanageable.

Published in The News, Thursday, October 09, 2014

__________________
"I am still learning."

Symbols and suffering

Operation Zarb-e-Azb was in danger of becoming the forgotten war. With media attention focused on the dharnas in Islamabad and the recent escalation of violence along the Line of Control by India, the military operation in North Waziristan, proclaimed as the decisive fight against the TTP, and the IDP crisis it spurred became something of an afterthought. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif, to their credit, are now trying to change that. Nawaz became the second elected prime minister to visit North Waziristan when, accompanied by COAS Sharif, he spoke to security forces in Miranshah. While Nawaz talked of the sacrifices made by our troops and the progress they have made against the TTP, the true significance of the visit lay in its symbolic value. Having the prime minister and COAS side by side was a rebuke to those who have been claiming that the political and military leadership are not on the same page. Nawaz followed up his Miranshah trip by visiting IDPs in Bannu. Here, his mission should be clear. The IDPs are being forced to live in squalid camps and have been given no timeframe for when they can return home. It is the duty of the prime minister not only to reassure them but to make sure they are given every resource possible. So far, the government has been conspicuous only in its failure to provide adequate care for the IDPs.

Over Eid, Raheel Sharif too addressed the troops and IDPs from the tribal areas. His promise that 14,000 people from Fata would be inducted into the army should be the start of a genuine effort to integrate the tribal areas with the rest of the country. But his trip was overshadowed by a resumption of US drone attacks in Fata. Four different missile attacks killed 22 people in an unexpected escalation. Since the military campaign began in June the US had only carried out six such attacks. In fact, since the start of the year, when negotiations were underway between the government and the TTP, the US has been more restrained than usual in its drone campaign. One wonders why it chose this sensitive moment, the occasion of Eid, to carry out these attacks. Whatever the case may be, US involvement – or forced intervention – apart from its illegality, serves only to delegitimise our operation and allow the militants to portray the state as a stooge of the US. For Zarb-e-Azb to be a success, it must be an entirely home-grown effort.

Toxic perils

Easy though it would be to write off the death of 29 people in Karachi from consuming toxic liquor over the Eid holidays as irresponsibility on their part, the fact is that there is a class element to this. The poor die in many different ways: as a result of disease, poverty, natural disaster and a variety of vulnerabilities. The deceased in this case came from different religious and ethnic groups, were aged between 25 and 35 years and many were the chief breadwinners for their families. Perhaps they were trying in one way or the other to alleviate their misery for a short while by downing in the liquor that killed them. This happens every year. Last year, on Eid, nine people died in Karachi due to precisely the same reasons. The people who trade in such poison need to be penalised. But we must also look into the question of why so many fall victim to them and the desperation that must drive them to purchase cheap intoxicants. The same is true in the case of the other substances sold on the streets. As far as liquor goes, the poor are most at risk simply because they cannot afford the higher quality alcohol that the wealthy are able to purchase.

We need to treat these deaths as a public health issue. Few here want to acknowledge that simply banning alcohol does not in itself reduce the demand for it. The effect it has is to drive imbibing underground, where the quality and safety of the product cannot be regulated. Those who can afford it pay bootleggers for safe imported alcohol while the poor resort to buying tharra alcohol which is often adulterated with methanol, an extremely dangerous chemical that can cause blindness, liver failure and death. Our 35-year experiment in prohibition has shown that a ban alone will not suffice in controlling the urge to drink. It must be accompanied by educational programmes that point out the dangers of binge drinking and the risks of adulterated alcohol without being overly judgemental. The ban has had the effect of making any rational discussion on the subject taboo. A debate is now needed about how best to tackle the menace. This is a matter in which we need the expertise of medical professionals who can best advise the government on formulating a suitable policy that respects both our religious traditions and cultural realities. People should not have to die just because of an absence of regulation.

Published in The News, Friday, October 10, 2014

__________________
"I am still learning."

For Malala

Malala Yousafzai, a front runner for the Nobel Peace Prize last year, has become the youngest claimant of the world’s most prestigious award for peace 12 months later. The teenager from Swat shares the extraordinary honour with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian child’s rights activist. Malala and Kailash have worked tirelessly, in the face of real and immediate threats, for education and children. They both may have been honoured by the Nobel Committee but, above all, they need to be honoured by us. We should all be locked in collective pride. This, sadly, is unlikely to be the case. Just like Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate the late Dr Abdus Salam, who claimed the award for physics in 1979, Malala is a controversial figure in her country. She gained prominence in 2009 as an activist for the right of girls to education through a blog written anonymously for the BBC while Swat was under Taliban control and she was just 12 years old. In 2012, she was shot in the head by the Taliban and nearly killed after which she was taken to the UK for treatment. Since then she has been cast by many as an ‘agent’ of foreign powers with claims made that it was merely the shooting that lifted her to prominence. These people have even denied that she was nearly killed by the TTP. The bullet wounds she sustained are not enough to convince the apologists of militant violence that Malala was punished for having the audacity to question why she couldn’t go to school. Yet Malala was shot – because of what she did, and it is what she did that brought her the prize.

Pakistan has refused to celebrate Dr Salam at all. Acclaimed as one of the world’s most important scientists in this century, Dr Salam was shunned in his own country because of the belief he was born into. He lies buried in an unmarked grave for fear that vandals may attack it. Malala too is unable to return to her own country since it is feared she would be an immediate target for extremists. But for the world, and for a significant number of Pakistanis including schoolgirls in her native town of Mingora, she is a hero – a symbol of a girl’s yearning to go to school even if she has to pay the ultimate price for it. There are some who feel she is bringing a bad name to Pakistan by publicising what happened to her, as if we can deny the deed so long as we don’t have to hear about it. They do not need to be taken seriously but the mindset needs to be known so we are aware of the kind of denialism we are dealing with. Anyone who has encountered Malala or followed what she has written or said would know she speaks with her own mind and her words arise from her own vision of what she would like for girls around the globe: an education and the right to receive it without threat or risk to their lives. For this purpose, Malala, still so young herself, has already travelled around the world to fight for others. Her battle has taken her to Nigeria and to other countries where the pen is pulled away from the hands of girls. How she will carry the burden the prize places on her shoulders is to be seen. But there is every reason to believe she will do so with the dignity and quietly spoken sense that has led her to the pedestal on which she stands today. Our task now should be to turn Pakistan into the kind of country Malala can safely return to one day and carry on her work without the fear that it will cost her life.

LG polls

The state has a constitutional duty to regularly hold local bodies elections, a duty it has neglected to observe for over two decades now. Last year, with the election of the PML-N government and the Supreme Court’s interest in the issue, it finally seemed as if we might have local polls. That hope was scuppered when the Election Commission of Pakistan claimed it did not have the time to print sufficient ballot papers and the process of delimitation was bogged down in political disputes. The Supreme Court relented and gave the federal government, provincial governments and the ECP more than a year to sort out all these problems. Now, with the deadline of November 15 to hold the polls nearing, it is becoming apparent that the issue of local bodies elections was ignored by all three concerned parties. The ECP still says it is not ready to hold the polls while the Sindh government says it is waiting on the provincial assembly to pass necessary legislation. The Punjab government says it can only pass the legislation if the federal government does so first. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, meanwhile, has said that it carried out the process of delimitation but did not hold local bodies elections because the Supreme Court had ordered the ECP to draw up constituencies in a non-partisan manner.

The fact is that local bodies elections are not in the interest of those ruling in the centre and provinces. For them it means a loss of money that would then go to locally-elected leaders and a corresponding loss of prestige and power. In Sindh, for example, the PPP would lose a lot of its power if the MQM wins comprehensively in Karachi. The ECP’s incompetence is another matter altogether. It has been operating without a permanent chief election commissioner ever since Fakhruddin G Ebrahim quit – and this lack of leadership is showing. Instead of continuously stalling for more time, it should have been carrying out delimitation without regard to political considerations. The way constituency boundaries are drawn can have an outsized impact on the winner of an election and so an apolitical ECP was the only body that should have been able to do this job. Instead, it has dragged its feet and is now not even in a position to print sufficient ballot papers. The Supreme Court has granted so many delays that another one should be unthinkable. At the same time, the provincial governments and ECP have dragged their feet for so long that a month may not be long enough to make the necessary arrangements. When the Supreme Court reconvenes it may have to set a date and make sure everyone abides by it.

Published in The News, Saturday, October 11, 2014

__________________
"I am still learning."

Conflict with India

India is trying to have it both ways in the conflict it has provoked across the Line of Control. If Pakistan does not respond to the firing, India claims that it has successfully scared us into submission but if we do return fire then we are accused of escalating the problem. In the face of such provocation, which has taken the lives of nearly 20 Pakistani civilians, it is heartening that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is still talking the language of peace. After a meeting of the National Security Council he said that war with India was not an option. While reserving the right to respond to Indian aggression, Nawaz tried to dampen tensions by reiterating his commitment to improving relations with India. Modi, for his part, has been living up to his ultra-hawkish reputation. At an election rally he referred to Pakistan throughout as the “enemy” and claimed that Indian forces had left the Pakistan Army screaming. Modi’s initial forays towards peace soon after he was elected have now been completely abandoned and he is showing his true colours. The goodwill caused by Nawaz’s visit to India for Modi’s inauguration and the subsequent exchange of letters has dissipated. Restoring relations even to their previous unstable calm will be difficult.

The lion’s share of the blame, needless to say, lies with Modi. It is he who has demonised Pakistan throughout his political career and his anti-Pakistan sentiment could have contributed to the needless escalation of firing across the LoC. Where Pakistan has urged calm, Modi has responded with bluster. India doesn’t help matters by still insisting Kashmir is a bilateral issue where the UN has no legitimate role to play. The presence of UN observers could help not only to ascertain blame for the recent shooting incidents but also spur both sides to be more restrained in their actions. The one thing the LoC firings have shown is that it may be possible for both the countries to come to some economic agreements but as long as Kashmir remains the elephant in the room it will be difficult for them to be entirely at peace with each other. Any future talks must also tackle thorny subjects. Ignoring these issues only delays the ultimate reckoning.

Multan tragedy

It is too early to start casting blame for the stampede at the PTI rally in Multan that killed seven people and injured 23 others. We are not yet certain of the circumstances which led to the tragedy. The PTI has already used the incident to attack the PML-N, saying that the fault lies with law-enforcement authorities who had closed entry and exit points and turned off the lights once Imran Khan was done speaking. The Multan police, for their part, say that the PTI had promised to take care of internal security at the rally itself since it did not trust the authorities. That does sound plausible since Imran Khan has made denunciations of the police part of his daily speeches. This has led to unfortunate attacks on security officials and now, in Multan, it may have led to the entirely preventable deaths of seven people. There is reason to believe that the PTI is culpable of neglect. As Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Imran Khan were speaking, voices in the crowd could be heard warning of the impending incident but the leaders took no notice. Only after an independent investigation is carried out, perhaps even requiring a judicial commission, will we know the causes of the stampede. But for now there seems to be plenty of blame to go around.

Shahbaz Sharif has constituted a committee to look into the matter but anything that is associated with the PML-N will automatically be dismissed by the PTI. Shah Mehmood Qureshi accused the city’s administration of being in the pocket of Nawaz Sharif and claimed that the police had endangered Imran Khan’s life by removing the ladder he was supposed to use to mount the stage. He also claimed that electricity to the rally venue was disconnected. All of these accusations seem outlandish and, even if they are true, they do not serve to explain why there was a stampede and why the PTI was unable to do anything about it. But justifiable criticism of the PTI should not lead to the police being spared. No matter how hated it is by the protesters, it is still the police’s job to keep the peace and ensure there are no untoward incidents. The PTI, instead of searching for scapegoats, will have to look inward and ensure that such an incident is never repeated.

PIA problem

Rated as among the best airlines in the world through the 1960s and the first in Asia to fly a Boeing 747 jet airliner, PIA has since slipped in terms of performance and also its safety record. While it remains higher in ranking than many other airlines around the world, including Turkish and China airways, we wonder how long this status can be maintained. In 2012, the airline was slapped with a temporary ban by the EU because of poor safety standards with doors found held together with tape and other equipment in poor condition. While a number of safety issues concerning the airline continue to be reported from time to time, we hope that the oil spill that suspended flights at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto Airport for several hours on Saturday will be investigated in detail. The spill occurred from the hydraulic engine of a 747 aircraft. The reasons have not been explained, but we wonder if the maintenance of the plane was as high as it should be. There have been many complaints about this in the past. Because of the spill on the runway, flights were barred from landing at the airport and directed to remain airborne while no flights were permitted to take off.

The PIA question has become bigger. Right now, a process of privatisation is underway, with the hope that this can make the airline more efficient and improve standards. A new agreement is also being reached with the Pakistan Airlines Pilot Association with the last one having lapsed in 2013. The demands from either side are complex and involve flying hours, releasing of aircrafts and other issues. In the past, pilots have called for higher engineering standards and lower flying hours for the sake of safety. These issues are crucial given that the airline, in so many ways, represents the country whose colours it flies. Resurrecting PIA should, therefore, be a major priority. At the same time, we should also be looking at the facilities available at our airports. It is unclear what expertise existed to deal with the recent oil spill. But certainly in past years calls have been made for measures that can enable flights to land in conditions such as fog – an annual weather feature which engulfs the Lahore area and has kept the airport there closed for days. We need to upgrade the condition of both our airline and the airports in the country. The task is one that has been pending for way too long. The issue of PIA’s privatisation is a complex one. But the key must be to make our airline a better and safer one and at the same time raise our airports to higher levels in terms of the aviation services they are able to provide.

Published in The News, Sunday, October 12, 2014

__________________
"I am still learning."

"Just gender relations"
March 05, 2015

Men and women everywhere work for a more just and fair world. Governments and politicians do it, and they win or lose elections based on their opinions and abilities to fulfill promises and policies. Civil society organizations and various interest groups do it, funded by their members, or the public or private sectors. Issues change over time and from one geographic area to another. Topics vary based on trends and fashions and what leaders and people put on the agenda. Economic reasons play a major role in what we prioritize, and so do religious and cultural traditions, beliefs and values. On the global arena, the United Nations and other international organizations play major roles in putting issues on the agenda, but the UN also relies on its members to take up issues. Many important issues only reach the international agenda after a long time, and other issues are on the waiting list forever.
International Women’s Day, which is marked on 8 March, became a United Nations Day in 1977, and many countries, as well as Pakistan, have other days to focus on gender equality. When the UN day was created, women had worked for greater equality for a very, very long time. More than a hundred years ago, women in the West began to advocate for women having the same rights as men in public life, and in the economic, social and political fields. In 1910, the Danish social democratic party’s women’s congress decided to establish an annual women’s day, and it was marked in many countries from the next year. Women’s right to vote was the main topic, and in most countries in the West, women achieved that basic right in the second decade of the century. During the First World War, 1914-1918, the fight for peace was top of the agenda. Later, health issues, social and family issues, including family planning, were given attention, as well as labour issues for women and men. After the Second World War, when more women joined the formal labour force, labour issues and social issues remained central.
Even in the more advanced countries, women still earn less than men, yes, sometimes even for the same work, and pay in typical ‘women jobs’ is lower than in sectors where there are only men, or a majority of men. There is still a long way to go in most countries to reach gender equality in the working life, indeed as pertains to women in leadership posts in the private sector. This is also the case in Scandinavia, the model countries for modern gender equality, where women do well in politics and the public sector.
In education, which is the key to social mobility, there is less disparity, and women often do better than men at exams, also at university. In many countries, women outnumber men in higher education. In Iran, for example, over sixty percent of university students are women; in Pakistan, about forty percent, but it varies from university to university and levels of studies. It should be added that illiteracy among women is high, and the majority of out-of-school children in primary education are girls, especially in remote rural areas. Gender equality in education should be given top priority. Also, quality education for all children, also poor boys and girls in rural as well as urban areas, should be given priority. This will lead to greater equality for adult women and men, and in turn, educated women will ascertain that their children receive education, and the whole families will do better.
In the West, including my home country Norway, and in most countries in the world, the International Women’s Day became particularly important in the 1970s. Today, the public manifestations in way of mass rallies and waving of banners and more or less militant slogans have declined. And in Norway, many probably feel that they ‘have landed’, that they have reached close to optimal gender equality. Although this is not quite the case, there is good reason to celebrate the many achievements.
Now, International Women’s Day could be a day for showing solidarity with women elsewhere in the world, especially in the developing countries, where work for greater gender and class equality are the most important human rights issues.
In the multicultural West, where many immigrants have arrived in the last generation or two, it is important to support the newcomers, men and women, so that they can find their ways into the more ‘gender neutral’ societies. For men and women in the West, there are also opportunities to learn from immigrants and question some of the outcomes of the new standards and norms in our time. For example, when both parents work outside the home, even when the children are small, life becomes very hectic and stressful for all. Hence, the optimal model for the ‘good life’ has not yet been found.
Violence against women is a worldwide problem. In the West, especially among educated and economically independent women, it is less prevalent. The ways we choose our spouse, change partners or live alone, have changed in our time – but not all new things are good. Decisions are made by the partners themselves, and women have a greater say than ever about when and whom to marry; that also applies to countries where marriage is as much an arrangement between families as just between individuals.
When I was young in Norway in the 1960s and 1970s, a great deal of stigma was attached to unwanted pregnancies and divorce. At secondary school, I remember that a classmate who became pregnant dropped out from one day to the next, and we never spoke about it. At primary school, there was a girl in my class whose parents were divorced. The indirect message we received from the other children and the community was that this was bad, and that we should stay a bit away from her and her brother in another class. Today, many children grow up in families with one parent only, usually the mother, and there is little stigma attached to that.
In the future, I hope everyone can find ways of living more peacefully together, and that we will use less force, including physical and non-physical violence against those who are weaker. This applies to many fields in society, not only gender relations. I believe we in recent decades have made progress, yet, our world has also become more competitive and harder. The way we react to the ‘war on terror’ is often wrong, working contrary to our efforts of creating more peaceful and harmonious societies.
Dear reader, may I congratulate you all on this year’s International Women’s Day. I hope women and men everywhere will find better ways of living together, following international standards, adjusted to local standards and exchange of ideas and experience. Everywhere, a more just life for women also leads to a better and happier life for men. Similarly, greater economic equality leads to a better life also for the wealthy. Yes, in all fields, the oppressed gain from less oppression, but so do the oppressors.

__________________
"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!

It has been 1 year and 8 months since I came to Pakistan as the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea. During this time, the most frequently asked question of my Pakistani friends has been, “How did Korea develop so amazingly in such a short time?”
In 1960, Korea’s per capita income was $79 which was lower than the average income of the Least Developed Countries and Korea had only $20 million foreign exchange reserves. By the end of 2013, Korea’s per capita income was $25,977 and its foreign exchange reserves were more than $345.6 billion, the 8th largest reserves in the world.
There are many reasons for Korea’s speedy development. The two most important reasons were Korea’s visionary leader, President Park Chung-hee, who created a strong momentum and secondly, the Korean nation’s unity and efforts with their sacrifices.
A Korean newspaper, The Dong-A Ilbo, published an interview with Dr. Baek Yeong-hoon, translator of the Korean Government’s loan delegation to West Germany, on 10th April 2013, about how President Park got a $30 million commercial loan in 1961 from West Germany. This loan was required very urgently for implementing the first Economic Development 5 Year Plan (1962-66).
After the Korean Delegation’s visit to West Germany in December 1961, Korean miners and nurses started working in Germany from 1963. Even though their working conditions were very difficult and intense, they provided parts of their income as security for a German commercial loan to the Korean Government.
President Park visited West Germany in December 1964. During his stay in West Germany, he visited the Ruhr mines along with Karl Heinrich Lübke, the president of Germany, and addressed the Korean miners and nurses. During his speech to these hard working Koreans, President Park cried while he promised, “We must not pass this poverty to the next generation”. This is a really good lesson for Pakistan too, if it wants to learn Korea’s Economic Development.
President Park learnt many lessons during his visit to West Germany in 1964 which would change the history of Korea. Particularly, he understood that he should not rely only on foreign aid for the progress of his country. Secondly, he learnt how to make an economic development order for the economic stability in a country. His economic development order started with the construction of highways, followed by the making of automobiles, steel mills and oil refineries.
Today, thanks to the visionary leadership of President Park and the national unity, determination, dedication and sacrifices of the Korean people, the Republic of Korea has witnessed the miracle of the Han River. Since 2012, Korea’s trade volume with the world has been more than $1.1 trillion, and it is the 7th largest merchandise exporter and 9th largest merchandise importer in the world. Korea’s GDP is over $1.3 trillion, which is the 14th largest GDP in the world. Korean companies like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Lotte and Daewoo are household names all over the world and Korea is a global power in industries like shipbuilding, semi-conductors, LCDs, communication technology, power generation, electronics and nuclear technology.
I wish to see the Miracle of the Indus River here in Pakistan as I witnessed and experienced the Miracles of the Rhine River in Germany and the Han River in Korea. And with that desire and hope, I have always made efforts to strengthen the relations between our two countries as an Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Pakistan.




Invest in teachers

Education in Pakistan has remained a low priority all these 68 years. This, despite the fact that the very first conference held in Pakistan was on education where Quaid-e-Azam declared that, “education is a matter of life and death for Pakistan.”
While there was has been a substantial increase in the number of schools, colleges and universities, Pakistan remains one of the most illiterate countries in the world. 60 million Pakistanis today cannot read or write.
Again, the quality of education imparted, barring a small number of outstanding educational institutions, is generally sub-standard. Why so?
It is easy to explain the reason for this disappointing state of affairs. Primarily it is a lack of political will. This grievous deficiency is rooted in the mindset of our feudalistic political leadership (even the urban elite is tainted by it). How else to explain that Pakistan spends less than 2% of its GDP on education. (The minimum recommended by UNESCO is 4%; most of the developing countries spend 4% or more on education).
This mindset can best be seen at play in the most feudalistic province where barring Karachi and one or two other cities, education budgets and programmes have been used as a means of rank patronage, misuse of assets and corruption. Thousands of schools remain closed for years, occupied as they are by influential elements.
According to a recent report published in a leading newspaper, prior to the new system of recruitment of teachers in the Sindh province, 30,000 extra teachers were recruited on an adhoc basis—many of them on fake appointment letters. “We have written to the Accountant General to stop their salaries and have ordered an enquiry” said the Sindh Education Minister while talking to the press the other day. Under the Reform Support Unit, a donor controlled new recruitment system is operating now with the components of a test for the candidates by the National Testing Service and district recruitment committees. While this system provides a distinct improvement in the methodology, it suffers from inordinate procedural delays. According to the head of a teachers’ association, there is a backlog of 16,000 “letters of appointment” to be issued about posts advertised in 2012. Most of the selected primary school teachers have yet to receive orders.
Education-wise, Punjab has done better. If however, you talk to the Teachers’ Associations office-bearers, their litany of grievances paints a none-too-happy picture. For one, they rightly complain that they are used for non-teaching chores. According to a recent survey conducted by SAHE (Society for the Advancement of Education) in partnership with Alif Ailan, teachers claim that they have to spend 53 days or so a year on non-school duties.
While the Directorate of Stall Development has done a commendable job in imparting induction and in service training to newly recruited teachers, tens of thousands of new recruits have yet to be attended. And sadly, enough training has yet to be provided to the primary school teachers whose number exceeds one hundred thousand. In other words, even a good teacher training programme suffers from serious inadequacies. Punjab boasts of spending 26% of its budget on education. Most of the funds for schools go for salaries and bricks and mortar and little for reform and upgrading quality. In fact, quality remains a major failure. A lot of emphasis is laid on increasing enrolment. Not because it is obviously needed, but the major motive is to win some credit internationally in view of commitments made. The MDGs for instance require a 100% primary education rate by the end of the year 2015 which of course demands special efforts to bring to school more children. But even these enrolment drives yield only limited results. The net primary school enrolment rate for Pakistan is just around 66%. Only 50% of the girls are not enrolled. No wonder Pakistan will fail to achieve the EFA targets.
Another reform that the Punjab government introduced in schools a few years back, was to turn the government schools into English medium institutions. The implementation however, became problematic. Where were the teachers to deliver English lessons in various subjects? Many primary school teachers posted for imparting English from class 1 were transferred to meet the demand. Punjab also shares some of the other deficiencies and distortions mentioned in the SAHE survey which hamper teachers’ ability to perform effectively viz a viz overcrowded class rooms because of lack of space, multi-grade teaching, poor quality text books and lack of equipment and facilities.
On October 5th every year, World Teachers Day is celebrated all over the world. Director General UNESCO’s message on the occasion last year was “Invest in Teachers, Invest in the Future.” She rightly said that education in a country is as good as the quality of its teachers. The last Asia Pacific Conference on Education held in Bangkok too focused on the teachers. The theme was: Powerhouses of Education: Teachers for the Future We Want.” Excellent presentations were made at the conference on such subjects as teachers competencies, roles and identities, expectations now and for the future; professional development of teachers, experiences from various countries; teachers for early years; models for teaching Science and Mathematics effectively, operationalization of inclusion in teaching and learning, status and working conditions of teachers; use of ICT in teacher education programmes; preparing for the world of work- the role of the teachers. Experts and scholars from all over the world including Japan, China, Australia, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, US and Europe participated in the Conference and shared their valuable experiences and insights. It is a pity that the government of Pakistan took little notice of this important international conference.
The PACADE delegate, after attending the conference, helped organize a Symposium on teachers in Pakistan where emphasis was laid on motivation, their professional development especially on pre-service and in-service training, working conditions in schools as also on the need for legislation for certification and licensing.
It is time conferences and workshops are held by governments at the centre and in all the provinces on the crucial role of the teachers particularly those entrusted with primary school education when children’s minds are nurtured and moulded and where they can be inspired to develop thinking skills, good behavior and where they may imbibe values like tolerance and discipline.
It is also time teachers’ voices are heard by government policy makers and functionaries and their legitimate grievances and demands addressed.

Published in The Nation on 07 march, 2015

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"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!

Budget revisions

Budget 2015-16 has undergone some major revision. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has revealed major changes in the budget, including increase in the salaries of government employees. The PML-N has demonstrated willingness to accept some of the major amendments proposed by opposition parties and the Senate with the televised debate over the budget bearing fruit. Dar accepted 20 demands completely while partially accepting 15 of the 92 non-binding recommendations. Put on the defensive by a debate that called the budget firmly pro-rich and anti-poor, Dar pointed to an increase of Rs5 billion in the Benazir Income Support Programme, the Baitul Mal and a crop insurance scheme to argue that the budget was pro-poor. Walk-outs included one by the PTI on Speaker Ayaz Sadiq’s election while the MQM walked out in protest against Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s remarks against the party. The changes made include a Rs20 billion subsidy on the use of certain kinds of fertiliser, the reduction of GST on pesticides, increase in the repayment period for solar tubewells, and exemption of oilseeds for sowing from customs duty and sales tax. Dar has also extended many of the incentives given to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to investors in Balochistan. A five-year tax exemption was announced for all new manufacturing units for mobile phones. The salaries of government employees have been increased by 11 percent which would add Rs2 billion in cost to the national exchequer. The last of these issues could have easily been avoided by making provision for it in the original budget from the beginning. Moreover, the acceptance of an 11 percent increase suggests that the government’s claim that inflation was below five percent last year is questionable. Much of the other changes are cosmetic. How will the tax exemption for Balochistan’s industry work before providing? security there? The agricultural subsidy is a limited one and will barely impact farmers. The additions to the BISP are great, but the lack of tax reform in the revised budget is more alarming. Much of the critique of the budget focused on the high use of indirect and withholding taxes for non-taxpayers to raise taxes. This technically means that the government is willing to give non-taxpayers a clean chit for tax avoidance and is not serious about tax reform at all. The budget is still anti-poor. The minor changes Dar has accepted do not disguise that. The more worrying thing, though, is the lack of serious commitment towards raising revenue.
Monday, June 22, 2015
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-New...dget-revisions

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"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling ,but in rising every time we fall". (Nelson Mandela)

Ending world poverty

Another day of hope for the world’s poor came as a number of world leaders assembled at the United Nations promised to end extreme poverty within 15 years. The signatories to the accord included a wide range of leaders that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This meant that the pledge has brought the developed and developing worlds together in the fight to eliminate extreme poverty. The world leaders adopted an ambitious set of UN goals which were to be backed up by trillions of dollars in spending capacity. The agreement has been billed as the most comprehensive anti-poverty plan ever with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets adopted at the start of the UN General Assembly meeting. The agreement was the fruit of three years of endless negotiations that finally culminated in this consensus. This new global agenda was welcomed by Pope Francis as an ‘important sign of hope’ in his first speech to the UNGA. The Pope urged global leaders to deliver on their promise to transform the world by 2030.

The fact is that these goals look good on paper but will meet a meek fate if they are left to the designs of real politics. With the SDGs set to replace the Millennium Development Goals, one need only to be reminded of the fact that the MDGs themselves are not near being met as the much more ambitious SDGs were being agreed upon. The agreement of SDGs, which has been described by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a ‘to-do list for people and planet’, seems to be yet another piece of paper that will be celebrated for a few days before it becomes one more glaring indictment for what we could have done but did not do for the betterment of all of the residents of this planet. The new UN agenda to end poverty, ensure health, promote education and combat climate change will come at a cost of between $3.5 and $5 trillion per year till 2030. German Chancellor Merkel has already warned that the goals cannot be fulfilled until the wars ravaging the planet are not ended. After 15 war and famine-filled years from 2000 to 2015, another two decades of war and famine are certainly beyond what the planet can afford. Given the realising threat of climate change altering the ecology of our planet forever, the world’s commitment to the SDGs will now no longer be about the future of the world’s poor, but the future of our world as we know it.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-New...-world-poverty

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Or do you think that the Fellows of the Cave and the Inscription were of Our Signs wonderful?

The IS threat

In claiming that the Islamic State poses an ‘unprecedented threat’ to the world, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is merely echoing rhetoric we have been hearing from the West, not just in the last few months, but ever since Al-Qaeda emerged as a transnational terror group. Ban claims IS is different in the scope of its threat because it has already managed to gain the allegiance of 34 militant groups around the world. This, too, is far from unprecedented, since Al-Qaeda, and even Hezbollah in the 1980s, was able to get support in places outside its base country. Where IS has been more successful than previous militant groups is in attracting the support of alienated and radicalised people in Europe and the US. These people, as in the California shootings, have carried out lone wolf attacks but draped themselves in the IS banner. That this has happened is partly due to advances in technology and the reach of the IS on social media. But for its supposed technological prowess, IS would never have reached as wide and willing an audience as it has were it not for Muslims in the West made to feel unwelcome and hated after 9/11.

By labelling the IS as such a monumental threat, the secretary general may also have tried to place this threat in context. The IS did not emerge from a void. It first emerged in Iraq after the US invasion toppled Saddam Hussein and its decision to ‘de-Baathify’ the country caused a Sunni backlash and the inevitable civil war. With a territorial base in Iraq, it was then able to take advantage of the chaos in Syria. The US and its allies incredibly repeated the same mistake in Libya when it bombed the Qaddafi government and ignited another civil war, giving more space to the IS. The IS may be more brutal than the militant groups that preceded it but this brutality has been nurtured in a region that has been a playground for military adventurers. Critics, both within and outside, of the West’s various wars had predicted this as a consequence. It is interesting that Ban Ki-moon pointed to countries like Pakistan and Libya as examples of fertile hunting grounds for IS, since it is these countries that have had to bear US bombing and pressure. In Pakistan, we already have to deal with the TTP and its allied groups. Adding the IS to this combustible mix will not only lead to more violence at home, it will also bringing further outside scrutiny to the country. Certainly the international community needs to do all it can to prevent future attacks from IS and its affiliates. The only lasting solution, though, is to stop creating space and support for such groups in the first place.

Refugee deaths

The deaths of more than two dozen people after their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea on Monday can directly be blamed on European governments, which have tried to make it as hard as possible for migrants fleeing the wars in Syria and Iraq to reach their shores. The migrants were forced to take a new route from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos because of the increased security on the usual route. The boat was less than two miles into its journey before it capsized, with only a few people rescued. This latest incident comes just a week after 37 people, including 10 children, were killed when their boat also capsized. Calling this a tragic incident downplays the thoughtlessness of EU governments towards refugees who are only trying to survive the wars in their home countries. But we should not expect these governments to acknowledge their culpability in the deaths. Instead, they will point to the dangers of these migrants crossings – dangers which they have only intensified – and use that to argue against accepting further refugees. This is exactly what has happened in Australia too in recent years, which has portrayed its anti-migrant policies as ironically being meant for the safety of those migrants.

A sign of just how hopeless the plight of these refugees is the fact that, according to the International Organisation of Migration, in only four days in February there have been more refugee arrivals in Greece and Italy than there were in the entire month last year. The IOM says that this year nearly 75,000 people have tried to make the journey and 374 of those have been killed. The EU should be doing everything it can to make the trip as safe as possible – even providing their own boats, rather than leaving the refugees to the mercy of smugglers who are only out to make a buck and have little interest in the safety of their ‘customers’. European and American leaders’ warning about IS militants being potentially among the refugees should now be exposed as the xenophobic lie that it really is. With conditions as hazardous as they are, and only becoming more dangerous, and with IS easily able to recruit among the home-grown Muslim population in Europe, there is no need and little to no chance of any militants infiltrating the refugees. These are people without a home to call their own who are desperate enough to risk their lives and those of their children. Let’s not add to the danger they already face.

Published in THE NEWS on Wednesday, Feb 10, 2016

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"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!