In the landscape of public health, childhood immunisation stands as a cornerstone of disease prevention, ensuring the well-being of the youngest members of society. In Pakistan, this vital public health intervention has faced considerable challenges, marked by alarmingly low childhood immunisation rates that continue to pose significant risks.
A 2022 study conducted by Adeline Delavande, Javed Younas, and Basit Zafar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) explores the impact of interventions targeting maternal mental health and the provision of information by influencers on the demand for childhood immunisations. Earlier research suggests that vaccine hesitancy among parents, lack of information about the benefits of vaccinations, and the indoctrination of religious beliefs contribute to low childhood immunisation rates. This study, however, takes a novel approach by focusing on family-side constraints, while acknowledging the widespread prevalence of maternal depression in Pakistan.
Maternal depression, a pervasive but underdiagnosed issue affecting a quarter of Pakistani women, emerges as a critical factor influencing immunisation behaviour. Despite its substantial burden, maternal depression remains under-treated, creating a significant gap in mental health support for mothers navigating the challenges of childcare. This research, therefore, takes a pioneering step by intertwining the realms of maternal mental health and childhood immunisations, recognising the interplay between psychological well-being and health-seeking behaviours among mothers.
Motivated by the belief that information interventions can lead to behavioural changes, the study leveraged the potential positive effects of psychological support, short-term mental health support, and visualisation-style interventions. While providing generic information has shown modest impacts on immunisation rates in Pakistan, the study aimed to test the effectiveness of short, cost-effective interventions on both maternal mental health and childhood immunisation rates. The study, hence, hypothesised that psychological support alone positively influences immunisation behaviour, and the combination of information and psychological support enhances this effect.
The study
The intervention, conducted by Gallup Pakistan in KP, involved Psychological First Aid (PFA) and immunisation information delivered via phone calls. The sample comprised 1,800 mothers — with infants one month old or younger — divided into three groups: a control group, a group receiving psychological first aid (PFA), and a group receiving both PFA and immunisation information. The study sought to answer critical questions about the effectiveness of these interventions and their potential to improve vaccination coverage. The primary outcomes of interest included children’s immunisation rates, mothers’ mental health measured by the PHQ9 — a depression symptom questionnaire — and maternal knowledge, expectations, and attitudes related to immunisation.
The intervention design involved a series of phone calls, blending basic support, additional information on immunisations, and psychological techniques such as visualisation and planning. The calls aimed to alleviate mental stress, expand cognitive bandwidth, and encourage mothers to think about the long-term consequences of vaccinating their children. Midway through the study, surveyors collected data on the persistence of the interventions’ effects and understanding the mothers’ willingness to pay for vaccination reminders. At the end of the study, another survey aimed to assess the sustained impact on immunisation rates, maternal knowledge, attitudes, and overall life satisfaction.
Results and findings
Results from the study revealed compelling findings. It was found that psychological first aid positively influenced immunisation behaviour, with additional influencers showing little to no significant added effect. The outcomes also demonstrated improvements in maternal mental health, knowledge scores, and positive changes in expectations related to immunisations. Despite challenges such as attrition rates — a measure of people who leave, voluntarily or involuntarily — the study’s robust research design and balanced baseline characteristics enhanced the reliability of the findings. The results suggest that light-touch phone interventions focusing on maternal mental health and visualisation techniques can effectively promote childhood immunisation in rural Pakistan.
This study underscores a significant step forward in addressing the complex challenges of childhood immunisation in Pakistan. By targeting family-side constraints and integrating psychological support with the provision of information, the research demonstrates a holistic approach to bridging the immunisation gap. The findings underscore the importance of considering maternal mental health and expectations in public health interventions, providing valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners working to enhance childhood immunisation rates not only in Pakistan but potentially in similar contexts globally, by implementing targeted strategies at the government level.
Lessons for policymakers
Firstly, recognising the critical role of maternal mental health in shaping immunisation decisions, policymakers should prioritise the integration of mental health support programs into existing maternal and child healthcare services. This could involve training healthcare professionals to identify and address perinatal depression and anxiety effectively. Establishing accessible and culturally sensitive mental health services, particularly in rural areas, can provide the necessary support to mothers, addressing an often underdiagnosed and undertreated aspect of public health.
In tandem with mental health interventions, the government should invest in comprehensive awareness campaigns aimed at dispelling myths and misconceptions surrounding childhood immunisations. Collaborative efforts with religious leaders, community influencers, and healthcare professionals can help disseminate accurate information, emphasising the safety and benefits of vaccinations. Leveraging mass media, including radio and television, can further amplify these messages, ensuring they reach a broader audience across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
Furthermore, the research highlights the potential of leveraging influential figures, such as government officials, doctors, religious leaders, and a role model mother to convey the importance of immunisations. Establishing partnerships with these figures to actively promote and support vaccination programmes can significantly impact public perceptions. This approach could include endorsements, public service announcements, and community engagement initiatives to reinforce the significance of childhood immunisations.
The government should also explore policy measures to ease logistical barriers associated with vaccinations. This includes ensuring the availability of vaccines in remote areas, streamlining vaccination schedules, and providing incentives for timely immunisations. Implementing these measures can contribute to an overall improvement in immunisation rates, fostering a healthier future for Pakistan’s children.
The research findings underscore the importance of multifaceted policy interventions that address maternal mental health, dispel misconceptions, integrate visualisation techniques, leverage influential figures, and streamline logistical processes. However, counselling for improving the mental health of mothers, both prenatal and postnatal, can deliver outstanding results for enhancing immunisation rates of newborns. This one public health intervention goes a long way in not only promoting the lifelong health of children but everything that a healthy body and mind can achieve.
By incorporating these strategies, the Pakistani government can pave the way for a more robust immunisation programme, ultimately safeguarding the well-being of the nation’s youngest citizens and their inclusiveness in the development of a progressive society.
While political parties fight over who gets to form the government at the centre and each of the provinces, there are cries from various quarters of their mandate having been stolen. But what does that mean? How many Pakistanis actually exercised their right to adult franchise on Feb 8? And where the voter turnout was less than ideal, does the winning candidate actually represent the will of the people?
In the words of political analyst Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, voter turnout is as vital a sign of the political health of a democracy as is blood pressure in a human body.
Broadly speaking, a total of 60.8 million voters exercised their right to vote in Pakistan’s 12th general elections, according to an analysis conducted by Dawn.com through the published Form 47s of the 264 constituencies, whose results have been announced, on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) website. This number was almost 6 million more compared to when 54.8 million Pakistanis cast their votes in 2018.
Besides voter turnout, the data contained in the Form 47s also shed light on at least two other key patterns — the number of rejected votes and the disparity between female and male voters in each constitutency — which we analysed and whose findings are presented below.
They did show up to vote
Despite months of political instability, violence and allegations of pre-decided winners, millions of Pakistanis did come out to cast their vote on Feb 8. However, their numbers were only 47.8 per cent of the total eligible voters — which means that over half of the eligible voters in the country chose not to exercise their right to franchise at all.
In a recent article for this publication, former senator Javed Jabbar wrote that “the minimal turnout to validate an election should be at least 75pc, which is equivalent to the margin required to make a constitutional amendment in most democracies.”
In Pakistan, the democratic process mandates the affirmation of two-thirds majority of all elected representatives in the assembly to bring about an amendment in the Constitution. However, the voter turnout, determining the individuals who will represent the public in the legislative process, has consistently remained below 60pc, and it has never reached the threshold of 75pc since Independence.
Keeping up with tradition of low turnout, in the 2024 elections all provinces except Punjab — with 51pc — reported a voter turnout of less then 50pc. The turnout in Balochistan was the lowest at 41pc; close in the race were Sindh with 43.6pc and KP with 44pc.
Across the 264 constituencies, NA-214 Tharparkar I witnessed the highest voter turnout at 70.9pc, whereas the lowest was recorded in South Waziristan at a mere 16pc. While not reaching the absolute lowest, the unexpectedly low turnout in NA-236 Karachi East II (24.93pc) and NA-241 Karachi South (23pc) caught everyone off guard.
One of the reasons behind the low turnout was the fear of violence at polling stations. Talha Saeed, a voter in constituency NA-236 said that he was unable to cast his vote as the polling station was shut down at 1pm due to a firing incident.
The incident took place despite the fact the majority of polling stations in Karachi had been declared ‘sensitive’ by the ECP. Large police and Rangers contingents were also deployed to ensure a smooth electoral process.
It also wasn’t that any expenditure was spared to facilitate the electoral process, with the ECP having been allocated a budget of Rs42 billion — which when calculated against the number of registered voters — means that Rs329.51 were devoted to facilitate each voter.
Despite the substantial investment of taxpayer funds and a year-long preparation period, the ECP fell short in ensuring accessibility for all voters. The author personally observed a deficiency at their polling station in NA-238, where facilities to assist the elderly and disabled citizens in casting their votes were notably absent.
The ECP had set up a helpline, 8300, allowing voters to obtain information about their provincial and national constituencies, polling stations, and serial numbers by entering their national identity number. Unfortunately, on election day, cellular services were suspended citing security concerns. Those who were unable to send messages the day before and were unaware of their polling details were simply at a loss and many couldn’t cast their vote for this very reason.
According to the ECP’s own data, a significant proportion of the no-shows were eligible female voters.
How many women showed up?
Compared to the total 46.89pc female voter turnout in 2018, the share of female voters share decreased to 41.3pc this year. At the same time, men’s turnout increased from 56.01pc to 58.7pc. This also furthered the gap between the genders to 17.4 percentage points, translating into 10.22 million fewer women votes polled than men’s.
In the 98 by-elections held since the 2018 general elections, this pattern of lower female voter turnout has persisted where the share of polled women votes has been around 40pc of the total polled votes, translating to around 2m fewer women votes polled.
One of the measures taken by the state to encourage women voter turnout was through Section 9 of the Elections Act, 2017, which states that if the turnout of women voters is less than 10pc of the total votes polled in a constituency, the ECP may presume that women voters have been restrained from casting their votes and may declare polling at one or more polling stations or election in the whole constituency void.
In Shangla, along with North Waziristan, the ECP had declared the 2018 polls void over the low turnout of female voters. This time, however, none of the national or provincial assemblies’ constituencies recorded a female turnout that was less than 10pc of the total polled votes.
The lowest vote share of women among total polled votes was 18.8pc recorded in NA-13 Battagram. Meanwhile, the highest women vote share stood at 49.5 pc in NA-1 Chitral Upper/ Chitral Lower.
This particular provision has, however, adopted a flawed definition of female voter turnout.
Essentially, it considers the proportion of women’s votes cast out of the total votes cast, often resulting in an inflated representation of female turnout. It’s imperative to revise this provision by defining women’s voter turnout as the percentage of women’s votes cast out of the total registered women’s votes.
The lesser share of women’s registered votes compared to men can form the basis for the low participation of women in the electoral process. Despite that, in a handful of constituencies, the proportion of women who showed up to vote was higher than that of men.
In NA-1 Chitral, 57.2pc of eligible women cast their votes compared to 49.8pc men. Similarly, in NA-63 Gujrat-II, the percentage of women voters was 51.8, while men stood at 50.2.
In Lahore’s NA-128, the proportion of men and women who cast their votes out of their respective registered numbers was almost the same (56.48pc for men and 56.02pc for women). Likewise, in NA-139 Pakpattan-I, 52.13pc men showed up compared to a close 52.10pc women. In NA-178 Muzaffargarh-IV, this ratio was also similar for both (53.7 for men and 53.03 for women).
Thari women made a record again with their remarkable turnout of 72.8pc and 67.7pc in NA-214 Tharparkar-I and NA-215 Tharparkar-II, respectively. In the last elections, the ratio of women who came out to vote in Thar was also the highest anywhere in Pakistan.
Two other constituencies that had more than 60pc of its registered women showing up were NA-92 Bhakkar II (63pc) and NA-165 Bahawalpur-II (62.6pc).
Even though the numbers mentioned above show signs of progress, the majority of the data illustrates that there is a long way to go. In every single constituency, more men have cast their votes than women. Moreover, in at least 12 constituencies, the female turnout was 20pc or less. In contrast, no constituency had less than 20pc turnout for men.
In NA-42 South Waziristan, the female turnout was the lowest at 9.21pc. Other constituencies with 20 or less percentage of women casting votes were NA-27 Khyber, NA-13 Battagram, NA-4 Swat-III, NA-11 Shangla, NA-36 Hangu/Orakzai, NA-26 Mohmand, NA-3 Swat-II, NA-263 Quetta-II, and NA-30 Peshawar-III.
Two surprises were from Karachi’s NA-236 (district east) and NA-241 Karachi (district south) which had poor female voter turnouts of 15.7pc and 20.3pc respectively.
There are 26 constituencies where the female turnout percentage was between 21 and 30. Karachi again makes an appearance four times between this range which raises many questions about the female political activity in the city.
The ECP has not provided gender-disaggregated polled votes as required under the Election Rules, 2017 in the following constituencies: NA-19 Swabi, NA-46 Islamabad-I, NA-50 Attock II, NA-64 Gujrat, NA-87 Khushab, NA-154 Lodhran I, NA-266 Qila Abdullah/Chaman. These constituencies are therefore not part of this analysis.
The recurring saga of discarded ballots
The integrity of any democratic process hinges on the fundamental principle of ensuring that every vote counts. Yet, there is a disconcerting trend undermining this principle within Pakistan’s electoral history. Recent revelations from the 2024 elections show that not much has changed. Approximately 2 million ballot papers were excluded from the count across all 264 National Assembly (NA) seats contested.
This staggering figure exposes a deeply concerning reality: the proportion of votes rejected out of the total votes cast has been steadily rising over the past two decades, as confirmed by the Gallup Pakistan Data Analytics Team. This not only challenges the very essence of democratic representation but also sparks serious doubts about the efficacy of Pakistan’s electoral mechanisms and the broader implications for its democratic future.
The NA-59 constituency, Talagang/Chakwal in Punjab registered the highest number of rejected votes, where PML-N’s Sardar Ghulam Abbas clinched victory with 141,680 votes against PTI-backed Muhammad Ruman Ahmad’s 129,716 votes. The victory margin stood at 11,964 votes, while the count of rejected ballots reached 24,547. Following closely was NA-213 Umerkot, with 17,571 votes rejected. A significant number of districts — 137 to be specific — reported a considerable count of rejected votes ranging from 5,000 to 10,000.
As far as the overall weightage is concerned, NA-255 Sohbatpur/ Jaffarabad with 8.1pc saw the highest percentage of rejected votes. Similarly, a significant proportion of votes, 7.1pc, in NA-196 Qambar-Shahadatkot were discarded during the counting process.
The graph illustrates the distribution of discarded votes across 264 constituencies, revealing that the majority of these votes fall within the range of 1pc and 4pc.
Notably, for a subset of these constituencies, the range expands from 5pc to 9pc. This discrepancy prompts concerns regarding the factors contributing to the rising levels of discarded votes within these specific divisions. What exactly happened there?
Intriguing insights
Certain constituencies — NA-255 Sohbatpur/ Jafferabad, NA-196 Qambar-S, NA-191 Jacobabad Kashmore, NA-59 Talagang, NA-151 Multan IV, NA-198 Ghotki, NA-190 Jacobabad, NA-213 Umerkot — have evidently witnessed high rates of discarded votes.
In light of the concerning figures, particularly exemplified in the case of these 15 constituencies, it becomes a moral and democratic imperative to address the root causes behind the escalating count of rejected votes. The staggering magnitude of invalidated ballots demands urgent scrutiny and action.
Allah Bux Arisrar, a journalist from Umerkot, told Dawn.com that he asked a presiding officer about the reasons for the increasing number of rejected votes.
One factor identified was the confusion among voters with weak vision, who mistakenly interpreted symbols on the ballot. For instance, they often confused the arrow with the brush, the white peacock with the green peacock, and the wolf with the lion. When similar-looking symbols representing distinct parties are positioned next to each other, it is hard to not conclude that this placement was strategic to impair voters’ ability to accurately identify and mark their preferred choice.
“Influential waderas colluded with election staff to rig the voting process by placing double stamps on ballots, thereby rendering them invalid,” Arisrar added. “During the process of taking thumb impressions, ink would often remain on voters’ thumbs, and there was no mechanism in place to effectively clean it. Consequently, when individuals entered the voting booth, the ink on their thumbs would inadvertently transfer onto the ballot paper, contributing to the increased number of discarded votes.”
Abdul Wahid Shahwani, a Dawn.com reporter from Khuzdar, Balochistan, said that the high rate of discarded votes in Balochistan stems from a pervasive lack of voter education and awareness throughout the province.
“Illiteracy is prevalent among minority groups, farmers, and agricultural workers, leading to confusion regarding the voting process. Many individuals were unsure whether to use a stamp or their thumb to cast their vote, resulting in a significant number opting to use their thumbs. Given that there is minimal focus on education in the region, incidents like these shouldn’t come as a surprise; if anything, they should be expected.”
Shahwani also revealed that there was a lack of understanding regarding the correct method of folding the ballot papers. In some polling stations, women took the stamps with them, leaving others to use their thumbs dipped in stamp ink to cast their votes.
“Opposition candidates in the constituencies, engaged in nefarious tactics to ensure double voting, in an attempt to defeat the winning candidates,” said Shams Bhutto, reporting from Ghotki for Dawn.com. “The influence of powerful figures like sardars and waderas in the region was the driving force behind this malpractice that resulted in the rejection of votes.”
Failure to rectify such discrepancies jeopardises the very essence of the democratic process, causing the complete erosion of public trust in the electoral system that is, needless to say, already hanging by a thread.
It is incumbent upon authorities to undertake thorough investigations to ensure that every vote counts and that the voice of the electorate is truly heard and respected. For without this commitment, we risk sacrificing the very soul of our democracy on the altar of indifference.
In conclusion, Pakistan’s 12th general elections recorded a low turnout with only 47.90pc of total eligible voters exercising their right to choose their representatives. This underscores the ongoing challenge of enhancing broader civic participation. As the nation reflects on this democratic milestone, addressing barriers to voting becomes essential for fostering a more inclusive electoral process in the future.
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Total registered vote count excluded NA-8 and NA-88
Total balloted vote count excludes data of NA-8, NA-88 and NA-265
Almost 10 days after the general elections, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) announced on Monday that its independent candidates will join the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to form governments at the federal level, in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, party leader Barrister Gohar Khan, flanked by other PTI and SIC leaders, said that PTI-backed independent candidates — who have clinched 92 seats in the NA — will join the SIC in a bid to secure reserved seats. The party’s candidates were forced to contest the elections as independents after the Supreme Court upheld the ECP’s decision, deeming its intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and revoked its claim on the iconic electoral symbol.
“You know that there are 70 reserved seats in the National Assembly and there are 227 reserved seats in the entire country. These seats are only provided to political parties.
“Therefore, to protect our reserved seats and provide the cover to our members, we have reached a formal agreement under which all our candidates have joined the party and we will present this documentation before the ECP,” he said.
According to Article 51 of the Constitution, independent candidates have the option to join a political party within three days following the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notification of their victory on a their respective seats.
Consequently, the party would be allocated reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the National Assembly based on its augmented numerical representation.
“This is because the quota of reserved seats lies with political parties. Coming together with the Sunni Ittehad Council would increase the PTI’s strength in the National Assembly,” PTI leader Omer Ayub Khan explained.
Later on Monday, the SIC wrote to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to indicate that 50 PTI-backed independents had joined their party.
This, however, leads to a fresh set of complex questions.
Let’s talk about reserved seats
In simple words, each political party submits a list of names for the reserved seats for women and religious minorities and after the election results, the parties are given a certain percentage of seats according to how many general seats the party ends up winning. In short, the more general seats a party wins, the more reserved seats they can lay a claim on.
According to Section 104 of the Election Act 2017, the list of reserved candidates has to be submitted by the contesting political parties before the elections. The issue here is that since SIC has not won even a single seat in the said assemblies, can the names of reserved candidates submitted by them be accepted by the ECP?
Secondly, has the SIC submitted such a list before the elections in the first place? Moreover, can they make additions to the list after the deadline has passed?
When these questions were put before former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad, he told Dawn.com that “it is not a condition that independent candidates can only join a party that has its own national or provincial seat”.
“Independent candidates can join any party that is registered with the ECP and has an electoral symbol,” he added. Hence, PTI-backed candidates can indeed join the SIC and form the government even if the latter hasn’t won a single seat in the legislative assembly.
This much was agreed by Zafarullah Khan, former executive director of the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS). “There are examples in the past where a party has won no seat but is joined [by others],” he told Dawn.com, citing the example of Mohsin Dawar, who was elected to the NA and formed the National Democratic Movement (NDM).
But even if PTI-backed candidates can join the SIC, the question of whether PTI can truly claim the reserved seats remains.
Not the first time
There is indeed a precedent of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) getting a reserved seat for women in KP after the first post-merger elections in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Zafarullah told us. “BAP didn’t contest but independents joined it and got a reserved seat for women.”
According to Dilshad, PTI-backed candidates can face difficulties in claiming reserved seats even after joining the SIC. Section 104 of the Election Act is based on the Constitution’s Article 224 ,which states that any party can give an “additional list” for reserved seats but a party which hasn’t submitted any list can face difficulties in submitting a fresh list.
Section 104 of the Elections Act, 2017 states that “the list submitted by a political party shall not be subject to change or alteration either in the order of priority or through addition of new names in the list or omission of any name after expiry of the date of submission of nomination papers.”
“A candidate to a seat reserved for women or non-Muslims shall file the nomination papers on the Form on or before the last date fixed for filing of nomination papers,” it states before adding that their papers are “scrutinised in the same manner as the nomination papers of candidates on general seats are scrutinised under section 62.”
But the SIC hasn’t submitted any list. Now what?
Lal Malhi, PTI leader and the President of Minority Wing Sindh, confirmed that the SIC has not submitted a list of reserved candidates.
One would think that this settles the issue, preventing any future PTI claim. However, that’s not the case, according to him.
“PTI after allying with SIC will easily claim the reserved seats. The council has not submitted any lists yet and will soon submit them. We understand that Section 104 cannot stop [them] from submitting lists afterwards and there are examples of this in the past.
“In 2018, in Punjab, the list for minorities was not submitted [by the PTI] which was then submitted after the court’s hearing. The court in that judgement said that if any party has a reserved seat quota, it is non-transferable and it can’t be prevented. Therefore, we believe that PTI will be successful in getting reserved seats with the SIC coalition,” Malhi said.
When PTI did not submit a list in Punjab in 2018, PTI-affiliated Mahinder Pall Singh submitted a petition (Case no. 222851/2018) that was accepted by the Lahore High Court. “The party lists for reserved seats shall be accepted and petitioner-candidate shall be accordingly declared and included in the list of eligible candidates” after the passed deadline, the petition stated.
According to the ECP’s Revised Schedule for General Elections 2018, the deadline for the filing of nomination papers with the ROs by the candidates was June 11. Singh was given a ruling on June 29.
In another case, Youdester Chohan vs Provincial Election Commission, the petitioner had argued against the “legality and validity of the orders passed by the Returning Officer, whereby he refused to receive the party lists of their candidates in order of priority for seats reserved for women and non-Muslims on account of one day delay in submission of same from the time stipulated in the election schedule.”
In this case, the court ruled that a “mere delay of one day cannot be considered a sufficient ground to deprive the present petitioners to include their names in the list of eligible candidates”.
This precedent can be invoked by the PTI-backed candidates after joining the SIC to lay claim to the reserved seats. But it all ultimately comes down to the courts to decide whether PTI will be allowed to do so.
Who is the Sunni Ittehad Council?
Amid all this hullabaloo, you may be wondering who the SIC is and how did this little-known entity suddenly burst onto the national scene.
The SIC was established in 2001, with Sahibzada Fazal-e-Kareem nominated as its chairperson and and Haji Hanif Tayyab taking on the role of its secretary general. According to a party official, who asked not to be named, senior leaders of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (a Barelvi outfit) observed at the time that both street power as well as political space had been captured by parties aligned with the Deobandi ideology. Hence, they decided to join hands and form a united front against the its growing influence.
The party was officially registered with the ECP in 2010 and after the death of Fazal Kareem in 2013, Sahibzada Hamid Raza has been managing its affairs.
The SIC contested the 2018 elections from its own platform in 2018, but could not bag anything in any assembly and in 2024, they are contesting the elections as independents, with the backing of the PTI.
It has hence been 15 years since the SIC was first established, however, this is the first time that with the joining of elected independent PTI-backed candidates, the party is poised to have a substantial presence in the provincial and national assemblies.
This coalition comprised significant Barelvi groups and political parties, including the Jamiat-e Ulema-e Pakistan-Markazi (JUP-Markazi) , Jamaat Ahl-e Sunnat (JAS), Almi Tanzeem-i-Ahle Sunnat , Nizam-i-Mustafa Party , Markazi Jamaat Ahl-i-Sunnat, Zia-ul-Ummat Foundation, Halqa-i-Saifiya , Anjuman-i-Tulaba-e-Islam (a Barelvi student organisation), Tanzeemul Madaris (the Barelvi Wafaq that issues degrees to the graduates of madrassahs) led by Mufti Muneebur Rehman, and represented at SIC by Ghulam Mohammad Sialvi (its secretary general and former chairman of Pakistan Baitul Maal) and the Anjuman-i-Asaatza-i-Pakistan led by Peer Athar-ul-Haq, among others.
In its initial days, the SIC marked significant achievements in the fight against religious extremism. On August 14, 2009, the council orchestrated a ‘Peace March’ in Rawalpindi, denouncing religious extremism and terrorism while expressing unwavering support for the Pakistan Army engaged in combating terrorists in Swat. The march drew an impressive attendance of over 10,000 followers — a notable display of opposition to terrorism in Pakistan.
The next year, the SIC organised another long march from Islamabad to Lahore on November 27, 2010, to protest against terrorism. Despite crackdowns by the federal and Punjab governments, the ‘Save Pakistan Long March’ attracted a substantial crowd in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
In January 2012, it was disclosed that the United States provided funding to the SIC to coordinate anti-Taliban rallies in 2009. The ‘Peace March’ in Rawalpindi on August 14 was also alleged to be a component of this purported ‘American agenda.’
According to a Dawnreport, US policymakers viewed the Sunni Ittehad as a group of theological moderates who could counter the influence of extremist groups.
In the same year, the council condemned the attack on Malala by Taliban militants in Swat. The former chairperson Sahibzada Fazal-e-Karim, termed the attack ‘un-Islamic’ and declared it a conspiracy against Islam, which, he said, is a religion of peace, tolerance and brotherhood.
On February 5, 2013, 50 Islamic scholars belonging to SIC issued a fatwa (ruling) in which they declared that suicide attacks are forbidden in Islam and that those involved in the killing of innocent people are condemned to hell. They also issued a ruling in favour of polio campaigns and deplored the attacks on anti-polio workers.
However, its later actions on blasphemy-related issues such as calling for protests against the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri, the assassin of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, demonstrations in the city to resist changes to the blasphemy law and warnings of anarchy in the country if a Christian woman, Asia Bibi — accused of blasphemy, was to be pardoned — placed them squarely among the far-right parties in Pakistan.
Over the years, many political parties have tried to align themselves with the SIC, however none have been successful. In 2012, an election alliance between the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and SIC was announced at a press conference, however, following the announcement, many parties within the council dissociated themselves from SIC.
Dawn reporter Kalbe Ali explained that the political influence of SIC decreased after the formation of Khadim Rizvi’s Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) as many of their supporters left to join the latter.
He said that the only reason the SIC has some political influence is because of its current chairperson, Shazhibzada Hazmid Raza’s close relationship with Allama Nasir Raja Abbas, the Chief of Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) who convinced the PTI to back him as their independent candidate in this year’s elections as an independent candidate where he ended up winning a National Assembly seat in Faisalabad’s NA-104.
Their alliance with PTI has suddenly pushed them to the forefront of the political landscape of Pakistan. Only time will tell how key a player it will be over the next five years.
The Pindi commissioner has come out and said that the entire district was rigged on his directions and he cannot have this on his conscience. He has then said the army is not to blame and all the onus of rigging falls upon the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
In accusing some and absolving others while becoming a fall guy in the twilight of his career, the commissioner has still told too much of the truth for it to be convenient to those he may have thought he was helping.
That’s the thing about using truth as a weapon. It can only set you free. It isn’t very useful for precision bombing and causes a lot of collateral damage — perhaps the fear of that very outcome has led to access to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) being disrupted countrywide.
We are also told that a deal has been reached — a new government comprising everyone other than the party which received the most votes from the people will now be serving them. Shehbaz Sharif, being the joint candidate for prime minister, also means that a full page ‘story’ [which was actually a paid advertisement] carried in all Pakistani newspapers has seemingly bounced — the fourth coming of the saviour, Nawaz Sharif, is no longer upon us.
Dealing with the devil
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett collaborated to write ‘Good Omens’, a fantasy fiction comedy about the end of times. In it, there is a character called Crowley — a duke of hell. He has been sent to earth to await the birth of the child of Satan, an event that will herald the end of times. Crowley is to prepare for the coming beforehand and to ensure a smooth arrival.
When the spawn of the devil finally does arrive — disguised rather appropriately as the child of the American ambassador to England — Crowley has already lived on earth for a few millennia. He has begun to enjoy life on earth, driving his hundred-year-old vintage Bentley at impossible speeds through the English countryside, while drinking from his personally collected stash of centuries-old wines and whiskeys.
Secretly, he doesn’t want it all to end. He would have to go back to hell if it was all over, and it’s a rather chaotic mess to be in, even if one is a duke. He doesn’t want an Armageddon, and he decides to work with the archangel Aziraphale, his angelic counterpart on earth, to stop it from happening.
The thing about truth
I used to think that all truth was sacred. That it would set you free no matter the circumstances. Our current CJP and the proceedings at his Supreme Court have shown that this needs further qualifying. The truth is a good thing. The whole truth is even better. The whole truth at the right time, that’s what is sacred. Because truth without timing is just pedantry.
Had Nawaz and Maryam told the whole truth when Nawaz was first disqualified and called out the establishment’s “conspiracy” with the judiciary while it was in progress, maybe the barrage against them would have abated. Instead, they waited till there was no hope left of a rapprochement and then started selectively calling out a player or two before exchanging favours with the same players and promptly shutting up.
Had Imran called out the puppet masters when he first noticed their strings around his own arms and legs, and called them out fully for the games they played — which included his own ascendancy as a pawn — who knows how different the lay of the land would have been. But he waited until there was no hope left and the writing was on the wall — and even then he made an excuse of an international conspiracy and named people only metaphorically.
Had the PDM government told the truth about why they decided to hold onto power after the April 2022 vote of no confidence and that it singularly concerned the fresh appointment of a public servant, perhaps people would have been more forgiving at the ballot.
If only…
The people have shown how they feel about being disregarded. They have shown what they think of being played. They have shown what they think of oppression and machinations. If only their champions would believe in them consistently and constantly.
There is a point where Crowley’s scheming against hell’s ordained catastrophe is discovered by another duke of hell, who comes after him. Crowley decides to get rid of his assailant by putting on some kitchen gloves, unlocking his safe and taking out his most formidable weapon — holy water. Holy water is truly sacred; just like truth with timing.
Crowley waits for the opportune moment and proceeds to spray it upon his fellow duke, melting him into nothingness.
In the twilight of his career, Nawaz should introspect and consider how much he owes to our democratic system. He should see that currently, he holds the key to keeping hell itself at bay.
After a career of wheeling and dealing at all the wrong times, Mian sahab was supposedly coming back to set his daughter up as the heir and to set the record straight with regards to how he was kicked out of office the last time. It was also a little about vengeance and teaching the system his worth — making them all realise he is necessary.
This is now about more than just his legacy. More than his daughter’s right to ascend to his throne. He should unlock the safe and bring out the holy water. For a brief moment in Gujranwala, where Nawaz made his presence felt via video link, there emerged a sliver of hope that we would see this happen. But old habits die hard and soon enough, he was all too ready to take the easy route again.
All is not lost, though. There could yet be truth in that ‘story’ carried by every newspaper — the one that heralded the fourth coming of the saviour. But Nawaz can’t save us by ascending to power. There’s only one path to salvation.
Tell us all the truth Mian sahab. Tell us the whole truth, nothing but the truth and tell it when it’s still relevant. Tell it now, and save us from having to wait for it to out when it counts for nothing.
Spray the holy water like Jam-e-Shereen from the winner’s podium. For a man wronged in both victory and defeat, whilst in power and without, what a fitting last hurrah it would be.
“I will prove myself to be my father’s strength, not his weakness,” announced Maryam as she exited the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) in July 2017, after recording her statement before the joint investigation team probing the Sharif family’s business dealings abroad.
She appeared composed, her focused gaze speaking louder than her words. For the last several months, Maryam and her family had found themselves besieged by a fortitude of corruption allegations, which would ultimately land her a short stint in prison and force her father, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, into yet another self-imposed exile. But all of that was yet to come.
On that fateful Wednesday in the federal capital, by the time her short speech ended, Maryam Nawaz had announced herself as a major force in Pakistan’s shifting political landscape — and the world had noticed.
Race to the top
This was hardly Maryam’s first foray into the country’s political arena. She had been actively involved in the party’s election campaign in the run-up to the 2013 elections, while also heading the PML-N’s social media wing during and after the polls. In 2014, she was made chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme until her appointment was challenged in the Lahore High Court a year later, forcing her to resign. She was later seen distributing laptops to students on behalf of the Punjab government even though she held no elected office either in the province or at the Centre.
In 2016, when the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had to undergo open-heart surgery, it wasn’t the Prime Minister’s Office or the information ministry that had control over the biggest story of the time. It was Maryam who became the centre of media attention, providing up-to-date and regular updates on her father’s condition to his adoring public via her Twitter (now X) account. From announcing the prime minister’s decision to undergo major surgery to tweeting his first picture after the procedure, Maryam’s Twitter feed provided minute details about how much time the patient would spend inside the intensive care unit (ICU), as well as his tentative plans to come back home.
At the time too, Maryam’s control over the government’s messaging raised some eyebrows, but the issue came to a head much later when audio clips of her phone conversations with then Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed were leaked in which she was issuing instructions to refuse advertisements to certain TV channels. Maryam would later admit that the audio clip was genuine but defended herself by saying that she had been referring to party ads.
Jumping into the fray
By all accounts, Maryam’s first real test in electoral politics came in September 2017, when she led the party’s campaign in the by-elections for the NA-120 seat, which was left vacant by Nawaz Sharif’s ouster in the Panama case verdict. Here, Maryam campaigned for her ailing mother, Kulsoom Nawaz, who ended up winning the seat, albeit with the victory margin shrinking considerably. Pundits would debate whether this was actually a victory for the embattled PML-N — after all, this was the constituency that the party and the Sharif family had dominated for almost three decades. “It was inconceivable that they could be defeated”, wrote journalist Zahid Hussain.
For Maryam, however, this would be the moment she finally cast her shell and declared herself the heir to Nawaz Sharif’s political empire. “For a party with a conservative social ethos and very few women in senior party and cabinet positions, her taking charge has been a positive change,” observed Zahid Hussain. “But being the daughter of the top leader surely makes a huge difference in a dynastic political culture.”
The journey was more difficult than she had imagined, Maryam would admit. In an interview with Voice of America’s Irum Abbasi, she described how women who were in the limelight or the public eye, particularly in leading roles, faced harsher criticism than their male counterparts. “If a woman has formed ideals, principles, ideologies, convictions, values and wants to carve a niche for herself, it will always be viewed with a little suspicion,” she said, adding that despite the resistance from within the party’s ranks, she was “pleasantly surprised” by how accepting the people of Pakistan were.
Whether “the people” accepted her or not, one thing that was clear to all was that her ascendency had come at a huge cost — both to Maryam on a personal level as well as to the party, many of whose stalwarts weren’t too impressed by how quickly she had moved up the ranks, particularly in a party that was all too male-dominated and had hardly any women in leadership roles.
The backlash
As she moved into the spotlight, Maryam found herself increasingly at the receiving end of misogynistic remarks, ranging from comments on her clothes to her age. While much of the vitriol directed at her came from the PTI, social media too raged with discussions on her choice of luxury clothes and accessories, as well as the way she looked at her age. Even her appearance at her son, Junaid Safdar’s wedding, drew flak from social media users, with some going as far as accusing her of “spoiling the day” for her daughter-in-law by looking too good for her age.
But it wasn’t just her political opponents who stood against her. After Nawaz’s ouster, Maryam became the party’s anti-establishment face — even earlier, she was widely suspected to have leaked a story about the government’s confrontation with top military brass over countering militancy — counting the injustices done to her father over the years. This antagonism did not go down too well with some of the party’s senior leadership — chief among them, former interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who said that Maryam needed to “prove herself”. Thus, the schism between the Shehbaz group and the Maryam group finally emerged for everyone to see.
Even those who weren’t opposed to the anti-establishment rhetoric were not too pleased with the way Maryam had been handed the party’s reins by her father. Thus began a tug of war, but as is the case with dynastic politics anywhere, blood runs thicker than competence or meritocracy.
Soon enough, the disgruntlement saw other party stalwarts break ranks, most prominent among them former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who said he had “stepped down from the party office within an hour of the announcement” of Maryam’s elevation to the roles of senior vice president and chief organiser. Then there was Miftah Ismail, who would get instructions from Maryam on Twitter, and who yet again became victim of the infighting between the two camps and was promptly replaced as finance minister by Ishaq Dar.
Perhaps the biggest setback in all this was for Maryam’s cousin, Hamza Shehbaz, who until now, had been projected as the Sharif brothers’ natural successor. Suddenly, however, the PML-N found another option in the charming Maryam to stand up to its latest foe, the PTI, which had branded itself the party of the youth. In doing so, the party hoped the fresh face would help improve its image, which had been ripped apart by by Imran Khan’s constant political pillory against the Sharifs. But that was not to be, for soon Maryam found herself in the crosshairs over the alleged ownership of multiple offshore properties, including the infamous London flats.
What next?
Unfazed by the infighting and the criticism, however, Maryam powered on, less as the party’s vice-president [which was now her formal title] and more as the most vocal defender of her father’s brand of politics. In doing so, she became the anti-establishment poster child, addressing rallies of charged supporters and naming judges and generals who had wronged her father.
Over the years, Maryam has carefully curated a political persona for herself, while surrounding herself with a coterie of fiery orators like Marriyum Aurangzeb, who would go on to clinch prominent positions within the party.
But much of what she has accomplished until now has been a fight for her father’s vindication. As Maryam takes oath as chief minister — the first time a woman has been elected to the role — she can no longer just be her father’s daughter; she is after all, responsible for administering the country’s most populous, and by many measures, its most powerful province.
In her victory speech on Monday, Maryam said: “I want to tell the opposition — which isn’t here — that if you have any issue in your constituency, I will be as accessible to you as I would be for a PML-N MPA. Because now, I am not the chief minister of the PML-N, I am the representative of 120m people — across political divides.”
Ultimately, Maryam Nawaz’s journey from being seen as a symbol of dynastic privilege to becoming a leader in her own right echoes a truth that transcends politics: true strength is not just inheriting a legacy, but forging your own.
One-hundred and forty three percent. This is how much Pakistan’s technology exports have grown over the last five years, climbing from just $1 billion in fiscal year 2018 to almost $2.6 billion in 2023, according to data provided by the State Bank of Pakistan.
And while Pakistan’s policymakers have been drawing attention to this growing sector, setting big targets and highlighting the overall export potential, the fact is that their actions are undermining the potential and long-term viability of the technology ecosystem.
The key driver of this uncertainty are arbitrary internet shutdowns, which are casting a shadow over what is one of the few economic success stories in Pakistan. Should these shutdowns continue — even if they are limited to certain social media platforms — they are likely to have far-reaching implications for investor confidence, export growth, and the country’s reputation in the global technology market.
Impediment to investments
Growth attracts new investments in any sector, especially one that can generate precious foreign exchange in an economy facing sky-high levels of inflation. But investors also look for stability and predictability when allocating capital, especially patient capital that looks to scale new ventures that require innovation.
In the technology sector, where the pace of change is rapid and the need for reliable internet connectivity is non-negotiable, arbitrary shutdowns are a red flag for both local and foreign investors. The unpredictability of such outages makes it challenging to ensure the smooth operation of digital services and the consistent delivery of products to market.
While organisations can circumvent the shutdowns for the time being through the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and multiple wired and wireless connections, overall sentiment is dented. In addition, VPNs and multiple connections are an additional cost that competitors outside Pakistan do not have to bear. As a result, not only is investor sentiment dented, but broader competitiveness is eroded given higher costs.
Moreover, when internet access is snatched away without notice, technology firms are unable to meet deadlines, causing financial losses and damaging their credibility. For upstart technology firms and freelancers, which are a significant proportion of the overall technology sector, these shutdowns can be particularly devastating, as missing a deadline for one client can have irreparable reputational damage.
Negative perceptions
Negative headlines generated by arbitrary internet shutdowns create a higher risk perception among foreign companies and clients. While these companies may, for example, be attracted to Pakistani technology partners due to lower cost and better quality of product, a higher risk perception may give them pause.
For sectors like software development, customer support, and back-office operations that rely on uninterrupted internet access, such disruptions are a deal-breaker. The unpredictability creates a perception of risk that many companies are unwilling to accept, especially larger foreign companies that typically have a lower risk appetite for significant technology contracts.
This hesitance not only affects new business opportunities but also jeopardises existing relationships. Contracts may include clauses that penalise service providers for downtime, and repeated internet outages can lead to breaches of service level agreements (SLAs), financial penalties, and ultimately the loss of business.
Each time the internet is shut down in Pakistan, it sends ripples through the international media, painting a picture of a country that is not fully in step with the demands of the digital era. This negative press can be as damaging as the shutdowns themselves, reinforcing stereotypes that overshadow the positive work that is happening on the ground in Pakistan when it comes to technology.
Lessons from yesteryears
Pakistanis acutely understand that the narrative of instability is hard to shake off and can linger long after things improve. An example is the long-term impact of worsening security conditions between 2007 and 2015 on the country’s manufacturing export sector. As the level of violence inched up in the country, foreign partners stopped coming to Pakistan, preferring to meet their counterparts in places like Dubai. Many saw the broader political and security risk as a deterrent, taking their orders to other jurisdictions like Bangladesh and India.
These developments led to canceled export orders, reduced linkages with foreign supply-chains, and a long-term decline in investment that the country is still struggling from today.
In the digital realm, the threats may be less visible today, but the consequences of continuous curbs on the internet will be as impactful, if not more, in the coming months and years.
Arbitrary internet shutdowns are a self-inflicted wound on Pakistan’s technology sector, undermining the country’s potential to become a hub for digital innovation. The impact on investor confidence, exports, and the country’s international image is significant and far-reaching.
These shutdowns are also trying to address symptoms, not the underlying issues that are roiling Pakistan’s political economy. In addition, they are having the opposite impact, fueling further discontent across society. Sustained curbs on the internet are a direct threat to Pakistan’s exports and the broader technology sector, and must be stopped immediately.
Balochistan — Pakistan’s largest province by land area as well the most mineral-rich — has nearly been at a standstill for around three weeks as thousands of protesters have taken to the streets, intermittently blocking main highways, cities, and roads since the February 8 general elections.
Almost every major city and town in the province — from the Makran coast near the Iranian border to Chaman next to Afghanistan — has witnessed demonstrations and political rallies as Baloch and Pashtun ethno-nationalist parties, along with minority Hazaras, have taken to the streets, decrying what they term as “stealing the public mandate”.
But this is probably news to you. For even as the fire rages across the province, there has been little mention of it in the mainstream media, whose entire focus has been the election of the Punjab chief minister, the fate of the independents backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), and the wheelings and dealings of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as they join hands to form a coalition government in the Centre yet again.
To be fair, there were plenty of incidents of violence in the run-up to the elections, which did receive some airtime on TV channels and a few news stories here and there on digital and print publications. Yet, what has happened since February 8 belies a different kind of violence — candidates declared victorious suddenly found themselves on the losing side within a few hours or even the following day, prominent leaders discovered they had been relegated to lower positions in their strongholds, while upstarts saw remarkable success and worst of all, there were no answers forthcoming on how these results had changed overnight.
Take the Hazara Democratic Party, for example, whose candidates — both prominent leaders, its chairman Abdul Khaliq Hazara and Qadir Ali Nayal — had initially been declared victorious, but ultimately ended up losing their seats in the community’s traditional stronghold to little-known outsiders. Then there is Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, who was initially winning the NA-259 seat with some margin, before finding out that he had lost once the final results were revealed. There was also Akhtar Jan Mengal, whose results from NA-261 Kalat were revised repeatedly, but ultimately resulted in his victory.
As results crawled in on the day following the polls, candidates previously declared winners fell to second and third positions. The continued revisions in results led to a wave of protests across the province, with nearly all major nationalist political parties voicing concerns over the counting process and impartiality of the elections.
In the aftermath of the elections, Balochistan’s beleaguered nationalist parties, which have braved over two dozen bombings and violent attacks by separatist groups and religious militants in the run-up to the polls, formed a four-party alliance to protest the alleged rigging and post-poll manipulations. This alliance comprises the Balochistan National Party — Mengal (BNP-Mengal), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), the National Party (NP), and the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP).
The protests
The results have been all the more surprising for nationalist parties, who had hoped that following five years of bad governance, political instability, and a dramatic surge in violence between 2018 and 2023, they would clinch a sweeping victory this time around. In stark contrast, Baloch and Pashtun nationalist parties only managed to secure three seats in the National Assembly and seven seats in the provincial assembly. On the other hand, mainstream political parties such as PML-N and PPP have clinched 10 and 11 provincial assembly seats, respectively.
Since 1972, Balochistan has largely been under the rule of ethno-nationalist groups, often with the chief minister either being a nationalist or a tribal chieftain, regardless of their political affiliation — though the PPP has successfully installed a number of chief ministers over the years. The latter still enjoyed support from nationalist parties.
In recent years, however, there has been a marked shift in the province’s political landscape, with non-nationalist groups or political figures, considered close to the establishment, forming their own government without the support of nationalists. This trend was witnessed in 2018 when the newly emerged Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) formed the provincial government, in coalition with the PTI, and elected Jam Kamal as its chief minister without the backing of nationalist parties.
Although nationalists had secured 15 provincial assembly seats in 2018, the 2024 polls have seen this number decrease by around 60 per cent. This appears all the more startling, given the number stood at 20 in 2013, when the PkMAP and NP had formed their government with the support of the PML-N. But the political environment has dramatically changed since 2018. This begs the question — are nationalists indeed losing ground in the province, or are they are being sidelined as they claim?
How did we get here?
Law and order has a direct impact on the electoral process. In Balochistan’s case, a bleak security situation and low turnout seem to have paved the way for federalist parties — those more closely aligned to Islamabad or the establishment — to make their way to the legislative assembly.
For example, when Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo — who served as chief minister from 2021 to 2023 — became CM for the first time for a few months in 2018, it was viewed as hardly a democratic exercise. Bizenjo had won the Awaran provincial seat with a total of 544 votes.
In the more recent past, this phenomenon was witnessed in 2008, following the boycott of the elections by Baloch and Pashtun nationalists, leading to the PPP forming a government in the province. This electoral boycott, however, had its own side effects on Balochistan’s socio-political and security environment — in subsequent years, a nationalist rebellion, once confined to the tribal districts of Kohlu and Dera Bugti, spread all over Balochistan as a result of bad governance and mismanagement, ultimately impacting Makran, Awaran, and other Baloch-dominated areas in the south.
But can non-nationalists or newly emerged political faces really bring change to Balochistan?
History tell us no.
When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dismissed the National Awami Party’s (NAP) government in February 1973, an insurgency broke out in the province. Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, in his autobiography, ‘In Search of Solutions’, writes that Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, the provincial president of NAP, and the then Chief Minister Sardar Attaullah Mengal, following the dismissal of the NAP government, came to the conclusion that the Baloch had no future in Pakistan and suggested fighting for the liberation of Balochistan. After that experience, Khair Bakhsh Marri completely distanced himself from Pakistani politics.
In an interview with BBC Urdu, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch of the NP shared similar views after the February 8 elections, saying the “Baloch youth were distant from the federation earlier. Now, our political workers are also considering whether we should participate in the polls”. Akhtar Mengal of the BNP and Mahmood Khan Achakzai of the PkMAP share similar views.
The 2008 electoral boycott by Baloch nationalists and the dismissal of the NAP government in 1973 clearly demonstrate that sidelining ethno-nationalists can present greater challenges for the province. This will aggravate the existing challenges and force figures like Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, and Mahmood Khan Achakzai and their political workers to part ways from parliamentary politics.
Politics of disenfranchisement
Despite facing enormous challenges and resistance from youth and separatist groups within the beleaguered province, they have been striving to bridge a connection between the province and Islamabad.
Despite all these odds and challenges, the people of Balochistan came out to vote on February 8 amid strict security measures in the face of bomb threats from separatist and religious militant groups. Even so, the province witnessed an overall turnout of hardly 41pc, as the trust in parliamentary nationalist parties has drastically eroded among the Baloch youth, who often choose to distance themselves from elections.
And yet, those who did come out to exercise their right to franchise, have largely been disappointed with the results. The BNP chief, Akhtar Mengal, lost to the PPP’s Jamal Raisani on NA-264, who registered as a voter in December 2023 — the cutoff date to register to vote was October 25. A tribunal had earlier rejected the younger Raisani’s nomination papers on January 8, after he stepped down as caretaker minister. The Balochistan High Court later overruled the tribunal’s verdict and Raisani still defeated Akhtar Mengal from the BNP’s traditional stronghold, Sariab, in Quetta.
Meanwhile, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch of the NP lost to Malik Shah Gorgaij on NA-259 [Kech/ Gwadar]. The latter is known for his strong connections with the establishment and is not even a resident of Kech or Gwadar. His son, Ubaid Gorgaij, won the seat from PB-44 Quetta-7, and his son-in-law, Samad Khan of the PPP, clinched PB-40, Hazara Town, and its adjoining areas. Samad Khan is not from the constituency he now represents and the residents of Hazara Town have hardly heard of him.
It is these very controversial results and the manner in which they have come about that has sparked widespread protests across the province.
But whether their protests and strikes can yield any fruitful results remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that the resentment will increase, more youth will become disenfranchised, and the gap between Islamabad and Balochistan will only widen further.
Header image: Supporters of Hazara Democratic Party protest against alleged rigging in the general elections on Feb 8, in Quetta on February 11, 2024. — AFP/ File
My grandfather used to have a yellowed old sign hanging above his office desk that read:
Weak minds talk about people;
Average minds talk about events;
Great minds talk about ideas …
As Islamabad buzzes again with the talk of who the next finance minister will be, my thoughts keep returning to that sign. Rumour has it that Ishaq Dar is the front runner, that Dr Shamshad Akhtar remains in the running, and that various bankers and second-string politicians are dark horses.
A candidate’s closeness to a party leader gets talked up. Another is said to have the trust of Q block. A third is apparently close to the so-called establishment. Bankers’ credentials and job titles are exaggerated.
At best, three questions are posed: Will the candidate be able to work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)? Will they be deemed acceptable by foreign powers? And will they acknowledge the future role of the military-dominated Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC)?
We know the candidates, not their ideas
In all this chatter about people, there is no discussion about their ideas. We specifically fail to inquire: what distinct policy strategies do these people propose to fix the mess we’re in?
Since answers aren’t forthcoming, let’s ask a different question: what would an ideal Pakistani finance minister do?
As always, our next finance minister will realise that we owe more money than we have. It’s the same problem our last minister and the ones before him faced. So, our minister will have to enter into negotiations with the IMF and beseech countries on friendly terms with Pakistan for more loans and rollovers.
There is little agency in the matter; the only difference between the candidates is that some may do it quietly and promptly, while others would do it loudly and drag their feet; some might receive a warm hug at foreign airports, and others a handshake and a nod before getting down to business. They would all have to make more or less the same requests and would receive similar deals because they’d all represent exactly the same problems back home.
IMF’s blueprint for Pakistan
Bilateral negotiations are hidden from public view, yet the IMF’s demands have been openly documented for decades. In short, the Fund wants us to spend less and tax more (preferably from non-filers) to create space to pay our debt; to maintain a market-determined exchange rate so we don’t import more than we export; to keep interest rates higher than inflation, so we don’t prioritise consumption over investments; and to begin addressing long-standing issues such as our energy and State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) losses.
This is an eminently rational agenda. If anything, it falls short in its recommendations — particularly overlooking key determinants of long-term productivity such as education, trade competitiveness, and governance — areas where a finance minister should at least play a role in planning.
It is in following the Fund’s advice that we might think our ministerial candidates will start diverging. Our candidates clearly differ in their willingness to pursue even this minimal agenda. Some want the funds but openly resist even fundamental reforms. Others acknowledge the validity of the prescription, at least in private if not in public.
But in reality, how differently would they act?
About time we embrace change
When change finally comes — when we start going after non-filers and power thieves, withdraw uneven tax exemptions and subsidies, shutter loss-making public companies, and reduce loans from banks and anyone else who’ll lend to us — that change will not be ordered from a finance minister’s desk. It will be announced by a prime minister who risks their political capital for the country, and with the support of the country’s institutions.
From voices in the finance ministry to the political, business, media and military elite, there is a resistance to change and experimentation that has proven remarkably unwavering even as the country has suffered an acute and sustained economic crisis.
“This is no time to experiment,” I have heard every year through 20 years of sustained decline. We need a steady hand. Experience. Whatever we do, we have to keep the dollar and policy rates as low as we can. Pakistan cannot be run like other countries we are told, or — as it appears — by logic.
And so we stick with the same people making the same decisions that we have ample evidence have failed us previously. It continues to elude us, for example, that short-term efforts to keep the dollar cheap are a major reason the dollar has become so expensive in the long run.
It has been more than a decade since the idea of a Charter of Economy was first floated; six years since a new government went to the IMF in crisis; two years since another government went to the IMF again; and eight months since the last loan helped Pakistan narrowly avert default, yet again.
We have, in this time, resolved to try nothing new.
It really isn’t that complicated
A good finance minister candidate would be able to articulate by now what has gone wrong; would have public views about which redundant ministries or SOEs we need to shutter first and which untaxed sectors we need to raise revenues from this year. They would also have ideas about the seismic shifts in our industrial, banking, and corporate terrain that must come with reform.
The right person would present a five-year roadmap, be honest with us about the pain that inevitably looms, but reassure us by showing us how Pakistan can do things better from now on.
Instead, the conversation has reduced to whether the minister will tighten the budget this year, hike interest rates this quarter, raise energy bills this summer, and suppress the dollar for now. And so, some of our candidates are polishing personal brands and inviting us to join their cults. Trust him, not her, and vice versa. The conversation ends there.
Until the talk about finance and the economy shifts from people to ideas, we are unlikely to see better days.
Soon after the results started pouring in following the Feb 8 general elections in Pakistan, several members of the US Congress, as well as the US State Department, expressed concern over alleged interference in the polls, with the former even calling on President Joe Biden not to recognise the incoming government until a transparent investigation into the allegations.
During a press briefing, White House spokesperson John Kirby emphasised the US administration’s vigilant observation of the Feb 8 elections in Pakistan, making his apprehensions about “intimidation and voter suppression” clear.
While it may appear that they are expressing valid concern, why is the US so deeply invested in the elections in Pakistan? And does this actually mean anything, particularly when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has brushed off the US statements by saying that the elections are an “internal sovereign affair”.
The answer to these questions lies in the history of the US-Pak relations.
To put it simply, the US and Pakistan have been through the entire spectrum of relationship stages — from moments of cooperation to periods swinging between indifference and outright hostility. This relationship has become entangled in domestic politics as much as it has in foreign policy. As a result, it has brought out the best and worst in the systems of both countries alike.
Significance of politics in shaping public policy
In the grand theatre of governance, where policies form scripts and politicians the directors, every decision becomes a gripping performance with high stakes and dramatic twists.
Policies, by their very nature, emerge as compromises with objectives that include but aren’t limited to the national interest. While the national interest often takes precedence, it is crucial to recognise that in the discourse surrounding any policy, the paramount consideration for the ruling establishment is how they can advance their personal political agenda.
This trend is particularly prevalent in advanced democracies, where electoral dynamics shape public policy. In such countries, politics have a profound impact on the policymaking process due to the influence of public opinion, facilitated by the 24/7 commercial TV, radio talk shows, the internet, and social media. Political activists, advocacy groups, lobbies, and special interest groups, including the influential military-industrial complex, contribute to this influence.
However, in weaker democracies, especially those lacking legitimacy, policy formulation is often dominated by the political interests of the ruling establishment. This results in policies that are convenient to implement, irrespective of whether they are beneficial or counterproductive. Within this spectrum, diverse combinations of policies and politics emerge, contingent upon the specific characteristics of each political system.
A perpetual gap tends to exist between policy decisions and public opinions, prompting leaders to strategically explain policies in a manner that appeals to public sentiment. This is often achieved through selective presentation of facts, disingenuous arguments, confusing the rhetoric, or tailoring different messages for different constituencies.
Governments, regardless of their political systems, wish to garner public approval for their actions and frame policies in the most politically advantageous manner. Aligning policy with politics poses a formidable challenge as public perceptions tend to be emotionally charged, especially in matters as sensitive as war.
Wars exact immense human and financial tolls, stir nationalism, and engage various stakeholders. In the context of war, governments face a daunting dilemma — either adhering to public opinion, potentially undermining strategic goals, or shaping policies to match public sentiments, risking long-term credibility.
The post-World War II history of America’s military engagements has shown a consistent trend — initiation of wars fuelled by public pressure, followed by difficulty in pulling out of them, especially from the failing ones as the government was afraid of political fallout.
Prime examples of this dilemma are the prolonged Vietnam War and the Afghanistan War. Exploring how these wars have influenced America’s relationships, especially with countries like Pakistan, is crucial for understanding their broader impact.
A relationship built on paradoxes and contradictions
Let’s zoom into the dynamics of the US-Pakistan relationship. The two countries have shared a complex bond, swaying between close-knit relations, at times even bearing the characteristics of the closest of allies and tense moments where Pakistan finds itself on the receiving end of sanctions.
At times, US leaders have showered praise on Pakistan, hailing it as a crucial ally, yet there have been instances of Washington casting aspersions on Islamabad. This seesawing of sentiments becomes even more puzzling when we reflect on how, historically, this relationship has served as a cornerstone for advancing crucial national interests of both nations and it holds the potential to continue doing so in the future.
The issue lies in the fact that the benefits derived from the relationship have come at great costs for both parties involved. There is also a substantial disparity between the policies guiding the relationship and the public’s perceptions of it. This gap, exacerbated by unusual fluctuations in their relationship, stems partly from the absence of a strategic consensus between the US and Pakistan and partly from a lack of permanence of US interests in South Asia.
This discrepancy has given rise to widespread misperceptions, rendering the relationship multifaceted and challenging for both sides to garner public support.
It’s safe to say that this bilateral relationship has been far from ordinary. Pakistan’s role in Washington’s eyes has been anything but steady. Its importance has waxed and waned, depending on the evolving interests of the US in the region, resulting in a dynamic where Pakistan either teams up with or stands against the US.
This nuanced relationship was particularly visible during the Afghanistan War when the two nations functioned as allies without a genuine sense of camaraderie, enemies without deep-seated animosity, and partners without a foundation of trust.
This still leaves us questioning how, despite these inherent contradictions, the US engaged in an extraordinary aid relationship with Pakistan, even when it seemingly lacked economic or strategic interests. The explanation extends beyond mere foreign policy considerations; there was a confluence of factors at play.
Pakistan’s assigned roles held significance not only from a strategic standpoint but also had significant political implications, particularly during events like the 1980s Afghan war, the post-9/11 conflict in Afghanistan, and the broader war on terrorism. Domestic politics weighs heavily on wars in any country. This holds especially true for the US.
Due to its crucial role as a partner in various wars, Pakistan found itself navigating an unusually extensive relationship with successive US administrations. This relationship was primarily steered by the White House, with support from the Pentagon and the CIA, focusing on military intelligence cooperation. Complicating matters further, military governments held power in Pakistan during this period, leading to a bypassing of the regular policymaking process.
However, the challenge of conveying this unique relationship to the American people who saw no grounds for such strong ties between the two countries persisted. In the initial stages, this challenge was addressed within the context of Cold War rhetoric, where Washington, driven by both domestic considerations and foreign policy needs, exaggerated the value of alliances and allies.
The relationship was oversold domestically, inflating Pakistan’s importance as an ally.
Regrettably, Pakistan misinterpreted the praise from American leaders, failing to recognise that it often constituted political statements thrown in the air rather than official policy. But in Pakistan, people took these words at face value. This led to the mistaken belief that the provision and volume of aid directly correlated with the strength of this relationship.
In response, Pakistan, for its domestic objectives, perpetuated this inflated image of being America’s ally — a move driven by the need to address local reservations about the relationship. Within Pakistan, segments of public opinion, political institutions, and the strategic community viewed this association as constraining the country’s foreign policy options.
Concerns were raised that the US connection had strengthened the military, elevating its political influence and impeding Pakistan’s path toward democratisation.
From strategic partners to strategic rivals
Due to the mutual exaggeration in both, the rationale and the quality of the US-Pakistan relationship, as well as the perceptions held by Pakistanis were distorted, leading to a disconnect between reality and public sentiment when the US distanced itself from Pakistan in 1965. Despite public disappointment, the official stance from Pakistan expressed a lingering favourability towards Washington, rooted in a dependency that had developed over time.
This dependency on the US was shaped by a combination of policy and politics. From a policy perspective, Pakistan sought political and diplomatic support from the US, even in a less-than-close relationship.
The need to turn to a major power for assistance, especially due to its influence in International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and the importance of the US as a trading partner and potential mediator in the India-Pakistan crisis further solidified this dependency. During the first engagement (1954-1965), the US indeed helped the state’s survival and stabilisation, raising its potential for progress. But that was the last time America helped Pakistan.
The dynamics of US-Pakistan ties from the 1980s onward became predominantly conflict-oriented, centering around the Afghan wars and the war against terrorism. Unfortunately, these wars were characterised by flawed strategies, and in some cases, were deemed unnecessary, causing considerable harm to Pakistan.
Despite the adverse consequences, Pakistan found itself compelled to maintain the relationship due to the aforementioned policy considerations.
Since emerging as a superpower, the US has often engaged in wars with impulsive entrances and exits, resulting in repercussions for both itself and its allies. These conflicts were triggered by inflated confidence in its military prowess and influenced by domestic political interest groups, as elucidated in Jack Snyder’s work, “Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition.”
Moreover, Stephen Walt, a renowned American academic and author, noted that some leaders initiate wars to preserve their power or leave a lasting legacy, while various interest groups advocate for war to bolster their influence, increase profits, or further specific causes. Walt’s assertion gains credence through reports suggesting that Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s election strategist, advised the President that the Iraq War would benefit his chances of reelection.
Given the Americans’ own historical experience, going to war comes naturally to them. They do not consider any moral qualms or contemplate how wise it is to launch a war, almost as if an American war is an inherent extension of their national ethos — a default solution to global conflicts.
Therefore, when faced with setbacks, the discourse rarely revolves around questioning the fundamental merit of the war; rather, the focus shifts to minimising losses and making swift exits. This pattern creates a cycle where Americans find themselves pulling in and out of wars without a clear understanding of the rationale behind initiating them in first place.
Pakistan had become a victim of the worst feature of the US foreign policy — its propensity to go to war. But America too suffered from the weakening relations as it was dominated by elements in Pakistan that had strategic ambitions that clashed with US interests. And whose need to stay in power or dominate it made it sensitive to public opinion and limited the cooperation it gave to Washington.
This added an ironic twist to the dynamics of the bilateral relationship as it was America’s support for the military that enabled it to gain political primacy in Pakistan.
Were past military rules in Pakistan orchestrated by Washington?
It is no secret that the strength of US-Pakistan relations has been most pronounced during periods of military rule, with substantial economic and military aid. At the same time, this was perceived as undermining democratic institutions. However, contrary to popular belief, attributing direct American influence to prolonged military interventions requires a more nuanced understanding of the circumstances.
Pakistanis believe that the US has preferred a certain kind of government in Pakistan, specifically a military regime, to safeguard its security and strategic interests. The idea is that since the lifespan of such regimes aligns with their relationship with the US, Washington must have played a role in both — bringing them to power and removing them when they were no longer needed.
Contrary to this narrative, the reality lies in the fact that the US collaborated more effectively with the military due to historical factors that coincide with America’s interests in Pakistan. From the outset, the nature of the relationship made the military a central player. Apart from the strategic importance of the army and the country’s geopolitical location, Pakistan’s value to Washington was limited. And that was not all.
Washington’s need for Pakistan was also sporadic, impermanent, and coincidentally; whenever the need for Pakistan arose, the military was already in power in some form or another.
Are Pakistan’s puppet strings in America’s hand?
Simply put, Washington did not orchestrate the rise of military governments to power, a fact obvious in the cases of Zia and Musharraf. Even in the era of Ayub Khan, while Washington may have tacitly accepted martial law or potentially played a role in its initiation, it did not orchestrate it.
The relationship between Pakistan and Washington is not a manifestation of direct control by the US but rather stems from Pakistan’s dependence on it. Whether under civilian or military rule, both were dependent on Washington, serving as an external pillar to the elite-led civil-military oligarchy in Pakistan. This model benefited the ruling establishment, albeit with limitations for Pakistan.
Dismissing the myth that nothing moves in Pakistan without America’s approval, it’s important to note that Washington doesn’t tell Pakistan which policies to implement or whom to appoint. The relationship between a dependent elite-led system and an external benefactor has naturally led to policies that favour both — the ruling government and the benefactor, often at the expense of the country’s interests.
In cases where Pakistan’s fundamental interests clashed with US interests, Islamabad, to the credit of both civilian and military leadership, defended its policies by standing up to Washington. The nuclear programme and relations with China are examples of such instances. America had to make peace with it. And its relationship with Pakistan continued.
While Washington doesn’t explicitly dictate Pakistan’s policies, it also refrains from dictating key appointments, such as those of the foreign minister or the finance minister. The ruling government in Pakistan though, ensures that those who are appointed are favoured by the US and formulate policies that are not in contention with American interests. This understanding remains unspoken and implicit.
The fundamental reality is that through the years, both the US and Pakistan found themselves mutually dependent. They each had reasons to cooperate and the power to resist the other’s influence. The crucial difference lies in Pakistan being consistently in need of the relationship, compared to America’s temporary need for it.
There also existed a lack of agreement between the two countries regarding the terms of their interaction, given the global focus of Washington’s interests was in contrast with Pakistan’s regional concerns. It’s worth noting that the US lacked a coherent South Asia policy until the late 90s, and when it finally emerged, the primary emphasis was on the US-India relationship.
Consequently, each interaction between the US and Pakistan seemed to function as a standalone event, highlighting the cynicism of the relationship.
Anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories
The political landscape in Pakistan has undergone significant transformations due to globalisation, increased connectivity, educational advancements, civil society emergence, cultural intermingling, the internet and media revolution, and economic opportunities.
These factors have contributed to heightened political consciousness among Pakistanis and other developing nations, spurring nationalism and aspirations to achieve true democracy. Both the domestic system of governance and the international order led by the US are facing challenges, with Washington’s support for the ruling government exacerbating its waning popularity.
The leadership finds itself caught between an assertive, nationalistic population and a self-absorbed America. Washington often jeopardises this delicate balance, alienating the people in the process. The consequences are twofold, resulting in increased disapprobation for both the leadership and the US.
The rising anti-American sentiment is reshaping relations with the US and influencing domestic politics in Pakistan. Governments leverage their American connections for financial and diplomatic support, while the opposition exploits anti-Americanism to delegitimise those in power.
Notable instances include the campaign against Musharraf, which used anti-Americanism to stir public sentiment against him for his pro-Washington policies and Imran Khan’s campaign against the sitting governments before he rose to power.
Was Washington involved in the removal of Imran Khan from power? This raises important questions about the dynamics behind his ousting. Were the actions driven by internal forces within Pakistan, or did external factors, particularly from Washington, play a role? Throughout history, Pakistan’s political dynamics have operated relatively independently, with domestic influences being the primary catalyst for changes in government.
It appears that the US has shifted away from engaging in coup activities. While the US continues to pursue its interests in other countries, the idea of covertly manipulating and overthrowing governments is now questionable.
In cases like Pakistan, where the US has important but not critical interests, it seeks to exert influence through established diplomatic channels, often using coercive language. The US may exploit a regime’s vulnerabilities without necessarily orchestrating a change or issuing explicit threats of change.
It is believed that the relationship between the army and the former prime minister had deteriorated, particularly concerning the appointment of the director-general of the ISI. The primary reason was the potential disruption of the civil-military balance of power by then prime minister Imran Khan.
The security establishment was reluctant to give up control over critical foreign policy matters traditionally within its domain. The immediate concern was the potential strain on relations with the US and other key allies like Saudi Arabia, which could adversely affect institutional and national interests.
While both the US and Saudi Arabia reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with Imran Khan’s policies, the military — Washington’s main ally — was also discontent. However, this begs the question: was there a need to seek American involvement to address the situation? If the US shared similar concerns, would it not have simply observed the situation unfold?
By early 2022, it became evident that those with reasons to remove Imran Khan could do so without external assistance. The game of political manoeuvring, where politicians often allowed external influences, had been played successfully for decades. In this scenario, the interests of the US and the Pakistani establishment aligned, rendering Washington’s direct intervention unnecessary.
Bottom line
Criticising the US necessitates a parallel scrutiny of its Pakistani counterparts, notably figures like Zia and Musharraf. It’s imperative to acknowledge that Washington did not take anything from Pakistan that the latter did not give of its own accord.
While Pakistani leaders may have failed to serve the people over the years, they have fought battles to culminate a system that protects their interests. The idea of ‘Pakistan’ under their rule, is a product owned and operated by them, not beholden to foreign influences.
While maintaining ties with the US is crucial, there is a need to readjust the terms of engagement that is contingent upon efforts from both Pakistan and the US. Islamabad needs to recognise that a weak and dependent Pakistan undermines its negotiating position. Simultaneously, Washington must grasp that the people of Pakistan should be able to feel the benefits of the relationship for it to garner sustained public support in the country.
Ultimately, both parties must realise that the traditional model wherein the leaders reap benefits at the expense of the population is no longer tenable.
After Ziaul Haq’s martial law, the prevailing view was that “General Ziaul Haq foresaw one grave, which would contain either his or ZAB’s body” writes Rafi Raza, who was a special assistant to then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As was evident at the time and became clearer in the years to follow, the trial, conviction, and sentence of Bhutto was a blatant miscarriage of justice.
Yesterday, nine judges of the Supreme Court rendered an opinion to the president. In their unanimous view, Bhutto’s trial in the Lahore High Court and the appeal before the Supreme Court did not meet the requirements of the fundamental right to a fair trial and due process enshrined in the Constitution. Over four decades later, in advisory jurisdiction, the Supreme Court has found that Bhutto did not get a fair trial.
First, a brief history.
Bhutto’s path to the gallows
When he rose to power, Bhutto made several pledges: roti, kapra, aur makaan (food, clothing and shelter), a classless society, nationalisation of central industries, an end to the influence and power wielded by feudal landlords. The first PPP election manifesto ended with the following words: all power to the people. His admirers cite the Simla Agreement; his party’s role regarding the 1973 Constitution; his ability to garner the support of people across all strands of society; and his pursuit of an independent foreign policy as examples of his successes.
His critics recall his part in failing to let Sheikh Mujibur Rahman rightfully form a government after the 1970 elections, the creation of the Federal Security Force (FSF), and the rigging — by most accounts — of the 1977 elections which paved the way for Zia’s regime. The FSF was Bhutto’s very own paramilitary force, armed with over fifteen thousand officers. In the words of Rafi Raza, the FSF was ineffective, except when “terrorising political opponents”. Even Bhutto’s own men were at the receiving end of the FSF’s wrath.
J.A. Rahim, one of the founding members of the PPP, was invited to dinner by Bhutto on July 2, 1974. Per Stanley Wolpert, when Bhutto failed to show up hours after the scheduled time, J.A. Rahim left the dinner saying, “You bloody flunkies can wait as long as you like for the Maharaja of Larkana, I’m going home!” When J.A. Rahim reached home that night, FSF thugs stormed into his bedroom, beat him up, and struck him with rifle butts.
Masood Mahmood, the head of the FSF, once responsible for terrorising Bhutto’s opponents and loyalists (on Bhutto’s instructions) would go on to become a key witness against him at the trial.
Zia’s martial law
The trial of Bhutto cannot be looked at devoid of context: the Zia regime was brutal and suspended fundamental rights. Scores of political prisoners including leaders of the PPP were detained and arrested. Martial law regulations gave martial law administrators blanket power to detain individuals to prevent them from acting in a manner prejudicial to the purpose for which martial law has been imposed. Political activity was banned. Political speeches were not allowed. Certain martial law regulations included flogging as a punishment.
An Amnesty International report from 1978 states that political prisoners were sentenced to undergo flogging for “raising slogans against the government”. According to Amnesty, some individuals that chanted slogans in favour of Bhutto, were subjected to flogging as a punishment by the Zia regime. There is no denying that Zia had a special, distinct interest in Bhutto’s case.
A farcical trial
On September 3, 1977, Bhutto was arrested on charges relating to the murder of Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri. Just over a week later, Justice K.M.A Samdani granted Bhutto bail. Bhutto’s freedom did not last long as in a fortnight, Zia ordered Bhutto to be arrested under martial law regulations. The trial that followed, by any reasonable standard, was a travesty of justice and a mockery of fair trial guarantees.
As retired Justice Manzoor Malik skilfully submitted during the hearings, the investigation in the case was closed in October 1976 on the orders of a magistrate. The investigation was re-opened only after the imposition of martial law. There was no application to the magistrate for varying the order, and effectively the investigation was re-opened while the court order closing it was still in the field.
Thereafter, the state moved an application for the trial to be transferred from the Sessions Court to the High Court. Shockingly, without any notice to Bhutto, the Lahore High Court allowed the transfer application. The immediate, unjust consequence of this was that Bhutto was denied a right of appeal.
At the time of Bhutto’s trial, the chief justice of the Lahore High Court was Maulvi Mushtaq Hussain. During Bhutto’s tenure, Maulvi Mushtaq was said to be sidelined and a judge several years his junior was made the top judge. “Maulvi Mushtaq was not going to forget the way Bhutto slighted him,” writes Hamid Khan. When the bench for the trial was formed, Justice K.M.A Samdani (who had earlier granted Bhutto bail) was excluded from the bench.
Years later, Justice Nasim Hasan Shah, one of the judges hearing Bhutto’s appeal in the Supreme Court, accepted that Maulvi Mushtaq harboured animosity towards Bhutto, and it would have been better that he had not been part of the bench. Despite this, when sitting in appeal, Justice Nasim Shah gave no weight to Bhutto’s desperate pleas alleging Mushtaq’s bias.
Justice Shah was asked in an interview whether Bhutto’s sentence could have been reduced. He said that this could have been done. He claimed that the death penalty was partly due to the weakness of the judges, and partly because Bhutto’s lawyer Yahya Bakhtiar annoyed the judges by failing to argue mitigation of sentence (kuch thori si humaari bhi kamzori thi… kuch [Yahya Bakhtiar] ne humein ek kisam ka naraaz kar diya tha). The interview of Justice Shah is damning, as he admitted that a former prime minister was sentenced to death for extraneous reasons: ‘annoyance’ at the lawyer, and the weakness of the judges themselves.
Part of the trial in the Lahore High Court was held in camera. Public hearings and open justice are crucial elements of a fair trial. There was no justification for part of the proceedings in the Lahore High Court to be held in the absence of the public. In appeal, the Supreme Court found that the Lahore High Court had reasonable apprehension that Bhutto would make further “scandalous allegations” against the Court, which would undermine its dignity, and therefore the in-camera proceedings were justified. This was an absurd finding, as a court cannot deny an accused their fundamental rights in a quest to essentially protect its own dignity and reputation.
Judges are expected to maintain impartiality and independence; however, Bhutto faced judges who harboured animosity towards him. Judges must make decisions based on the law, yet judges sitting in appeal over Bhutto’s death sentence admitted to considering external matters that had nothing to do with the law. A right of appeal is a fundamental aspect of a fair trial, yet Bhutto was denied a right of appeal as the trial was transported to the High Court without any notice to him.
Over 40 years later
Article 186 of the Constitution sets out the Supreme Court’s advisory jurisdiction, and states, “If, at any time, the President considers that it is desirable to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on any question of law which he considers of public importance, he may refer the question to the Supreme Court for consideration”. The plain wording of Article 186 states that the President can refer a question of law considered to be of public importance to the Supreme Court for rendering an opinion.
Over the past few weeks, hours were spent going over intricate details of Bhutto’s trial. The questions framed with regards to Bhutto’s trial, conviction, and sentence were largely not questions of law. Some questions require the court to dive into the merits of its earlier decision, other questions require a detailed factual inquiry. The merits of a case decided in adjudicatory jurisdiction (where the review has also been dismissed) cannot be re-opened in advisory jurisdiction. The court cannot go on a fact-finding mission/inquiry in its advisory jurisdiction. Courts revisit decisions in their adjudicatory jurisdiction. Unjust, outright wrong decisions are corrected when subsequent cases come before the Court. Not through an advisory jurisdiction.
In its short opinion, the Supreme Court has stated that it cannot undo the judgment in its advisory jurisdiction. Per the Supreme Court, “the Constitution and the law do not provide a mechanism to set aside the judgment whereby Mr. Bhutto was convicted and sentenced; the said judgment attained finality after the dismissal of the review petition”. The Supreme Court has not overturned the judgment and accepted that since the review has been dismissed, it has attained finality. However, the Court has gone on to opine that there were constitutional and legal lapses and a fair trial was denied to Bhutto.
The core aspect of the opinion was the following question: whether the requirements of due process and fair trial were complied with in the trial of Bhutto. Unanimously, the Supreme Court found that the trial failed to comply with various fundamental rights: the right to be treated in accordance with law (Article 4), the right to life and liberty (Article 9), the right to a fair trial (Article 10A (post the 18th Amendment)). The trial was grossly unjust: biased judges, the prevailing martial law regime of Zia, excluding judges perceived to be in favour of Bhutto, denying a right of appeal, ‘annoyance’ at Bhutto’s lawyer for not arguing mitigation of sentence as was revealed by Justice Shah.
In rendering an opinion that the trial of Bhutto failed to comply with fair trial guarantees and fundamental rights, the Supreme Court holds, “We must, therefore, be willing to confront our past missteps and fallibilities with humility, in the spirit of self-accountability…we cannot correct ourselves and progress in the right direction until we acknowledge our past mistakes”.
As became evident, the decision in Bhutto’s case was about many things, except the law itself. For decades the case would be referred to as a ‘judicial murder’. Ultimately, the highest court and the institution responsible for upholding the death sentence have now effectively accepted it made a grave mistake.
The writer is a barrister and an Advocate of the High Court. She tweets/posts @RidaHosain.
“If I speak, they will kill me, to remain silent is to die”
Do we, as the people of Pakistan, connect with the vision defined by the framers of our Constitution? Does this vision reside within our reality, or is it merely an academic ideal — an impractical philosophy for leisurely Sunday contemplation?
It can be safely argued that the infamous Army Public School attack of December 16, 2014, laid the very foundation of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (Peca). The severity and lethality of the attack, which left 149 people dead, amongst which 133 were children, had a massive impact on Pakistan’s anti-terror agenda.
An all-encompassing National Action Plan (NAP) was formulated, comprising 20 agenda items. Of these, agenda item number 11 (ban on glorification of terrorists and terrorist organisations through print and electronic media), and agenda item number 14 (measures against abuse of internet and social media for terrorism), may be characterised as catalysts behind the promulgation of Peca.
Given this historical background, evidently, the purpose of the said law was purely to prevent social media and digital space from being utilised by terrorist organisations and their symphyses, for promoting terrorism or other such activities falling within the definition of “terrorism”. At least, this was the narrative used by the state to silence the voice of those who preempted its misapplication and abuse, at the hands of the state.
Since its promulgation, Peca has claimed many victims, which include politicians, journalists, academics, activists, lawyers, political workers and members of the civil society. It did not spare anyone, not even those who professed their unvarying support and allegiance to it and defended its existence, without flinching.
On October 21, 2017, former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif — whose government had passed the law — took to X (formerly Twitter) protesting the arrest of social media activists and calling on the state to respect the fundamental right of free speech and expression. The very law which stifled freedom of expression, supported and introduced in the parliament by his own government, was being criticised by him; such is the irony.
Yet another victim
Yet again, Peca has claimed another victim. A renowned journalist and vlogger, popular for expressing his opinion in the most uninhibited and unorthodox form, Asad Ali Toor, is in the captivity of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
It appears that Toor’s crime was so vile and unforgiving that the court did not even hesitate in granting a five-day physical remand to the FIA, which was subsequently extended for three days on March 3, and further extended for another two days on March 6. What crime you ask? The heinous crime of exercising his fundamental right, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, to freedom of speech and expression.
He had, through multiple vlogs, called into question the purported illegal transgressions of members belonging to government institutions, whose role is defined under the Constitution. He opined that the parameters envisaged in Article 245 of the Constitution should be vehemently observed and no actions or initiatives should be undertaken which would vitiate the mandate prescribed in the said Article.
Toor had also vehemently criticised the judgement passed by the Supreme Court, in which it had denied the PTI its election symbol, on the pretext that the judgment passed by courts was public property and could be subjected to criticism.
It is not that Toor was not participating in the inquiry, hence, warranting his arrest. Far from it, after being served with a notice, Toor appeared in person before the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing, on Feb 23. He was interrogated for hours in connection to an inquiry relating to a “malicious” campaign against the judiciary.
On Feb 24, the journalist was served yet another notice, directing him to appear again on Feb 26, which Toor did. Some four hours later, his legal counsels were informed by an FIA official, carrying a letter in one hand and Toor’s car keys in another, that he had been formally arrested. The said letter was addressed to his legal counsel, Imaan Zainab Mazari, through which he requested that his 78-year-old mother be dropped at his relative’s house.
The next day, Toor was presented before the designated judicial magistrate, charged with the offence of Section 9 (glorification of an offence), 10 (cyber terrorism) and 24 (legal recognition of offences committed in relation to information system) of Peca. The first information report (FIR) dated Feb 26, which was presented in court along with an application for a 10-day physical remand, did not even remotely mention the inquiry proceedings or that Toor had been allegedly involved in any campaign against members of the superior judiciary.
The glaring omission to adequately and properly consider the presence of an alternative penalty to imprisonment, in the form of imposition of fine(s), as stipulated under sections 9, 10, 12 and 24 Peca, is basal to the court’s decision in granting a five-day physical remand, and its subsequent extensions, to the FIA.
Right to liberty
Toor’s current detainment, resulting in the blatant and unwarranted curtailment of his right to liberty, is not possibly compensable by the state. The right to liberty is cardinal and elementary to the principles of every democracy. It is for these reasons that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has repeatedly granted bail in similar cases, whereas, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has previously held that in cases where sections 9, 10, 12 or 24 of Peca are invoked, bail shall be granted to the accused as a matter of right.
Even otherwise, courts have been considerate of the fact that the requisite mens rea (criminal intent) of the accused, alleged to have committed such offences, is rarely ever discernible.
Moreover, the language incorporated and employed in the concerned provisions has been criticised for being vague and ambiguous, thus rendering the offences laid out more cumbersome to prove. Only a proper trial and arguments can lead to effective and fair adjudication of such allegations, not physical remand or absolute abdication of the accused’s fundamental right to liberty — not for five days, not for 10.
It is not surprising why when an offence under these provisions is alleged and the accused are consequently detained, it appears to be a culmination of arbitrary and whimsical abuse of the law which has time and again been manifested by authorities at their earliest temptation, whenever their conduct has been subjected to castigation by the public.
Perhaps, the most disturbing aspect of the decisions rendered by the court was the fact that the aforementioned application, in unequivocal terms, disclosed the very purpose for which the remand was being sought. The FIA is adamant about accessing Toor’s electronic devices and social media handles, i.e. access to his journalistic sources.
Journalistic protections
At this point, it must be highlighted that the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act, 2021 (Protection Act), inspired by Article 19 of the Constitution and international law, was enacted by the Parliament, underscoring the state’s responsibility to safeguard freedom of expression.
This includes the right to seek, receive and impart information of all kinds, regardless of borders and the right to privacy and non-disclosure of sources. This legislation recognises the democratic imperative to foster a safe and independent environment for journalists, especially in light of targeted attacks on media professionals.
Furthermore, Section 4 (right to privacy and non-disclosure of sources) of the law explicitly protects journalists’ right to privacy and the confidentiality of their sources. Yet, the FIA is blatantly disregarding the law by pressuring Toor to surrender these protections.
Ironically, while the federal government was required to constitute an independent commission under section 12 (establishment of a commission for the protection of journalists and media professions) of the Protection Act — which was to be known as the Commission for the Protection of Journalist and Media Professionals (CPJMP) — for the purposes of ensuring the enforcement of the Protection Act, no such commission has been constituted so far. This omission is reflective of authorities’ hesitation to play an active role in enforcing journalistic protection.
The state compelling journalists like Toor to reveal their sources is not only an abuse of law and power in the domestic realm but also a grave violation of Pakistan’s international obligations towards journalists. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which has been ratified by Pakistan, confers the right to freedom of expression to citizens of member states which includes “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice”.
However, it is imperative to appreciate that journalistic protection is not absolute in nature. Article 19 (3) permits states to restrict this protection for the respect of the rights and reputation of others or for safeguarding national security, public order, public health or morals. Therefore, while international law recognises the importance of journalistic protection, it also hinders journalists from abusing this right by introducing a balance of proportionality.
Nonetheless, the UNHRC, in the Initial Report of Kuwait in 1999, disagreed with Kuwait’s assertion that freedom of speech and expression does not safeguard statements made against the head of the state, or the heads of other states. Rather, the committee concluded that compelling journalists to reveal their sources in order to evidence good faith behind a report is not only a violation of Article 19 of the ICCPR but also other provisions vis-à-vis respect to the presumption of innocence.
The committee, therefore, has crystallised that an invocation of the aforementioned grounds laid out in the law, in order to restrict journalistic protection, is not a trivial endeavour and is dealt with stringently.
Moreover, this was also endorsed by the Committee in Bodrožić v. Serbia and Montenegro where it stated that if the subject of a journalist’s report is a “prominent public and political figure” then a restriction on journalistic protection, on grounds of the reputation of officials, will be cumbersome to impose. In the bargain, Principle 30 of the Siracusa Principles has prohibited the invocation of national security as a ground for imposing limitations on Article 19 when “merely local or relatively isolated threats to law and order” are at play.
Stepping out of constitutional limits
Drawing from the aforementioned provisions, the UNHRC’s comments and international case law, it is evident that Toor expressing his opinion against powerful institutions and government officials does not mandate a restriction on his journalistic protection, in light of their public nature, and criticising them for stepping out of their constitutional limits does not compromise national security.
The same has also been endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights’ judgement, in Tillack v. Belgium, where it safeguarded a journalist’s journalistic protection when the police confiscated files and newsgathering materials possessed by the journalist with the aim of ascertaining their source for reporting on the activities of European Union officials.
The uninhibited treatment accorded to Toor is not mandated by law, but rather a product of personal offence taken on by those whom the journalist has bravely called out by exercising his rights.
Abusers of the aforementioned domestic and international law have been targeting journalists to silence the public; therefore, this contentious issue is not merely about journalists like Toor but about the Pakistani public at large.
The former chief justice of the IHC, Justice Athar Minallah, rightfully observed that “if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” which begs the question: Are Pakistanis actually free?
This piece is dedicated to all those brave journalists who are committed to their values and, unfortunately, face the real threat of persecution. It seems that Zahoor Hussain Zahoor is expressing what journalists might be feeling in the prevailing circumstances, particularly Asad Toor at this very moment.
He says: “On whose door shall I knock, carrying the corpse of thought, If I speak, they will kill me, to remain silent is to die. Silently swallowing my tears, I endured the ridicule of the world searching for my destination, I walk into the dark night, all alone Striving, I may not reach the end, but it will be closer, If I speak they will kill me, to remain silent is to die.”
سوچاں دی میت چا کے ، ہُن میں کیڑے گھر جاواں گا جے بولاں تے مار دِین
گے ، نہ بولاں تے مر جاواں گا چپ چپیتے اتھرو پیتے ، مینے جگ دے پا کے
پلے رات ہناری کلؔم کلے ، ٹُر یا جانڑاں منزل ولّے پاویں سارا پینڈا نہ
سہی ، کُج نہ کٗج تے کر جاواں گا جے بولاں تے مار دیِن گے ، نہ بولاں تے
مر جاواں گا ~ ظہور حسن ظہور
The Attan dance, originating from the mountains of Afghanistan and dating back to pre-Islamic times, remains an integral part of Pakhtun culture today. It is typically performed to the beat of a dhol (drum) or other instruments such as the tabla, the 18-stringed Robab, the surnai flute (also known as the shehnai) or a wooden flute known as a Toola.
This ceremonial dance holds significance in various cultural events such as weddings, festivals, and historically, even during periods of conflict and war. Rich in cultural symbolism, Attan is often performed with handkerchiefs and swords, serving as a reminder of the performers’ glorious and victorious past.
In contrast to the more geographically bound Indian Kathak, Attan’s origins prevent it from being confined to a specific region.
The fluidity of borders, particularly between Afghanistan and Iran, as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, has facilitated an exchange of arts and culture. These borders have acted as semi-permeable membranes where community and culture persevere through geographical and man-made boundaries, either altering or retaining art forms.
Widely recognised as a war dance, Attan has seen a major transformation under the influence of Islam. But numerous other social and geopolitical factors have also contributed to its transfiguration. Cultural renaissance, regionalisation, and the role of traditional pop culture have played a role in preserving the essence of the dance. Its evolution can be well understood through Monica Dalidowicz’s idea of ‘diaspora and tradition’, highlighting the crucial interplay between borders.
Cultural renaissance
Attan evolved in Kabul with the influence of Hindustani arts during the pre-partition times. Hindu artists were invited to perform in the court of the Amir of Afghanistan, Shir Ali Khan, during 1863-1866 and 1868-1879. These cultural connections became the primary locus for adopting influences from outside.
Although many culturally rich societies strive to protect their traditions from external influence, transactions are inevitable, especially when communities regard their traditions as invaluable characteristics of their identities. They do not fear displaying them to the world and the impression these exhibitions leave results in a cultural transaction — one that has a rather invisible influence on the external culture.
Incorporating the idea of a cultural renaissance, Attan has undergone a transformation in its participants, movements and dance types. But despite its evolution, the fundamentals of Attan remain the same. Performers — anywhere between two to over 100 — dance to the beat in a circle with the rhythm gradually picking up pace.
There are multiple types of Attan, reflecting its enormous potential for exploration. These forms include Kabuli Attan, Wardaki Attan, Paktia/Khosti Attan, Kochyano/Kuchi, Khattak Dance or Warrior Dance, Waziri Attan, and Mehsud Attan.
Women perform the Kuchi Attan during events of communal or personal importance such as the coming of spring, Nowruz (the Persian new year) or childbirth. Interestingly, long-haired men also partake in Kuchi Attan.
Men in Afghanistan perform the Attan dance to the beat of drums. — photo courtesy Dance Afghanistan
The contemporary image of Pakhtuns paints them as conservative, segregated, and patriarchal in their behaviour. However, many traditions and their histories counter this image, where men and women come together to participate in dance, music, and celebration.
Afghan and Pakhtun people have actively worked to preserve their traditions through performance and art. This movement gained momentum when Pashto theatre undertook the initiative to grant women their rightful status in society and successfully achieved their goal.
Unfortunately, not all external influences have been positive, and over time patriarchal attitudes and norms have infiltrated the dance form itself, making it less open to women.
Diaspora and tradition
While Attan in Afghanistan has transformed under intercultural influences, it has also travelled across borders and continents with its people.
Dalidowicz maintains that diasporas allow people to reconstruct their traditions and recontextualise practices. Although she discusses the diaspora between West and South Asia, the literal definition of diaspora considers every displaced person from their homeland as diasporic. Hence, Afghan and Pakhtun populations, that have been displaced from their native homelands, can thus be considered diasporic.
Notably, a large Afghan community also exists in Balochistan, KP, Iran and India.
The regional variations in Attan can be traced through Afghan migrations to countries across the globe. Attan is also said to have its roots in ancient Greek theatre, with the influence purportedly carried by Alexander the Great to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Some scholars also claim that the term ‘Attan’ is derived from ‘Athena,’ the Greek goddess. These factors reverberate the notion that not only communities but also traditions and cultures are a consequence of diasporic movements.
Afghan artists perform the traditional Attan dance during celebrations. — Reuters
While many view Attan as the national Afghan dance, Ahmad Naser Sarmast, the founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, disagrees: “It is difficult to claim it as a national dance because [the] structure, rhythm, accompaniments, and symbols used in [the] dance [represent] Pakhtun tribal values rather than a broader national identity.
“The idea of Attan as a national dance is, in fact, a politicised claim, referring to the past historical suppressions in Afghanistan.”
It is difficult and perhaps, incorrect to box Attan into a single category and origin given its rich history and variety. The earlier-mentioned forms of dance, for example, originate from different regions and occasions.
Fluctuating reputation
However, the Taliban invasion of Afghanistan led Attan to be labelled ‘un-Islamic’, marking a significant shift in the tradition and its essence. This era can be described as the death of the cultural renaissance that came before it. Women, previously brought to mainstream positions and circles were now banished from public participation, let alone dancing and performing Attan.
And once again, the flow of ideas, both political and cultural could not be prevented via permeable borders. The influence of religious sanctions and Talibanisation was observed throughout the Pakhtun belt of Balochistan and KP in Pakistan.
Interestingly, Attan and the perceptions around it have evolved differently in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Beyond Attan, dancing itself has had a fluctuating reputation in post-partition Pakistan.
While post-partition, Pakistan’s dance was frowned upon, India’s dance was wholeheartedly celebrated as culture. In a relatively uncommon feat, women from the Pakhtun community in Swat began leading Attan in public and semi-public spaces as men dancing in public was frowned upon.
In pre-partition times, the state supported the dancers while the post-partition era and the Taliban invasion of the region (Afghanistan and parts of Balochistan) accentuated the ‘un-Islamic’ tag, segregating Attan from its inherent meaning.
Despite symbolising invaluable facets of Pakhtun society such as bravery, chivalry, honesty, and above all, togetherness, the influence of modern nation-states, borders, and religious fundamentalism restricted participation in Attan for both, men and women.
Pop culture and tradition
Despite its widespread influence, Attan receives limited coverage in mainstream media and pop culture in Pakistan.
While there may be several explanations for this, the primary one can be explained through Antonio Grmasci’s theory of ‘cultural hegemony’. Punjabi and upper-class arts and culture hold hegemonic power over that of other marginalised, groups. However, while Pakhtun cultural representation in mainstream media is negligible and oftentimes downright offensive and stereotypical, traditional folk media plays an essential role in keeping the spark alive. Because folk media is close and accessible to many communities and saturated with diverse traditional themes, it automatically grants it the power to persuade and influence.
The focus on content being of interest to the “masses”, which primarily serves the economic interests of mainstream media outlets, results in the invisibilisation of traditions such as Attan. This is also where folk media steps in and provides platforms for representation.
In recent years, however, Coke Studio has attempted to bring forward voices and artists of different communities, taking a step in the right direction for cultural representation. The mainstream music production attempted the song ‘Ya Qurban’ where artists can be seen performing Attan, a rarity for mainstream media thus far.
The absence of Attan in mainstream media is reflective of broader social issues tied to Afghan identities in their respective countries and the increasing Islamisation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Fascinatingly, even though the Taliban banned performing arts in the mid-1990s — which remained in place until the US invasion in 2001 — they are believed to perform the dance since it is so well-liked and uniquely Afghan. A vivid display of the paradox and hypocrisy rules out the idea that culture and tradition can be separated from human nature, granting ‘religion’ a superior position.
I use the term religion with caution because forbidding the traditional Pakhtun dance has less to do with Islam and more to do with the fundamentalism of the Taliban.
The categorisation and perception of Attan as ‘vulgar’ took place over time and was further cemented in Pakistan by Punjabi dances in films which often objectified women.
The degeneration of Attan has not only hampered its evolution but also challenged its validity. As Pakhtuns strive to preserve and represent Attan as a marker of their values over national identity, borders and national politics pose insurmountable challenges. The criminal neglect of Attan by the media needs to end to preserve this incredible indigenous tradition.
Header image: Afghan artists perform the traditional Attan dance during international Nowruz celebrations in Kabul, 2014. — Reuters/Omar Sobhani
Nestled deep within the Tharparkar district, a peculiar sight greets the eye — the Gorano reservoir, an artificial water body shrouded in controversy and neglect. Its existence, born of industrial ambition, stands as a stark testament to the uneven exchange between human development and environmental damage.
Located around 30 kilometers from the town of Islamkot, the waters of the Gorano reservoir are stretched over approximately 500 acres of land acquired by the Sindh government from farmers living in nearby villages. Confined between two parallel dune ranges, this man-made wetland was created in 2016.
Gorano reservoir gives off a putrid and sulphuric smell. Even a brief exposure to it leaves a burning sensation in one’s throat and nostrils. Its dark, leaden water has stained the ground, tracing the boundary with dark marks while hundreds of wilting trees dot its surface with their bare, leafless stems. A swarm of mosquitoes hover over the water, extending as far as the eye can see.
The Gorano reservoir contains water generated by coal mining in Thar Coalfield Block II, located several kilometers to the north. The mines in this block are depleted of subsoil and saline water to extract dry coal. This water is transported to the reservoir via a pipeline. The reservoir’s site was chosen for its natural depression, facilitating the direct extraction of water from the mines without the need for pumping or motoring.
The controversy
The reservoir was originally planned to be built in Tisingri, several kilometers down south of Gorano, says Leela Ram — a lawyer and resident of the Gorano village.
“Even environmental assessment reports were made to house the reservoir in Tisinri,” he recalls.
Ram claims that the firm involved in coal mining, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), altered this plan and initiated preparations to position the reservoir adjacent to Gorano without conducting any environmental assessment or obtaining consent from local communities.
These communities have been protesting against the reservoir since 2016 in Islamkot, Hyderabad, and even Karachi. They held long sit-ins, observed hunger strikes, and performed a long march from Islamkot to Karachi. Some protesters, including Ram, also filed a petition at the Hyderabad bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) which initially set up a commission to investigate its alleged negative impacts.
A man stands near a clean water RO Plant constructed by SECMC. — photo by Usama Irfan
“Though this commission did contradict some of the claims made by the SECMC, it did not come up with any clear findings and specific recommendations,” says Zain Moulvi, a Lahore-based lawyer who has been following the case closely for the past three years.
“The commission also seems to have found out that the SECMC did not obtain the approval of the forest and wildlife department before dumping water into the Gorano reservoir,” he highlights.
The IUCN report
But despite several judicial rounds, the SHC dismissed the petition in 2022, allowing the SECMC to continue using the Gorano reservoir for dumping the water extracted from coal mines. One of the documents that the court seems to have relied on to arrive at this conclusion has been prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global non-governmental watchdog on wildlife.
Reports published in several news outlets in early February 2019 contain key points of this IUCN document. Express Tribune, for instance, wrote: “A brief ecological survey conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) over Gorano reservoir being filled with saline water pumped out from Thar’s coalfield, has reflected positively on the pond. The report finds that Gorano, a wetland of subsoil saline water, is attracting various birds which feed on fish.”
Meanwhile, Business Recorder, provided a brief history of the reservoir citing the IUCN survey: “…in the year 2017, various kinds of farm fish were introduced in the pond by… SECMC… which has started giving yield. The fish species were also certified as fit for human consumption by independent, competent laboratories.”
The report further mentioned that the presence of small fish has drawn a variety of striking fish-eating birds such as Little Grebes, Cormorants, Pelicans, and White-breasted Kingfishers to the reservoir. Observations have also confirmed the presence of these birds at the Gorano reservoir.
A spokesperson of the SECMC reiterated the same information in an email response to some questions sent to him. “Gorano has also become a critical habitat for more than 30 migratory birds,” he wrote.
“Bio-saline fish farming at Gorano Lake supports over 10 fish species — Morakhi, Rohu, Theli, Kuriro, Gulfam, African Catfish, and Dangri — that contribute to local nutritional needs,” he added.
According to him, the SECMC has also “distributed over 70,000kg of fish and provided vital fodder to more than 14,500 families during severe drought”.
Other side of the story
While the numerous videos and news reports supported by the SECMC depict Gorano as a fish-catching site, the residents of Thar have a different story to tell.
Punhoon, a 52-year-old physically challenged resident, says locals have not seen any fish in the pond.
Lakshaman, 38, another villager, reports that the water in wells across Gorano and its neighbouring villages has turned “poisonous since the reservoir was constructed”.
These wells previously served as the primary source of water for locals and their livestock, but now, he claims, none of them contain water suitable for consumption.
The issue stems from water stored in the reservoir seeping into the underground water table that replenishes these wells. “The tree cover in the area is shrinking and our animals are dying — all because of the harmful effects of the reservoir’s water,” Lakshaman laments.
A man stands outside a mud house in the Gorano village. — Photo by Usama Irfan
These concerns were also discussed in a webinar on March 26, 2022. “Percolation of toxic water from Gorana has been posing a serious threat to the ecosystem and public health,” one of the speakers had said.
“Sweet water from the wells surrounding the wastewater reservoir is getting toxic. Cases of malaria and livestock casualties have significantly increased in the area,” he added.
IUCN report versus everyone else
These allegations were endorsed by a study conducted by Mark Churnaik, an American expert on environmental laws. The study was based on nine water samples collected from villages located in Thar Coalfield Block II by researchers associated with Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, in 2022.
The findings of this study, released in 2023, indicate that all these samples “were unfit for human consumption as they contain a high level of toxic metals (Selenium, Arsenic, Mercury, lead, and Chromium)”.
The SECMC typically addresses such allegations by citing the IUCN survey.
After the 2022 webinar’s insights, the SECMC issued a clarification on its website: “The Gorano reservoir is declared a unique wetland by the globally renowned IUCN, and is serving as a habitat ecosystem for various species of fish and birds in the region.”
The SECMC spokesman in his email response claimed that regular water monitoring by an independent environment monitoring consultant and tests by SGS Pakistan confirm the absence of any toxic pollutant concentration and dispel contamination concerns in the Gorano reservoir as per environment quality standards defined by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency.
The grey area
However, Dr Z.B. Mirza, a conservationist and lead author of the said IUCN report, contends that it should not be deemed as a blanket approval of the quality of water being stored at Gorano. “Its main objective was to suggest rather than prove anything,” he says.
The recommendations put forth by Mirza included initiatives aimed at ecologically enhancing this newly formed wetland, exploring the feasibility of attracting a variety of water birds migrating to southern Sindh and neighbouring regions during winters, and fostering ecotourism for the welfare of local communities.
He also asserts that the survey was limited in both scope and duration. “It was conducted only to study biodiversity, especially bird diversity that exists in the area. And, it was carried out in only two days — between December 7-9, 2018.
“Its findings are limited to 2018 when the reservoir was newly formed and may have temporarily attracted some birds,” he adds. “Considering it has been five years since the report was published, the water in the reservoir is likely to have become contaminated over time.”
The fact that Mirza’s report includes these limitations is significant, particularly since the SECMC has never mentioned them in its statements.
For instance, citing Express Tribune, he pointed out that the “salinity level of Gorano’s water is very high and… it will gradually increase with a high rate of evaporation, particularly in dry and hot seasons of the year”.
In a similar vein, his report also noted that 4,199 local desert trees were found on 834 acres of land that became a part of the Gorano reservoir. “These trees are still alive but have been submerged in the pond and will not live for long,” it stated.
Mirza also denies being aware of the fact that the SECMC has presented any evidence to the SHC to have the petition against the Gorano reservoir dismissed. He argues that the four-year-old report alone “cannot be used for challenging the point of view of the local communities”.
A tale of contradictions
Despite these clarifications, IUCN has provided a favourable assessment of Gorano on multiple occasions. As recently as November 17 last year, it published a story on its website stating: “Gorano wetland at Thar coal mines site was found to have the potential for attracting bird populations since there was a significant number of 425 vultures of White-backed, Red-headed, and Egyptian species spotted.”
This claim was made at the launch of a joint IUCN-SECMC study on the biodiversity of Tharparkar. According to the story, the study was conducted over two and a half years “by a team of experts from Sindh Wildlife Department, Zoological Society of Pakistan, Baanhn Beli — an NGO working in Tharparkar — and distinguished academic institutions”.
This study was carried out under a collaborative arrangement signed between IUCN, SECMC and Thar Foundation (the corporate social responsibility arm of SECMC) in December 2018 in Karachi. The SECMC spokesman acknowledged in his email that its funding came from SECMC and Thar Foundation.
An earlier study conducted in 2019 under the same arrangement and with the financial support of the SECMC contended: “It can be assumed that Garano wetland has emerged as the most populated habitat of vultures in Pakistan.”
However, Dr Ahsan Kamal, an assistant professor at the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, and an activist for climate justice, points to the contradictions between what Mirza says and the contents found on the IUCN website.
“These contradictory positions suggest that IUCN could be greenwashing the anti-environmental activities of SECMC by collaborating with it closely and by issuing positive reports about the quality of water in the Gorano reservoir,” he says.
“If that is not the case, then IUCN should carry out a detailed study of Gorano without any financial support and collaboration of SECMC and it should also include the point of view of local communities in all its future reports about it,” Kamal concluded.
Header image: A family carried gallons of water on a donkey cart near Gorano reservoir. — photo by Usama Irfan
My mother was recently travelling from Abbottabad to visit me in Lahore. On the bus, she found herself seated next to an overwhelmed mother and her four children. Before she knew it, she was acting loco parentis to two of the children, who were glued to her for the entire ride.
My mother asked one of the daughters which city she preferred, Lahore or Abbottabad. The girl, unable to distinguish between the two, deflected by saying, “aap ko pata hai Pakistan ko Allah miyan ne apne haathon se banaya hai?” (Do you know God has created Pakistan from his own hands?)
Nowadays, it’s considered unfashionable to have such romantically religious notions of how your state came to be, but something about her deflection hit a chord. A nation knows itself and its future through the story its people tell. Whether it’s the story of rising from the ashes of a once dominant empire or that a nation was carved onto the map by the hands of God Himself — each tale carries weight.
Civilised, barbarian, or savage —19th century’s distorted worldview
In much of the dark world, our nations were born with congenital bloodstains on their cheeks.
In the 19th century, nations were either civilised, barbarian, or savages. All white states were naturally civilised unless they seriously transgressed (that is, became communist) at which point they regressed to being barbarians. Barbarians were semi-civilised and could be interacted with the aim that they would at some point be dragged into civilisation kicking and screaming.
Savages were non-white and beyond the pale, they were no more than human, infantilised, and unrepresented in the community of states. These groups were challenged after the First World War when the devastation wrought by European infighting led the rest of the world to question the so-called superiority of the white world. But instead of changing the rules, everyone just wanted in.
Japan tried to join the League of Nations, asserting its distinction from other perceived ‘barbarians’, claiming to be far better than its neighbour, China, at the very least. Its plea was rejected. Arthur Balfour, who represented Britain at the conference, said that “it was true in a certain sense that all men of a particular nation were created equal; but not that a man in Central Africa was created equal to a European.”
The West was given powers of ‘tutelage’ after World War I over territories that were considered to not be ‘able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world’ and so required help from ‘advanced nations who because of their resources, their experience, or their geographical position can best undertake this responsibility’.
How they achieved this advancement and how they acquired these resources and experience was left unsaid but one thing was clear: the architects had decided the world’s blueprints and we were in the outhouse with the promise of being allowed inside if we behaved.
The paradox of independence
Of course, we didn’t behave. From the early 20th century onwards, empires fell like dominos as new states emerged onto the international plane. But none of them were as polarising as the Algerian war against its ‘parent’ state, France.
Similar to the conversations taking place about Palestine and Hamas today, philosophers debated the necessity of armed violence in overthrowing a coloniser using brute force to maintain its hold. While the French state tortured and executed people, rebels planted bombs and killed innocents.
Frantz Fanon argued that the anti-colonial revolution must be violent, not only because it was effective, but also because it helped the colonised “shake off the paralysis of oppression and forge a new shared identity”.
The Algerian novelist and philosopher Albert Camus disagreed. When accepting his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, he emphasised that the struggle for independence is a plea for peace: “People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother.”
While Camus was choosing his mother, these new states were figuring out how to be many people but one nation within borders they hadn’t chosen. Our territorial integrity, so hard won, was to be jealously guarded for anyone wanting to break it up. And in many instances, like Bangladesh, we tried to preserve it by recreating the oppression we had just fought.
Meanwhile, the mills of international politics kept churning and the West was working to ensure that it maintained its domination through an economic empire. Our former colonisers became ‘sugar daddies’ getting us hooked on aid, trapping us in debt cycles, and pillorying us with talk of human rights. We were left working to create justice in a sieve.
Commitment to statehood
But at least we were free, politically if not economically, in part if not entirely; we were nations. States are legal fictions, but without them, we are exiled spirits in conquered countries searching for a home. When Israel casts its struggle as that between the ‘children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of a jungle’ it echoes archaic notions of savage, uncivilised nations.
Mahmoud Darwish wrote in one of his poems that Palestinians live in a ‘country of words’, with no state and no army. But the wealth of the nation they create will be based on the limitless deposits of its peoples’ sacrifice; their resilience will be its crude oil, for “few states on earth can claim the degree and intensity of allegiance which the people of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip manifest, day after bloody day, to the State of Palestine”.
Someone once said a nation was a group of people who have agreed to collectively remember and forget the same things. While the ‘world of light’ has collectively agreed to forget the oppression it wrought on our lands, our ‘world of darkness’ has vowed to always remember.
In decolonising our states, and in creating our nations, we remade the entire world. And we called our land our home.
Perhaps the most important story to tell ourselves about our homelands — whether we freed ourselves from violence or not, with the help of God or not — is to never, ever recall the moment we became independent with indifference. And if we do falter at some point, let the children of Palestine serve as a reminder of the cost of freedom today.
Tensions simmering along the Pak-Afghan border have recently erupted into violence yet again, with a familiar player returning to the forefront — Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s militant group.
Blamed for the devastating March 16 suicide attack on a Pakistani military post in North Waziristan, which claimed the lives of seven soldiers including two officers, the militant group’s actions have sent shockwaves through the region. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s retaliatory airstrikes inside Afghanistan on March 18, targeting suspected hideouts of Bahadur’s group, have further strained the already fragile relations with Kabul’s Taliban rulers and raised fears of regional instability.
Good Taliban gone bad
But beyond the immediate violence lies a story of transformation.
Once lauded as the ‘good Taliban’ for refraining from carrying out attacks against Pakistan’s security forces, Bahadur’s group finds itself labelled ‘bad Taliban’ due to its role in the recent terror attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s southern region. This dramatic shift sparks a multitude of questions: What drove this transformation? Where does Bahadur’s group fit within Pakistan’s complex militant landscape, dominated by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)? And perhaps most crucially, what factors led the Bahadur-led group to engage in such a dramatic escalation?
Alongside the TTP, militants affiliated with the Bahadur group have of late been linked to several high-profile attacks on Pakistani security forces under various banners, including Da Ghazyano Karwan, Da Sufiyano Karawan, and Jaish Fursan Muhammad.
The group’s reach extends beyond North Waziristan, potentially posing a threat to security forces in adjacent districts like Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, and Tank. Some of its recent attacks include the March 16 suicide bombing in North Waziristan, the November 26 suicide bombing in Bannu’s Bakakehl area and the August 31 suicide attack on a military convoy in Bannu’s Jani Khel area.
Who is Hafiz Gul Bahadur?
Bahadur hails from the Mada Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Wazir tribe in North Waziristan, a former tribal district bordering Afghanistan. He is considered a descendant of the Faqir of Ipi, a legendary figure known for his resistance against British occupation in the 1930s and 1940s.
While little is known about his early life, local journalists and tribal elders say Bahadur was involved with the student wing of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F). This aligns with the trajectory of other regional militants who fought alongside the Afghan Taliban against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, likely facilitated by the Haqqani Network which was based in Miran Shah since the 1990s.
Following the US-led intervention in Afghanistan in late 2001, militants including the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and those affiliated with Central Asian groups fled across the border to Pakistan’s tribal areas, including North Waziristan. Local militants like Bahadur, who had fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, provided refuge to these groups in the region.
Rise to prominence
Despite publicly aligning with the US in the “war on terror” after 2001, Pakistan initially seemed to tolerate the influx of militants into North Waziristan. Following two assassination attempts on President Musharraf and increasing pressure from the US, however, Pakistan launched operations in the region in 2004.
But these operations, intended to target foreign militants, backfired. A tribal elder from North Waziristan observed that they “galvanised the militants”, strengthening them against local authorities and tribal elders. Initially limited to the Wana and Shakai areas, the operations expanded after the 2004 killing of a local Taliban leader, Nek Muhammad.
Bahadur’s trajectory during this period reflects the complexities of the region. By 2005, he and his deputy, Maulvi Sadiq Noor, resisted the Pakistani military’s efforts to expel foreign militants. However, by mid-2006, Bahadur changed his stance, entering into a peace agreement with the government. The move angered some foreign militants, such as those from The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), who accused him of siding with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Bahadur established a Shura council to govern the region, enforcing taxes and penalties. This also signalled cooperation with the government to some extent, with the peace agreement effectively making him the leader of the local Taliban in North Waziristan.
The agreement, however, did not sever Bahadur’s ties with the Afghan Taliban. Reports suggest that his group operated a suicide training camp in Dattakhel, specifically for the Afghan insurgency. Dattakhel, interestingly, was at the receiving end of scores of US drone strikes targeting foreign and local militants in Pakistan.
Reluctance to join the TTP
While the militant Al Qaeda sought to unify various Pakistani Taliban groups under the banner of the TTP in December 2007, Bahadur’s faction remained on the outside.
Journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, in his book, Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban, suggests that the group’s key concern was to prevent the Pakistani state from exploiting divisions among local Taliban groups.
However, Bahadur’s primary focus, as observed by Peshawar-based journalist Rifatullah Orakzai, remained on the insurgency in Afghanistan, contrasting with the TTP’s focus on activities within Pakistan. “This difference likely influenced Bahadur’s decision to maintain a separate identity,” said Orakzai.
Mufti Noor Wali, leader of the TTP, mentions in his book, Inqilab-i-Mehsud, that objections to Baitullah Mehsud’s leadership and the presence of militants adhering to Salafi and Panjpiri schools of thought within the TTP may have been additional factors for Bahadur not joining the outfit formally.
Interestingly, Wali’s book also mentions a short-lived alliance, the Shura Ittehad-i-Mujahideen, formed in 2009. This alliance, reportedly including Al Qaeda, the TTP’s Mehsud chapter, Bahadur’s group, and Mullah Nazir’s faction, aimed to resist potential Pakistani military actions in Waziristan. However, disagreements led to Bahadur and Nazir’s departure from the alliance.
Support from Haqqani Network?
According to militancy experts, Bahadur’s group continues to benefit from its ties to influential groups such as the Haqqani Network, Al Qaeda, and even the TTP, despite maintaining a separate identity.
A retired military officer, with experience in North Waziristan, also agreed with the assessment, saying the group received crucial support from senior leaders of the Haqqani Network. This support reportedly includes “safe havens in Afghanistan, additional manpower, financial resources, and even advanced weaponry left behind by US forces”. This external backing significantly bolsters Bahadur’s capabilities.
The retired officer also explained that the tribal makeup of the region provides Bahadur’s group with operational freedom. “The presence of the Wazir tribe on both sides of the border allows militants to move back and forth with relative ease, making them more difficult to track and contain,” he said.
Transformation from ‘good’ to ‘bad’ Taliban
The 2006 peace agreement between Bahadur’s group and the Pakistani government remained in place with occasional disruptions. However, the fragile agreement came to an end in late May 2014, just before Pakistan launched a major military offensive, Operation Zarb-i-Azb, in North Waziristan. Bahadur accused the government of violating the agreement, effectively nullifying it.
Even as the military operation significantly weakened militant groups, including the TTP and Bahadur’s faction, forcing them to flee to bordering Afghan provinces, analysts believe that the indiscriminate tactics employed by the military, besides the killing of Bahadur’s relatives, further contributed to his growing animosity towards the Pakistani state.
“Bahadur expected leniency from the military during the operation due to his group’s previous cooperation with the government,” explained a tribal elder in Miran Shah. But this expectation proved futile. The military operation demolished houses belonging to Bahadur and his lieutenants and forced their families to be displaced. “This indiscriminate treatment embittered Bahadur and fuelled his anti-government stance, thus transforming him from ‘good Taliban’ to ‘bad Taliban’,” said the tribal elder.
In April 2022, several airstrikes, ostensibly carried out by Pakistani authorities but never actually confirmed by the government, targeted hideouts of the TTP and Bahadur’s group in Afghanistan, reportedly killing civilians, including children, some said to be close to Bahadur. “This further fuelled Bahadur’s anti-government stance,” said Orakzai.
Recent collaboration with the TTP
While Bahadur’s group traditionally focused on Afghanistan, recent developments suggest a potential shift. Both Bahadur’s faction and the TTP, weakened in the past, have been emboldened by the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. This seems to have paved the way for some form of collaborative strategy between the two groups.
For example, the TTP claimed responsibility for attacks in Bannu and North Waziristan in June, crediting cooperation with Bahadur’s group. However, details about the operational collaboration remain unclear.
The TTP, aiming to become the leading jihadist force in Pakistan, has actively sought to incorporate other groups. Since mid-2021, they have claimed mergers with 47 Pakistani Taliban factions, sectarian groups, and even Al Qaeda affiliates, although most are lesser-known entities. In December 2021, Aleem Khan, Bahadur’s former deputy, defected to the TTP.
Researcher Riccardo Valle, specialising in militant groups in the Pak-Afghan region, reports on his website, Militancy Chowk, that talks between the TTP and Bahadur’s group regarding a unified platform have taken place.
While the outcome of these discussions is unknown, Valle expresses concern that a successful merger would “further jeopardise the situation in south Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while expanding the TTP base in the province and posing new challenges to security forces”.
Brightly coloured pink buses, seldom seen on the roads of Karachi, are like a fragile thread suturing the wounds borne by women after years of transport woes and facing harassment on the city’s streets.
Emblazoned with logos of various brands, and loaded with women belonging to different classes and ethnicities, the dedicated bus service, comprising 18 vehicles only runs on three main routes — Model Colony to Merewether Tower, North Karachi to Korangi and Numaish Chowrangi to Sea View Beach.
The pink bus fleet is part of a public initiative called the Sindh Peoples Intra District Project launched in 2021. The two parties involved in this project are the Government of Sindh (GsS) and the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC).
The latter is the contractor responsible for the maintenance and operations of the buses and their depots. Meanwhile, the GOS provides the subsidies and logistical support to run the project.
A bus for their own
Sitting on a bench at a footpath, parallel to Shahrea Faisal — the major thoroughfare connecting almost all of Karachi — was Wajahat Fatima who has commuted via the pink bus every day since its launch last year.
Putting aside the book she had been reading for the past hour while waiting for the bus, she stood up with great difficulty and stepped closer to the edge of the footpath once the bus was in sight.
The bus driver parked close to the edge of the footpath as the conductor came out to assist Fatima climb the bus. She sat on one of the two seats allocated for disabled persons. “Ever since I got into an accident last year there has been constant joint pain in my leg,” said Fatima, who works at a shipping company.
She took out a small portable stool from inside her bag and set it on the floor to rest her leg on. Although it occupied space, none of the women standing inside the crowded bus seemed to complain; rather they made space for her.
“The bus has been a blessing for women like me who need to sit down, men in the other bus service [red bus] hog up the seats for the disabled and refuse to stand up, even though they are able-bodied,” she lamented.
While Wajahat chooses to wait for the bus, most women board any available.
“All the buses, whether pink, green, red, or white, provide the same comfort. It doesn’t matter which bus you get on, as long as you don’t have to wait on the bus stand for too long — that gets very uncomfortable,” Zareen Khan noted, as she awaited a bus that would take her from II Chundrigarh Road to Model Town.
As per the NRTC operator, Abdul Shakoor, the pink bus is running with a headway time of 30 minutes, which means that one should be able to get a pink bus every 30 minutes on its three routes.
However, it seems to be far from the truth. The author herself was unable to get a bus even after waiting for two hours, from 3:30pm to 5:30pm on the Merewether Clock Tower and II Chundrigar bus stop for four days in a row.
When Dawn.com asked Shakoor about the shortage of buses, there was no response.
Unfulfilled promises
When the bus was launched last year, women and urban planners talking to the author had pointed out how safety at bus stops would be essential in making transport safe for women. At the time, then managing director (MD) of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA) Zubair Channa had said that the authority was working on establishing more bus stops and that they “have asked the authorities and are waiting for approvals”.
However, the situation seems to remain the same today.
People waiting for the people bus on the footpath near Karachi Press Club roundabout
The incumbent MD of SMTA, Kamal Dayo, told Dawn.com that the authority and contractors did build some stops but the cameras, benches, and lights installed were stolen by “drug addicts”.
“We asked the Karachi Electric (KE) for light connections at the bus stops, however, the response had been lukewarm. Hence, to solve that issue, we took connections from nearby installations,” Dayo said. This is, however, illegal and when the KE found out, they sent detection bills to the operator worth Rs0.2 million.
“We are trying to address the objections raised by KE. However, it takes months; until then the contractors, who invested money in building the bus stop, can’t stop running the operations; it would cause them huge losses,” Bashir Hussain, the SMTA Director Admin & Finance, pointed out.
Dayo said that another problem is that there are 17 land-owning agencies in Karachi, and to make depots on even one route, they have to take permission from several different authorities. “There are bureaucratic hurdles in getting the facilities to the public because each department has its own laws, rules, and regulations. There should be exemptions when you’re running public projects,” said the SMTA MD.
In the inaugural ceremony, there was also talk of women driving these buses.
Following that promise, six months on, a bus driver training programme was launched in which 12 women were trained to drive these buses. To date, however, no woman has been seen in the driver’s seat.
“Two of the 12 women we trained had a Light Traffic Vehicle (LTV) license and after the training, they obtained the Heavy Traffic Vehicle (HTV) license,” said Huma Ashar, the gender specialist at SMTA. To be able to drive a pink bus, women need a permanent HTV license. To obtain this, a person needs three years of experience driving an LTV, followed by three months on a learner’s HTV license.
Most women selected for training had no prior experience, hence, they were only given training on LTV licenses. However, as the women trained belonged to less-privileged backgrounds, they lacked access to driving vehicles in the first place. It therefore made it highly unlikely for them to have enough driving experience to apply for an HTV license.
The two women who have received a learner’s HTV licence are unable to drive the pink buses because the contractors are hesitant to put them on board as drivers.
“We are trying to convince the contractors to put them in the bus as co-drivers so they can observe, learn and practice but they [contractors] are reluctant to do so,” said Ashraf. He added that they will start training new batches of women from May.
Another problem for commuters who want to use pink buses is the lack of information.
While there is an app called the People Bus Service, developed by Kentkart, which gives information about the routes, closest bus stops, and tariffs, it lacks important features, as pointed out by users in the review section of the app on Google store, such as live tracking of the buses as well as specific information about pink buses.
Users also said that the option to buy tickets is unavailable online which they found inconvenient.
Cracks in the system
When the provincial minister for transport and mass transit, Sharjeel Memon added two routes to the pink bus in March last year, after the successful run of the bus on a single route, he said that they would add more in the future.
WOMEN wait for their turn to board a Pink Bus to be the first to use the women-only service in Hyderabad.—PPI
After that, pink buses were launched in Hyderabad, however, their operation quickly ceased due to a “lack of ridership”.
When Dawn.com asked Dayo about the lack of growth, he said that the ridership of the bus is very low — at only 1,800 per day — which makes it unsustainable for the operator.
“It is us who have forcefully told them to run the operations. Otherwise, it would have closed down,” Dayo noted.
Dayo’s statistics are, however, contradictory to those provided by the project director of NRTC, Sohaib Shafique, who said that the ridership of pink buses stands at 2,700 per day on weekdays and 1,000 per day on weekends. He added that for the whole of last year, they have worked on understanding the pattern on which women use the bus and in the future, they will incorporate the lessons learnt to improve the service.
For now, Shafique said that the cost is spread among and absorbed by the whole operation of Peoples Bus Service. Moreover, they have increased the headway from an initial nine minutes to 15-20 minutes.
“We will keep it running for the next 12 years with concessions from the government and in the meantime, figure out a way to run it sustainably without the GoS,” added Shafique.
One of the ways the contractors plan to make the operation sustainable is by introducing inter-feeder routes which means that the buses would go beyond the main arteries on which they are currently running, onboarding people who are far from the main roads.
“The connection will hopefully increase the ridership, making the service sustainable,” said the project director.
“We are also getting some non-fare revenues such as through advertisements on buses and bus stops, but it isn’t much,” he explained.
While the people running the operations are figuring out a way to keep the pink bus operational, daily commuters fear that the closure of the service will cause great problems.
“It would be hell to commute in the red bus; they shouldn’t even think about closing it down, rather they should put more buses in this fleet,” said Fatima.
For now, the service has run smoothly for a year. The speculation that it was a political gimmick seems to have lost merit as buses are still being seen on the roads even after the elections in which the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won with a majority.
Regardless of whom it benefits and the popularity it has brought to the PPP, the pink bus has become a safe haven for women in Karachi, giving them the much-needed courage to step into the public after years of harassment and unwanted male gaze on the roads.
Header image: Pink bus — photo taken from Wikimedia Commons
When Mohammad Hasan returned to his hometown in Gilgit-Baltistan last month, he was welcomed by a parched Skardu gasping for precipitation. The peaks encircling the town, usually hidden under a blanket of snow, looked livid with thirst.
In neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ‘hotspots’ Malam Jabba, Swat and Kalam also failed to transition from brown to white. The cities’ otherwise crowded streets only sported desperate shopkeepers cajoling disappointed tourists.
Snow and rain had eluded the northern areas in the peak of winter.
On the other hand, down south, floods wreaked havoc in Balochistan — that too in February. Gwadar received over 2,200 millimetres of rain within a span of just a few days, while other areas of the province recorded freezing temperatures.
In the southeast, an ‘unusual’ cold wave left Sindh shivering. Karachi saw temperatures going down to 11 degrees Celsius earlier this month, recording the coldest-ever March since 1979.
Just three months into 2024, Pakistan already seems to be treading a path of extremities (no, I am not talking about the post-election situation). So what is making the weather bipolar?
Snow deficit
Across Pakistan, January generally qualifies as the coldest month of the year and sees the highest amount of rain or snowfall, particularly in the upper regions. But in KP and GB, this year brought a “big and rare snow deficit”.
“By this time of the year (December-January), the streets should have been covered with seven to eight feet of snow,” said Hasan, a travel photographer. Instead, what he met were dry weather and dust pollution.
The average snowfall across the country during these months is 47.5 inches. But this year was very different because January was coming to an end and Pakistan had only received one to two inches of snow.
While the prolonged dry spell in both KP and GB finally broke in the beginning of February, Chief Meteorologist Sardar Sarfraz said these new patterns were nothing less than “alarming”.
“Snowfall on the mountains keeps the flow in rivers and streams going during spring and summers,” he told Dawn.com, explaining that this water does not just help with domestic use but also produces electricity, helps with irrigation and feeds dams.
The snow in January, he continued, is solid, stagnant and lasts longer than other months. “The lifetime of the snowfall in February and March is less and it melts faster,” Sarfraz said.
This means that the country may face a water and food shortage this year. But how?
The journey of water from up north down to the plains of Punjab and further south towards the Indus Delta is fed by snowmelts. For instance, water from the mountains of Kashmir feeds the Mangla and Tarbela dams, while the Indus River travels all the way from GB to the Kotri Barrage in Jamshoro.
“If the water flow is not good, these water expeditions will be affected and that would in turn harm irrigation,” Sarfraz elaborated. For an agro-based country like ours, this poses a major risk.
Moreover, the economy of KP and GB primarily thrives on tourism. Every year, people from across the country, throng up to Naran, Kaghan, Hunza and other areas only to enjoy winters.
But many of those who made the tiring journey up north this year came back disheartened, and the reason was just one: no snow. Ali Sheikh, a Rawalpindi-based traveller, said the ski resorts of Malam Jabba and Kalam, once packed with tourists, were empty in January.
“It seemed as if a strange drought had hit these areas,” he recalled.
This “drought” had hit both the mountains and the locals alike. Shopkeepers and vendors who depend on tourists for their livelihood had to fend for themselves through alternative means.
Dr Tariq Rauf, a PhD scholar who works on disaster management in Kohistan, blamed seasonal shifts for these weather patterns. He explained that the number of seasons over the past several years, even up north, has reduced to just two — summer and winter.
“It is either the monsoon rains or the winter landslides. There is nothing in between,” he told Dawn.com, explaining that average temperatures have increased. “Even in winters, temperatures are relatively warmer, which is forcing the glaciers to melt rapidly.
“And when these glaciers melt at such a pace, they bring floods — similar to or worse than the 2022 disaster.”
Gwadar deluge
More than 1,400 kilometres to the south, just as February came to a close, a storm hit Balochistan. Record-breaking rains ravaged several areas of the province, especially Gwadar — a city that the government boasts for its development and overseas investment — and neighbouring towns, and triggered floods.
“It rained for two consecutive days,” said Muhammad Bizenjo, a resident. “Our houses were flooded. The furniture in my house was swimming in waist-high water.”
Next door, the walls of Yaqoob’s room had caved in, forcing him to spend the night on the roof of their katcha makaan. “At 3am, when there was no other option, I waded to my sister’s house and have been living here with my wife and children ever since,” the 34-year-old government employee said.
The aftermath of the chaotic rains that lashed Gwadar. — Photo shared by Yaqoob
Two weeks on, Yaqoob has still not been able to return home. His house, located in the Thanawar area of Gwadar, bore the cracks of the rain assault. They were, however, now hidden with cheap plaster. Several of his neighbours had a similar story to tell.
According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, at least 10 people lost their lives during the February-March rains. Hundreds of houses were either completely or partially damaged in the floods — they were not just makaans, but tiny abodes built with life-long savings.
While incessant showers battered Gwadar, temperatures in other areas of the province tanked below zero, paralysing life.
Incessant rains wreak havoc in Gwadar. — Photo shared by Yaqoob
“For the first time in years, major stations across Balochistan recorded the lowest day and night temperatures,” the chief meteorologist told Dawn.com.
Besides drowning Gwadar, these rains and snowfalls also penetrated down to Karachi, resulting in an unusual cold wave in March. The average daily temperature in the city during this month lies between 32.6 degrees in the day and 19 degrees at night.
But this time, Karachiites, many of whom had put away their winter clothes for the year, saw temperatures going as low as 11 degrees Celsius — that too in March.
Dr Masood Arshad, senior director of programmes at WWF-Pakistan, attributed the Balochistan rains to the “La Nina phenomenon”.
La Nina, literally translating to “little girl” in Spanish, is a weather condition which strengthens the south-westerly jet, responsible for bringing in the winter season over Pakistan. It translates into intermittent waves of extremely cold weather throughout the season and has thus resulted in much cooler temperatures not only up north but also in the south.
“Climate change has further strengthened the impact of La Nina. There is more moisture in the air due to global warming. In summer, it leads to monsoons while in winter it leads to cooler temperatures,” Arshad explained.
In the case of Balochistan, he continued, this phenomenon resulted in significant rains. Curtailment of natural drainage due to development activities further served as the cherry on top.
Bizenjo concurred. He said drainage in Gwadar had been severely affected due to the construction of the Marine Drive and Expressway, highlighting that the roads had been built at a higher height than the city.
“Earlier, the water used to be directly drained into the sea, but that entire process has been disturbed now,” he added.
Invisible forces
Amid the tug-of-war between rain and snow, the plains of Punjab remained invisible due to impenetrable fog and toxic smog.
For the past several years, Pakistan has been topping the chart of toxicity, with the air quality index showing Lahore and Karachi as the most polluted cities numerous times.
Before delving deeper into this problem, let’s first understand the difference between fog and smog. Fog consists of water droplets in the air, whereas smog is a serious air pollutant that combines fog and smoke. Fog makes it hard to notice things from a distance but isn’t dangerous to health, while long-term exposure to smog causes chronic conditions such as asthma, or lung problems.
The causes of smog are complex and multifaceted, involving both natural and human factors. Some of the natural factors include low wind speed, high humidity, and temperature inversion, which trap the pollutants near the ground.
Punjab reported plenty of both smog and fog from December to late February. And the already bad situation was worsened by dry weather, prompting the provincial government to resort to artificial rain.
WWF’s Arshad told Dawn.com that the absence of western disturbances — a weather pattern that brings moisture from the Mediterranean — created very dry weather conditions in November, December and January in both Pakistan and India.
This resulted in reduced temperatures as well as intense fog and smog, he said.
To put it simply, when the temperature drops and cold air blankets the ground, it traps the pollutants — think of it like a pollutant-catching blanket that covers the ground during winter. The particles in cold air also naturally hold less moisture, which isn’t exactly ideal because rain helps wash away pollutants.
According to a 2019 study, titled Falling Trend of Western Disturbances in Future Climate Simulations, winter precipitation in northern India and Pakistan was projected to decrease over the coming century due to falling western disturbance activity.
“The decline in WD frequency and intensity will cause a decrease in mean winter rainfall over Pakistan and northern India amounting to about 15 per cent of the mean,” it highlighted.
But at the same, another trend has been noted in western disturbances is their increasingly frequent occurrences in May, June and July, as highlighted by Kieran Hunt, a meteorology research fellow, in his analysis of western disturbances.
Hunt’s most important finding was the increase in monsoonal western disturbances, which means that “catastrophic events”, like floods, are becoming “much more frequent”.
What next?
But that is just the first three months of the year. From the looks of it, these extreme climate events don’t seem to end here.
The arrival of unexpected weather conditions in the spring months of this year is an indication that floods, if they hit Pakistan again this year, are only going to get worse.
As disaster and climate vulnerability expert Fatima Yamin put it, the rising sea temperatures had warmed up oceans, which in turn triggered a host of climate-related activities such as prolonged summers, unpredictable rainfall and everything else which is not in sync with the natural order of things.
The fact that the surface temperature of the world’s oceans hit its highest-ever level — global average daily sea surface temperatures hit 20.96 Celsius in August, breaking the record of 20.95C reached in 2016 — only adds weight to Yamin’s analysis.
The rising temperature of the oceans has nearly doubled the melting speed of glaciers over the last two decades. The glaciers of the Hindukush and Himalayan ranges, which cap almost the whole South Asian region, including Pakistan, are particularly vulnerable to being affected and could lose up to 75pc of their volume by the turn of the century, scientists warn.
The instability caused by global warming is not going to spare any of the five elements of nature — air, water, fire, earth and space — all of which are interconnected. Floods, droughts and natural disasters have occurred throughout the course of human existence, but the exponential rise in the scale and ferociousness of such events is telling of the times to come.
Take the rather damning allegations and examples about alleged interference and manipulation by intelligence agencies that six judges of the Islamabad High Court set out in a recent letter. Now, none of this really comes as a big surprise; we all know manipulation of this kind takes place, whether in the judiciary, the bureaucracy, in Parliament, in the workings of the countless law-enforcement agencies and accountability bureaus or the media.
We also know that a lot of the time, manipulation or coercion isn’t even needed as too many from the ranks of all these groups and institutions are all too eager to offer themselves up, raising their hands and jumping up and down on their chairs like overeager schoolchildren yelling “Pick me! Pick me!” to attract the attention of a schoolteacher who is, unfortunately, spoilt for choice when it comes to finding snitches.
Still, it’s interesting to see matters brought out into the open in this manner, exposed like the spy cameras fitted into the polling booths in the Senate (that happened in 2021 if you recall) and it’s even more amusing to see how the reactions follow a set pattern.
For and against
First, there are the true believers — righteous and somewhat annoying souls who genuinely want an end to such shenanigans and who actually believe in the whole spiel about institutions doing the job they’re actually supposed to and staying within their mandates for the greater good of the country. All that jazz.
Then there’s the opposition — in this case, the PTI and its supporters, who, being the (current) targets of the day have welcomed this ‘charge sheet’ as vindication of their stance that their party is being singled out and victimised. They will, of course, stand with justice and the Justices and will (probably) take the matter to the streets and shout it from the rooftops, as should be expected from the opposition of the day.
Such manipulation, they maintain, will be the death of justice, freedom and democracy, which is of course what they are fighting for. There must be an investigation and the culprits must be dragged before the people.
Of course, little mention is made here that the letter starts with the case of Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui whose dismissal in 2018 by the Supreme Judicial Council was recently deemed ‘wrongful’ and took place — as noted in the letter — “after [Siddiqui] had publicly alleged that operatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence led by Major General Faiz Hameed (italics my own) were determining the constitution of benches at the IHC and interfering with proceedings of the Accountability Court Islamabad”. Naturally, the part about the IHC judges supporting Siddiqui’s demand of an investigation into this sordid affair is being conveniently ignored.
That brings us to the ruling parties, who are shocked — simply shocked I tell you! — at how such manipulation could ever take place, unprecedented and unbearable as it is, and are holding many meetings and setting up a committee to — once and for all, promise! — get to the bottom of this.
Now, while they aren’t exactly outright saying that this is a conspiracy against them, their supporters in the mainstream and social media are very much setting up countless straw men to do just that: “look at which party is supporting the judges and you’ll see whose behest this letter was written on!”; “Why was the letter released now, just when the government was settling in?”; “Why were the alleged videos only shown to other judges and how do we know they aren’t AI-generated?”; “Why don’t they also talk about how much the judiciary interferes with the executive?”; “Why use Helvetica when Times New Roman is a perfectly good font?”.
Okay, I admit I invented that last one but the rest are genuine, if paraphrased, and like most straw men, show evidence of a serious lack of any brains at all.
Roles reversed
What’s really cute, of course, is that in 2019, the situation was quite the opposite. In July of that year, Maryam Nawaz Sharif held a press conference in which she played a video of the now deceased Justice Muhammad Arshad Malik, the accountability court judge who had sentenced her father, Mian Nawaz Sharif, to seven years imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case. In that video, Judge Malik could be seen apparently confessing to a PML-N loyalist that he had been ‘pressured and blackmailed’ into giving that verdict.
Malik was later dismissed from service and the PML-N had hailed the video as proof that the cases against its leaders had been manipulated and as vindication of their stance that their party was being singled out and victimised. The PTI and its supporters at the time conveniently focused not on the content and implications of the video, but more on how the video had been recorded and released: “This is illegal!”; “This is blackmail”; “Why is the video not in 4k resolution?” Again, I admit I added the last one but the others are more or less genuine, if paraphrased.
That’s just the thing about justice in the land of the pure — like beauty, it also lies in the eyes of the beholder. Take the example of poor old Asad Toor — he’s a hero and a shining beacon of courageous journalism when he gets beaten for going after people you don’t like and who oppose your interests, but is a criminal and a purveyor of lies when he gets thrown into jail on trumped up charges for going after people you do like and who support your interests.
This would be amusing if it wasn’t so sad and so sadly dishonest, but it also brings us closer, perhaps, to the core of Pakistan’s political divides — we hate each other so much because we are mirror images of each other; in the end, it is our reflections that we cannot stand.
Imagine being under the sun for hours on end, staring at nothing but barren land. Now imagine being just a few kilometres from your family, but not being able to meet them. Imagine using makeshift kitchens and bathrooms because there is no other option. Only 12 hours away from Karachi, people don’t have to imagine any of it; this is their reality.
This is the Chaman border, situated in the far north of Balochistan and one of Pakistan’s most tense international crossings, shared with Afghanistan.
Seated outside a tent, Abdul Manan Akhwond stares at the land stretching for hundreds of miles, transcending colonial boundaries chalked hundreds of years ago. Green and white flags dominate both sides of the horizon, flying almost in unison but never in consensus.
Nearby, caravans of burka-clad women, children and men cross over to the other side. But for the past six months, Akhwond and others like him have not been able to do so.
Why? Because of a decision that permanently changed the lives of the 1.2 million people of Chaman without offering any solutions.
The national apex committee — comprising civil and military officials — decided last year that only those with valid passports and visas would be allowed to cross the Chaman border crossing. Before, Pakistanis and Afghans would cross the border upon showing their respective identity cards. However, the transition from a relatively open to a regulated crossing with stringent document requirements has inadvertently affected the lives of the locals.
So today, hundreds of Pakhtuns remain encamped outside the Friendship Gate — the authorised border crossing between Chaman and the Afghan district Spin-Boldak — against the one-document regime for nearly 180 days.
The demonstrators have witnessed changing seasons, braved tear gas and suffered bullet wounds. They are adamant not to leave their spots until their voices are heard.
“We are not demanding a new state or freedom … we just want our livelihoods back,” said Akhwond, a resident and organiser of the ‘Chaman Parlat’.
Leading the protests from his campsite, a five-minute walk from the border, he has seen three seasons pass by in the last six months, but that is all that changes. “We are Pakistanis, we are the residents of this country, why this injustice then? Our only fault is that we belong to this region,” he rues.
Cutting through the heart
The region Akhwond refers to comprises Chaman from this side of the border and Wesh in Afghanistan. But long before the perpetually guarded check posts propped up and wired fences were erected, this area — in its entirety — was merely a home to the Pakhtuns.
They lived together like a family, connected not just by ethnicity, tribe or culture but also by deep emotions.
Map courtesy — The National Geographic Society
In 1893, British Foreign Secretary Sir Mortimer Durand outlined the boundary between Afghanistan and colonial India, bisecting the Pakhtun region. The Durand Line, covering a distance of 2,430 kilometres, cuts through the Pakhtun tribal areas and splits the Pakhtuns into two separate countries.
While Pakistan inherited the Durand Line after independence, there has never been a formal agreement or ratification on it. Islamabad has further upheld the norms of international law and believes that under the convention of uti possidetis juris — the principle that newly formed states should retain international borders from before independence — it automatically inherits the border and does not need an agreement with Kabul.
But locals believe otherwise. “For them, this is not just a piece of land … it is their blood and family,” said Kashif Panezai, the vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
The Durand Line, he continued, splits numerous villages in half and divides others from their agricultural territories; it cuts tribes and other groups in half.
“Pakhtuns have been traversing on either side of the border for years. The people on our side have half their families living in Spin-Boldak, their sisters have been married on the other side of the border, they have their businesses set up there … they even bury their dead in one graveyard,” Panezai elaborated.
Until October last year, the Pakhtuns were still able to do all this, with the only requirement to cross the border being a CNIC. “Most of them would cross into Wesh in the morning and return by evening with daily wages of around Rs2,000-Rs3,000,” the HRCP vice chair says.
But for over six months now, the Pakhtuns of Chaman have been cut off from friends, families and livelihoods.
‘One tribe from Quetta to Kandahar’
Moladad Sultan has taken two loans since the start of the year. Like many of his neighbours, his ancestral land is split into two on both sides of the border. The 35-year-old previously ran a business, purchasing dry fruits from Afghanistan and selling them locally.
But things have not been working ever since the one-document regime was rolled out. “We are sitting idle in our houses for days, we don’t even have money for food,” Sultan tells Dawn.com.
He is among the hundreds of Chaman residents protesting in front of the Friendship Gate. “From Kandahar to Quetta, all of us Pakhtuns are one tribe.
“We have mosques whose gates are in Pakistan but their minarets are in Afghanistan … should I get a passport to offer Zuhr prayers? Does it even make sense?” asked Sultan. He is not against the new visa and passport policy but feels it is unnecessary, particularly given the nature of the Chaman border.
Protesters converage near the Pak-Afghan border in Chaman.
Nevertheless, Sultan took a chance and visited the local Nadra office in January, only to find it dysfunctional. “There is no system in place, they told me to pay Rs50,000 for an ‘urgent passport’.
“Three months have passed and I have not received my documents, only because I refused to give in,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, Sadiq Achakzai, the spokesperson of Chaman Parlat, says that people living in the 100 square kilometre area spreading from Quetta to Kandahar were interconnected. “Our water, land and livelihoods have remained linked to each other for years.”
Management at the border here, he elaborated, was effective even before Oct 31 with CNICs and Tazkira (Afghan identity card) being checked via biometric verification. “Unfortunately, in the last six months, the reputation of this area was tainted with false accusations of terrorism and a new system was brought in place.
“Passport is not a requirement for locals even on the Mexico border,” he pointed out, adding that Afghanistan was Pakistan’s “best friend” and trade between the two countries could benefit their respective economies.
But the usually hopeful Achakzai has been forced to lower his expectations over the past few months. “Both military and civilian leaders have visited us numerous times during our protests but they all follow the same drill: make promises that are never fulfilled,” he told Dawn.com.
“This is a waiting game that never comes to an end.”
From where Achakzai stands, lorries stationed at the mouth of the Friendship Gate can be seen, waiting in a long queue to cross the border.
At first glance, it looks like any other border crossing. But take a closer look and you would see symmetrical white tents housing desolate faces. Yet, they are also resolute; whether praying or breaking the fast, these men never take a break. Their lives are being lived on the protest site.
Protesters at Chaman border break their fast.
Taraweeh prayers offered at Chaman border.
Over the past six months, the protesters have held several rounds of negotiations with the government. But none of them emerged successful.
“We held talks with the local administration but they clearly said the matter was not in their hand,” Akhwond says. “We met Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Sarfraz Bugti and Sadiq Sanjrani … they made promises and said our demand was just.
“But the conversations always ended with them saying that the situation was beyond them because the military leadership took the decision [on visa and passport requirements],” he says.
“We are being repeatedly told that the new policy was formed because of security threats, but no one tells us what these threats are. All the people here in Chaman are labourers who cross the border for daily wages.”
Akhwond is even ready to go to Islamabad and talk to the army chief. But despite several attempts, he hasn’t been able to secure a meeting yet. “I’m sure I can convince him if I get a chance,” he asserted.
His voice, however, is laced with urgency. “The law and order situation in Chaman is beyond repair … I have seen people take their lives in the last few months and the crime rate has surged,” he said, warning that the situation could worsen in the upcoming days.
‘Two-way street’
Chaman Deputy Commissioner Captain Raja Athar Abbas, on the other hand, blames the protesters’ “inflexibility” for unsuccessful negotiations.
“If you look at it through the legal lens, the government’s decision is in line with internationally outlined processes. Every state has a right to form its own border rules,” he says. “The problem of Afghan nationals entering Pakistan without authentic documentation is worrisome and needs to be addressed.”
But at the same time, Captain Abbas agrees that the difficulties faced by the residents of Chaman were “genuine”. He said that the state was doing all it could to accommodate the protesters and has been showing leniency on humanitarian matters such as deaths and health issues.
“In our recent meetings with the higher-ups, we also suggested a one-time visa fee waiver to encourage locals,” he told Dawn.com, adding that no decision had however been taken on that so far.
That being said, DC Abbas continued, the state has shown restraint from day one. “No matter what happens, our utmost priority is the safety of the protesters,” he said.
The official’s statement, however, is a little conflicting because Akhwond claims that personnel of the Frontier Corps recently opened fire at the demonstrators. Video footage widely shared on mainstream and social media also showed authorities using tear gas.
“Well, we will have to respond if anyone takes the law in their hands,” the DC said in response to the incident. “It is always a two-way street.”
He further recalled that the government had peacefully dealt with the protesters when they had blocked the border crossing from Nov 21 to Feb 18, which had resulted in a “daily loss of Rs150 million”. While business soon resumed as usual, the protesters remained stationed outside the Friendship Gate.
Islamabad needs to come to Balochistan
HRCP’s Panezai recently led a fact-finding mission to Chaman to ascertain the impact of border control restrictions on locals and examine the ongoing protests. He explained that the roots of the problems faced by Pakhtuns go a long way back.
For years, their main source of livelihood has been dependent on the transportation and sale of items — mostly auto parts and electronics — from one side of the border to the other. But this trade was never documented, hence causing an outflux of money from Pakistan and increasing smuggling.
“The decision on Oct 31 was taken primarily to prevent this outflux,” Panezai elaborated. However, what the rulers forgot was that the Pakhtuns did not have an alternative source of income.
“The economic situation in Chaman today is challenging with high levels of unemployment and poverty,” he highlighted. What’s worse is that it is the daily wagers and the ordinary people who are suffering from the new policy.
“Containers of bigwigs and tycoons are being allowed to cross the border, without any restriction, in exchange for bribes,” said the HRCP vice chair. “Even the locals have been told that they could cross into Afghanistan without any documentation if they paid a certain amount of money.”
But the Pakhtuns have refused to do so. “We are ready to file our taxes, but will not pay bribes to the local administration and FC at checkposts,” Akhwond told Dawn.com.
In its findings from Chaman, the HRCP fact-finding committee had concluded that there was a dire need for dialogue between the government and the protesters. Panezai stresses that Islamabad needs to come to Balochistan and find a solution.
“Inclusive policies can only be formed when the government is aware of the ground realities,” he said, adding that the Centre should prioritise the wellbeing of families, particularly with cross-borer ties, to ensure that their basic needs and rights were upheld.
Further, the HRCP highlights that efforts should be made to enhance economic opportunities in Chaman through investment in local industries, job creation, and support for small traders.
The commission also recommended that balancing national security interests with the legitimate needs of the local population was essential and steps should be taken to address concerns related to smuggling and security while minimising adverse effects on the daily lives of residents.
“If Pakistan does not tackle this issue now, it will create a huge problem in the near future,” Panezai warned.
Special thanks to Dawn’s Balochistan correspondent Abdullah Zehri
“Do you know why we eat gutka so much?” a woman from one of the low-income neighbourhoods where the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) has established antenatal clinics (ANC) asked the doctor.
“So we don’t feel hunger.”
This is not a rare occurrence. Over the last several weeks, my interactions with health practitioners and field staff at the antenatal clinic (ANC) at Rehri Goth — a low-income fishing neighbourhood on the outskirts of Karachi — I have come to realise how common malnourishment is in a resource-constrained and food-insecure country like ours.
Antenatal | Related to medical care given to pregnant women before their babies are born.
In Pakistan, 18 per cent of married women of reproductive age are nutrient-deficient, as a result of which 44pc of children have stunted growth.
According to Dr Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed, the chief executive officer of HANDS Pakistan, a non-profit organisation working in rural areas across Sindh and Punjab, nearly “50pc [of women] are malnourished” to some extent.
“If we screen hundreds of thousands of women, 12 to 15pc [of them] are severely malnourished while some 20 to 22pc moderately malnourished and nearly 40 to 45pc are healthy,” he told Dawn.com.
Globally, maternal undernutrition poses a significant health burden, accounting for 7pc morbidity plus 70pc neonatal and 20pc maternal mortality rates.
Morbidity | The state of being ill or having a disease.
The trouble starts with the very definition of terms like ‘malnourishment’ and ‘underweight’, which are not universally understood in the same manner. This is something that dawned on me following my conversations with pregnant women at the ANC — what someone from a similar socio-economic class as mine would understand by these terms can be fundamentally different from women belonging to another background and vice versa.
Women and a child wait to see a doctor at the Rehri Goth clinic in November 2023. — Rayhan Muqadam/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
How can you know you are eating less when you don’t know what is ‘enough’? You can only know what less is when you know the normative standard. If you eat less, your body will get used to it, making that ‘your normal’.
This was reflected in the answers of every other woman I asked whether they ate ‘enough’. No matter how many symptoms of anaemia or other forms of malnourishment they would show, they would respond with an optimistic ‘yes’ almost every time.
When I asked them if their previous babies were healthy, they would again reply with a resounding ‘yes’. However, on further probing, one such woman revealed that by healthy she meant that her newborn babies completed the nine-month term.
Kiran, 24, is pregnant with her sixth child after losing two sons. She was at the clinic with excruciating pain in the left side of her womb. The doctors, perplexed, were trying to ascertain the cause of the pains, which occurred during her final trimester.
Speaking about her deceased sons, she said that they became sick and passed away. The parents still don’t know the reason for their death.
“By the grace of God, they were all healthy and their weight was okay,” she added. When asked about the weight of her babies, however, Kiran said she was not sure.
A pregnant woman getting an ultrasound done at the Rehri Goth clinic in November 2023. — Rayhan Muqadam/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
“Bohot takleef hai [It’s very painful],” she kept repeating in a whimpering voice.
Health practitioners have advised the 24-year-old to consume meat, fruits, vegetables and milk. But for Kiran, whose family is run by a single bread earner, this is very difficult.
“Bus chai paratha kha lete hain kabhi [We only eat chai and paratha sometimes],” she said. “Na fruit naseeb ho raha hai, na doodh naseeb ho raha hai [We neither get fruit nor milk].
“Bus guzara karna hai [We only have to survive],” she said with a sigh.
The discomfort visible on her face, Kiran told Dawn.com that she has had enough now and won’t have another child. However, for her fallopian tubes to be tied — permanently preventing pregnancy — she would need her husband’s consent.
Seated in the same clinic was Bushra, who was about to give birth to her eighth child. Like Kiran, her family is also dependent on a single earner. “Whatever Allah gives, we just eat that,” she said in a subdued voice.
For her to even travel to the clinic was a task on its own. Bushra’s husband had to take a day off from work to drop her off at the centre on his motorcycle.
This was a problem faced by several women at the clinic. They would earlier commute to and from the centre via free-of-cost transportation, provided by the ANC. But since the number of women coming in has increased, the centre only provides transport in emergency cases.
Despite the distance, they persist in travelling from distant areas of the city to access the clinic’s free healthcare services, highlighting the scarcity of such accessible options for the majority of the population.
A woman cooks food holding her son in Rehri Goth on March 19, 2024. — Rahim Sajwani/ Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
Pregnant for the third time, 18-year-old Shazia has to commute a total of “four hours” from Dawood Goth, near Seaview, each time she comes to the clinic.
“We have to wait for so long for the bus and that too costs Rs200,” she said. Shazia also faces difficulties finding a ride home.
Like most women at the centre, her husband is a fisherman. “The only time we eat any kind of meat is when he catches a good amount of fish,” she said. “Otherwise, we cannot afford to buy it from the market.”
“On one hand, he faces trouble finding good fish. On the other, when he does, he finds it hard to sell them,” she lamented.
Other forms of nutritious food are also out of reach for her. “If we buy potatoes then we can’t buy tomatoes. If we buy tomatoes, we can’t buy potatoes,” she said. “I have a two-year-old and a four-year-old at home. We have to make sacrifices.”
A woman with her daughter collecting water in Rehri Goth on March 19, 2024. — Rahim Sajwani/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
She also complained that in addition to gas and electricity shortages, there is a dire lack of potable water in her area. “We only get water once a week,” she said. To collect water, she has to walk to a common spot and do it all by herself during her fourth month of pregnancy. Without this arduous task, her family won’t have water for a week.
Save the mothers
“The killer, the major stream underlying all of the deaths that happen among babies as well as mothers, is malnutrition,” said Dr Fyezah Jehan, chairperson of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the AKUH.
Her work focuses on maternal newborn and child health and nutrition.
“One in four babies in Pakistan are born smaller for their age,” she told Dawn.com. This is a huge issue because when these babies grow, they are at risk of not developing properly. In the first five years of life, they do not reach their growth or mental potential, she added.
“They are cognitively challenged, they may catch up with their weight if there’s the additional nutrition, but because they are programmed to be small, they end up becoming fat,” the doctor explained.
A baby’s weight being measured at the Rehri Goth clinic on March 19, 2024. — Rahim Sajwani/ Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
“This is known as the Barker’s hypothesis,” she explained.
Barker’s hypothesis posits that if a woman is undernourished during pregnancy, the foetus growing inside the womb genetically programmes itself for survival with limited nutrition. If the deficiency is significant, the foetus may die. However, if the baby is born alive and receives some nutrition, it can sustain itself. Yet, excess nutrition beyond what the baby is programmed for can lead to obesity.
“This is one of the reasons why obesity is so common in our population because we are genetically programmed to be small,” she said, explaining the “increased risk of hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and ischemic heart diseases” in Pakistan.
A woman sitting with her twin daughters in Rehri Goth on Marcy 19, 2024. — Rahim Sajwani/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
Dr Imran Nisar, Vice Chair of Research at the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at AKUH, stressed that there’s an urgent need to improve nutrition among children under five years of age and lactating women in Pakistan.
His work mainly focuses on women, children and the global disease burden.
“Around 42 pc of our children are stunted and wasted. They don’t grow neurodevelopmentally, for example at different age points, two years, three years, and five years, they have cognitive delays, they have motor delays, they have language delays, and they have social behavioural delays, resulting in a low IQ population.”
The initial “nutritional insults” during the first 1,000 days of life hold immense significance. This period encompasses approximately 280 days spent by the foetus inside the mother, in addition to the first two years of life.
Insufficient nutrition during these 1,000 days is detrimental to the long-term growth and development of a child and thus places them at a disadvantaged position right from the start, depriving them of a fair opportunity at optimal development.
However, it is key to understand that one “cannot help the baby without fixing the mother”, said Dr Jehan.
“About one in three moms is malnourished and around half of them have anaemia. One of the reasons why the babies are small is because the moms are actually not well nourished.
“Having enough food to eat does not mean that your food is of good quality,” she said, adding that what was prevalent here was “hidden hunger”, whereby “there are adequate calories but not enough vitamins and minerals in our diet”.
This is because of “low dietary diversity”. Most women depend on cereal and wheat-based foods as well as chai that “fills the stomach but doesn’t provide the required nutrition to the body, especially during pregnancy when this requirement is much higher.
For instance, Kiran who said she eats chai and paratha sometimes is “missing out on the essential vitamins such as vitamin A, D, B and folic acid — which are needed particularly during pregnancy.
“Even the fats that are coming from the paratha, they lack the essential fats,” the doctor explained.
There has been so much emphasis on breastfeeding during the first six months of a baby’s life. The problem here arises that if the mother is severely malnourished then how can she properly breastfeed her child?
“Through my work with the community, I have seen mothers weighing 40kgs having three or four kids, trying to breastfeed their newborn but they are dry, their children are dry.
“If they have anything [enough nutrients], only then they can give them [to their babies],” Dr Jehan stressed.
That’s why it is paramount to focus on the nutrition of pregnant women. “We have to address the issue at the point of origin.”
A woman receiving an iron supplement at the ANC in Koohi Goth, Karachi in Oct 2023. — Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
Courtesy: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr Jehan has been working in this area for over a decade. Initially, her work focused on child health, specifically examining infectious diseases and noting that adverse outcomes and treatment failures were prevalent among small children.
This observation prompted them to initiate The Alliance for Maternal and Newborn Health Improvement (AMANHI) study, revealing that infants born small tended to remain small and malnourished. This realisation raised questions about the necessity of intervening during pregnancy.
Subsequently, they observed that malnourished pregnant women were more likely to give birth to small babies, either due to prematurity or low birth weight.
They began interventions targeting anaemia, starting with iron supplementation. Their efforts included door-to-door surveillance for anaemia in pregnancy and providing iron supplementation, including IV iron for severe cases — a novel approach for these communities, where such treatments were typically inaccessible outside tertiary care centres.
Therefore, the focus of health stakeholders has shifted from children under five, to newborn health to now the mother, she said.
Supplements — one solution for all?
“Supplements are ideally for severely malnourished individuals in emergency cases. For example, if someone has a vitamin D deficiency, they can fulfil that requirement by taking a capsule,” said Dr Ahmed.
“Ideally, you should be getting that from food or sunlight.“However, for most, that is not the reality in Pakistan therefore, they must resort to supplements.
To address the urgent needs of malnourished pregnant women, micronutrients in the forms of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) and Balanced Energy Protein (BEP) Supplements called ‘Maamta’ are commonly provided by government facilities across Pakistan.
Balanced Energy Protein (BEP) | In undernourished populations, balanced energy and protein dietary supplementation is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to improve pregnancy outcomes.
Dr Ahmed pointed out that the private sector does not offer these supplements. “No one offers preventive services because it’s not profitable,” he explained. This creates difficulties for populations in urban slums to access these supplements, particularly since the public sector’s management is more effective in rural areas than in urban centres, he said.
In Rehri Goth, the “majority work, in community management, is to [first] classify the children based on criteria whether they are moderately malnourished or severely malnourished. Similarly, the mother gets classified as malnourished on either the BMI (body mass index) or the mid-arm upper circumference,” stated Dr Nisar.
A woman getting her height measured at the Rehri Goth clinic on March 19, 2024. — Rahim Sajwani/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
“Then they get any of the two kinds of supplements — either ready-to-use therapeutic food (RU2F) or ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) — based on the criteria. Those who are more malnourished would get RU2F and the less malnourished would get RUSF,” Dr Nisar explained.
RU2F | A life-saving essential supply that treats severe wasting in children under 5 years old.
RUSF | A food supplement for the dietary management of children 6 months and older with moderate acute malnutrition.
A ready-to-use supplementary food packet — AKUH
Commercial entities manufacture these supplements which are then procured by international organisations, the likes of WHO and Unicef, to supply as part of different programmes. For disadvantaged women who don’t have access to nutritious food like meat and chicken, supplements act like a “stopgap” solution.
“At least give them adequate nourishment during pregnancy. It’s the least that we can do,” Dr Jehan said.
The government of Pakistan can buy them if they receive funding for a nutrition programme. “If it is in flood and emergency settings, they will buy it and distribute it. The process usually requires 3-6 months,” said Dr Nisar.
“It is a form of a paste that is either chickpea-based or oil-based,” he elaborated. “This is the standard of care that we [health practitioners] have to provide.”
BEP or Maamta supplements are available at designated Benazir Nashaunoma Program (BNP) facilities across Sindh. They require registration and an antenatal checkup at a government faculty. “Even though MMS is not easily available, there is a clear plan to introduce it soon,” Dr Jehan added.
No One-Stop shop
But are supplements enough? The simple answer is no.
“If nutrition could solve the issue, it would be really easy. But there are many other vulnerabilities in these women. For example, we live in an area where, mostly in low and middle-income countries like Pakistan, the environment is not clean. Right?” Dr Jehan asked rhetorically.
There’s a lot of exposure to pathogens.
Pathogens | A pathogen is defined as an organism causing disease to its host.
Populations that are “chronically exposed” to pathogens develop a “mechanism” where they don’t get sick but experience “a low level of illness”.
“What happens is that these bacteria go in our colon and start increasing [in number] and become colonised in our guts, causing inflammation,” the doctor explained.
“Inflammation means, for example, if you have a pimple, there’s redness, heat, and pain. That’s a low level of inflammation which affects every system of your body,” she said. Therefore, when a woman gets pregnant and has inflammation in her body, she is more likely to have other pregnancy-related problems.
“The most commonly used food supplement, BEP, has shown mixed results — some women respond to it, some don’t,” Dr Jehan said.
One of the reasons for the non-response is inflammation. “Even if you provide these women with supplements, you don’t have the bacteria that helps them process the food. “Just giving supplements is also problematic because we don’t want to give them only empty calories,” she stated. “This is what we call the hidden malnutrition where the person appears to be of good weight but is malnourished.”
A woman at the medicine counter in Rehri Goth on March 19, 2024. — Rahim Sajwani/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
“The cause of death in most infectious diseases is malnutrition. It’s not the infection that kills, but the underlying vulnerability,” the doctor added.
Another concerning issue is that children under five relapse after being provided with nutrients. A study by The Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition (CHAIN) Network has shown that about 40pc of children discharged from the hospital after treatment for malnourishment die in the next two years in Pakistan.
The magic bullet
Earlier, stakeholders in the healthcare sector prioritised lowering the mortality rate of newborn babies globally, Dr Nisar said. The focus then shifted to improving nutrition.
Now, improved neurodevelopment of children — how many of them go to schools, how many get jobs as adults, and what is their potential for economic development — has become the centre of concern.
Dr Jehan and Dr Nisar have conducted trials where they introduced additional elements to supplements and assessed their impact. These trials primarily focus on outcomes relevant to children. For instance, when administering to pregnant mothers, the baby’s weight becomes a crucial factor. Similarly, when providing it to lactating mothers, it’s essential to monitor the baby’s growth over six months.
Dr Nisar explained that malnourished women were enrolled in the trial setting, as per certain criteria, where they were given supplements as “standard of care”, along with other elements.
Courtesy: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
“One of them is azithromycin, an antibiotic. The full biological mechanism of how it works is not completely understood but it has some beneficial effects for immunity,” he added.
Azithromycin | It is from a group of medicines called macrolide antibiotics that work by killing the bacteria that cause the infection.
It improves one’s microbiome by killing harmful bacteria in the gut. “It defies logic somewhat. You give two doses of azithromycin [to the mother] and the baby’s weight at the time of birth is somehow better,” he said.
Microbiome | The body is home to trillions of microorganisms known as the microbiome.
However, there is “huge opposition” to the use of the drug.
Antimicrobial resistance groups have expressed concern about the widespread usage of antibiotics. They particularly emphasise the importance of preserving azithromycin as “one of the last resort drugs” effective against extensively drug-resistant (XDR) typhoid. They argue that implementing it on a large scale might lead to overuse and further resistance to development, according to Dr Nisar.
In response, he acknowledged that antibiotics, including azithromycin, are already widely prescribed “day and night”. However, he stressed that targeting specific populations such as pregnant women and malnourished individuals, could significantly improve newborn outcomes with minimal impact on overall resistance levels. He noted that this intervention involves only two doses, mitigating the risk of widespread resistance.
Despite this, concerns remain due to the strong influence of the antibiotic lobby.
The current WHO recommendation is that if a country’s neonatal mortality rate is very high, one dose of azithromycin to children can be given annually. It works like a “magic bullet”, Dr Nisar described.
A woman getting her blood pressure checked at Rehri Goth clinic in November 2023. — Rayhan Muqadam/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
The supporting character: MMS plus
Since azithromycin is still considered somewhat of a “taboo”, they are going for BEP, MMS, and MMS plus, said Dr Nisar.
“MMS plus is also something which has not been used anywhere. They have been in trials for 20 years, but their recommendations have not been adopted by anyone. They are beneficial, but till now, it is not a universal adoption.
“What we are saying is that instead of MMS, MMS plus which contains nicotinamide and other things [choline] that have an additional beneficial effect, should be given,” he added.
Nutritional support for pregnant women with or without Azithromycin to improve birth outcomes in Pakistan (Results)
— AKUH
Even though RUSF and RU2F are nutritious, he continued, better results are seen when they are accompanied by azithromycin and MMS.
“This means they are working through some other pathway. So one of the postulated pathways is through the microbiome. Because you eat food and pass it to the baby but if your microbiome is not optimal, it will not necessarily get absorbed.
“You have to have a healthy gut environment as well. The gut of mothers and children in low and middle-income countries like ours is in a state called dysbiosis,” Dr Nisar stated.
Dysbiosis | An imbalance in the microbiome of an individual, often leading to disease.
What they are striving to achieve through various interventions is the restoration of the gut microbiome’s healthy state. This enables nutritional interventions and other measures to function more effectively.
The clinic at Rehri Goth, AKUH’s oldest and most well-established site, is also the most socioeconomically disadvantaged.
“We have implemented some recent projects in collaboration with other partners, where we have seen a significant decline in mortality there,” the doctor highlighted.
Children of Rehri Goth on Marcy 19, 2024. — Rahim Sajwani/Paediatrics & Child Health, AKUH
“We started with children under the age of five years. Their mortality rate was around 100 per 1,000 live births, which means that for every 10 children, one died before their fifth birthday. And we have brought it down to around 50. We also decreased the neonatal mortality rate from approximately 40 to 20.”
The question of hunger remains
Despite the substantial interest and investment from global stakeholders, the true measure of these interventions lies in whether average malnourished women like Kiran, Bushra, and Shazia can lead healthy lives and give birth to healthy babies.
“Nutrition is not a health issue, it is a multi-sectoral issue,” said Dr Ahmed. “The government needs to take the lead — the private and industrial sectors can only fill the gaps. “
The role of the community and its women becomes paramount since their lives are ultimately at stake. Even if supplements enable them to have healthy pregnancies, the issue of hunger remains, as noted by Dr Jehan.
The goal is not only to provide adequate nourishment but also to alleviate hunger. Can a pill or supplement ever replace a good hearty meal shared with family?
There is an urgent need for all relevant stakeholders, including state-level bodies, private and government sectors, and community members, to intervene and halt the perpetuation of socioeconomic inequality in society.
“We need to fix the economic problems. If we don’t improve poverty and help alleviate [people’s situations], how will they [afford] to eat?” said the NGO head.
Why should Shazia make “sacrifices” while feeding her two- and four-year-old children? Why can’t she have a balanced meal of potatoes, tomatoes as well as meat?
Even after receiving much-needed supplements, what about the constant stress Shazia endures daily due to her inability to adequately feed her children?
It’s easy to blame individual women from disadvantaged backgrounds for having multiple children, suggesting they brought their struggles upon themselves.
“Why did they have multiple children if they lack resources?”
But is it fair that those with more resources can have as many children as they want while individuals like Shazia face societal judgment regarding their reproductive choices?
This isn’t to disregard the need for family planning in our country, but to put the onus of the abysmal healthcare system on individual women’s reproductive choices is not fair. It is about time that the narrative shifts from blaming women from disadvantaged classes for giving birth to multiple children to understanding how societal structures can move towards a more egalitarian way of living.
I start with a simple premise that seems to have been forgotten during the intellectual gymnastics at play — judges should always be independent.
Our legal canon has led to the sacrifice of many trees to fill law books with pages exalting the independence of the judiciary, for independent judges are impartial, and impartial judges promote justice. Ergo: impartiality must always be safeguarded.
An incentive that undergirds such impartiality is a judge’s desire to avoid harsh consequences for the decisions they render. Threatening a judge with coercive measures may compel them to decide a particular case a particular way. If we accept the absurdly-simple premise I started with, such pressure is, obviously, undesirable for society, meriting an immediate response to curb the menace.
Not so simple
This is a simple enough notion, until it’s not, as shown by the polemics on the six Islamabad High Court Justices’ alarming description of interference in their judicial functions — allegations that should perturb every citizen, but which are being tactfully dismissed by framing the debate around the timing of the reveal. “Why now?” critics ask, when confronted with the shocking material in the Justices’ letter to the SJC. “Where was this courage when Justice Shaukat Siddiqui was targeted?” they ask, equally rhetorically, in response to praise meted to the Justices, for the latter’s attempt to stand by their oaths.
Those who read diligently, and enjoy craniums free of tinfoil hats, need only peruse paragraph six of the Justices’ letter to observe that their contentions did not originate overnight. It appears that, by May 3, 2023, both the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court and the Chief Justice of Pakistan had been apprised of the Justices’ objections.
The letter details follow-up meetings. Nothing came of them, until the apex court took cognisance of the matter (more on this later).
Those deriding the Justices for not taking a stand for Justice Siddiqui, perhaps conveniently, ignore the fact that five of the six judges were not even on the bench in 2018. Information available on the subject does not show that any of the six opposed Justice Siddiqui’s cause, so any apathy to Justice Siddiqui’s plight cannot be inferred.
The situation, today, is materially different — five of these six Justices are no longer private persons, but constitutional office-holders, tasked with dispensing justice. This captures how the debate on timing only obfuscates the thornier issue — do we displace our preference for judicial impartiality, if we accept the premise that the Justices were not active enough in condemning what came before? Would one’s perception of the adequacy of their earlier response be the metric for determining whether the Justices may seek insulation from intimidation?
Surely not. We want judges to only be guided by their conscience and intellect when they issue verdicts. Therefore, an attack on their independence should elicit consternation, and not cynicism.
Plenty of reasons have been provided for the former, all rooted in the Justices’ inability to, individually, counter the invasion of their privacy or the torture of their loved ones. The law on contempt does not permit the Justices to initiate contempt proceedings where they are parties to the dispute; the law only permits the Justices to “refer” the matter to the chief justice, and this referral, by the Justices, did not bear fruit.
The code of conduct too does not prescribe a mechanism for reporting the executive’s meddling in the Justices’ sphere of operation.
Pen in a sword fight
When Justice Siddiqui spoke out, the SJC found him guilty of misconduct for breaching the same code; his six-year legal battle culminated only in “benefits and privileges of a retired Judge”. Justice Siddiqui’s exoneration did, however, demonstrate the extent of executive intrusion in the judiciary’s affairs, reaching the point where a nation-wide reckoning within the institution is necessary to formulate a coherent push-back strategy.
Armed only with the pen in a sword-fight with the executive, the Justices, recognising their limitations, now seek such “institutional consultation” among their brethren.
Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani agreed with this approach, opting to recuse himself from the prime minister’s one-man inquiry commission; safeguarding his legacy in the process, he posits that the matter is best left to the SJC or the Supreme Court.
With the one-man inquiry commission having lost its only man, the committee constituted under Section 3 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, ended up agreeing with Justice Jillani. Out came the notification that the Supreme Court is taking suo motu notice of the matter, leading to the first hearing on Wednesday, April 3.
The high courts’ inability to immunise against executive overreach, naturally, trickles down to the lower courts, where judges are more susceptible than their high court counterparts. This vulnerability affects litigants throughout the system, which should concern us.
Impressive though the Justices’ crusade to uphold their oath has been, being forced to fight this fight at all should concern us. And the fact that — even when truth is being spoken to power — some of us have conveniently forgotten first principles, regardless of how intuitive these principles may be, should concern us.
Some of these concerns appear to have registered with the Supreme Court. Wednesday’s hearing contained multiple references to the “independence of the judiciary” and the need to determine “the way forward”, for which a full bench of the court may hear the rest of the case.
During the hearing, the CJP poignantly remarked that the proceedings would prompt listeners to open law books and read them carefully enough. Solely dusting off the treatises, however, may not be enough; as plenty quote, “justice must not only be done, but should also be seen to be done”.
Nine years ago, farmer Sultan Ahmed Bhatti gave up tilling the soil and using most fertilisers and pesticides on his farm in Doober Bhattian, Pakistan.
His brothers at first derided him. But soon, his first experiment with growing wheat on raised beds was a runaway success. “We produced more wheat than what we grew on ploughed, flat land,” he said.
Sultan Ahmed Bhatti discussing his farming techniques with visitors. Photo credit: Sukheki farms of Sultan Ahmed Bhatti
Today, researchers, climate experts, and agriculture students visit his 100-acre farm, where he grows wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, and vegetables, to see how he is able to reap bumper crops with minimal input costs.
The magic is in the soil, says Bhatti, picking up a fistful of soil in his calloused hand. “It’s all about respecting the soil that treats you so well.”
Bhatti is among a small but growing segment of farmers across Pakistan and India pursuing “regenerative” farming techniques. It’s part of a global movement to make agriculture more sustainable by increasing soil health through cutting back on chemicals, adding organic material to soil, and diversifying plants and animals on the farm.
Experts see regenerative farming as a climate solution
Farmer Sultan Ahmed Bhatti’s first experiment of growing wheat on raised but measured beds on one acre of land was a runway success. “We produced more wheat than what we grew on ploughed, flat land,” he said. — Photo credit: Sukheki farms of Sultan Ahmed Bhatti
“Changing agricultural practices is the most straightforward way to benefit the planet’s health while ensuring food security in the long term,” said Francesco Carnevale Zampaolo, programme director at SRI-2030, a UK-based global organisation that promotes eco-friendly farming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon sequestration.
Bio-agriculture scientist Dr Farooq-e-Azam, based in Faisalabad, Pakistan, has been promoting these methods since the early 1970s. He thinks that regenerative agriculture might be the key to addressing food insecurity and reducing intensive farming’s role in causing human-induced land degradation.
But there is no one-size-fits-all formula for transitioning to regenerative agriculture. It may require a different set of farming approaches depending on the soil type, weather conditions, and biodiversity. But generally, it means applying a range of techniques to restore the soil’s health.
These techniques include adding crop residue, composted manure, and natural rock minerals, says Azam, director of the Research and Development unit at US-based Bontera BioAg.
Illustration by Kulsum Ebrahim
Indian farmers turning to nature for solutions
The same is happening across the border, in India, too, where more farmers are shifting to a natural way of farming.
More than two decades ago, Samir Bordoloi quit his government job to become a farmer. Now, Bordoloi cultivates crops such as turmeric, jackfruit, papaya, and king chilies on nearly 12 acres of land in Sonapur, about 30km from Guwahati, a city in northeast India. The once-derelict ground that Bordoloi took on lease is a flourishing food forest today.
Bordoloi uses zero tillage and no pesticides or chemical fertilisers. Among other innovative techniques, Bordoloi scatters “seed bombs” on his land and lets them germinate naturally. For example, he plucks uniform sized ripened chillies and keeps them aside for seven days.
“Then we slice and take out their seeds and cover them with a mixture made of biochar, cow dung, and bamboo, which is then shaped into a ball.”
Is conventional farming sustainable?
Conventional farming in India and Pakistan has taken a toll on agricultural land. Around 30 per cent of the land in India is degraded, according to the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning. More than 50pc of India’s farmers are debt-ridden, according to the 2019 National Statistical Office, and often seek alternatives outside of agriculture, or tragically, take their own lives.
In Pakistan, almost three-fourths of the land is degraded, according to Pakistan’s climate change ministry.
“Droughts, floods, deforestation, overgrazing, monoculture farming, excessive tillage, and the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides are the most glaring causes of land degradation on both sides of the fence,” said Dr Aamer Irshad, head of programme at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, in Pakistan.
Dr Vinod K. Chaudhary, an associate professor of sociology at Punjab University in Chandigarh, India, who is also a farmer, said farming methods in both countries are unsustainable.
While researching sustainable farming, he came across videos on YouTube and Facebook put up by Asif Sharif, a progressive farmer from Pakpattan, across the border in Pakistan’s Punjab province. “I learned plants require moisture, not water, which was the most difficult to believe, as we farmers believe in inundation.”
He also learned that soil should be covered, not tilled. Chaudhary decided to try Sharif’s techniques and found they worked well. Now he encourages farmers in Indian Punjab and Haryana to try them.
“The soil resets itself with this kind of farming,” Chaudhary said.
Experimenting and finding solutions
Regenerative farmers are experimenting and spreading the word.
Mahmood Nawaz Shah, a third-generation progressive farmer with 600 acres of farmland in Tando Allah Yar district of Sindh province, Pakistan, has adopted regenerative agricultural techniques “through hit and trial and finding solutions” now for 25 years.
Shah controls fruit flies on his 45-acre mango orchards through pheromone traps and lets parasites that eat borers loose in the sugarcane field.
“This allows us to delay pesticide sprays as late as possible as well as increase the intervals between two sprays,” he explains.
Shah also uses farmyard manure from livestock, grows peas, cauliflower, and black cumin amid 145 acres of sugarcane crop, and adds mineral-rich silt to his land.
“It has all been a gradual and experimental process,” he says.
Dhaniram Chetia, a farmer in the village of Pengeri in Tinsukia, in India’s Assam state, found an innovative way to keep insects off his harvest: He grows papaya, tomatoes, and bananas on 30pc of his eight acres of land to feed the local birds.
“The birds eat the pests that would otherwise prey on my cash crops. I don’t need to use insecticides,” he says.
Bordoloi in Assam says elephants have helped in turmeric farming.
“Elephants stamp on our turmeric plants, cut out the thatch and consume the green elephant grass after the rains; we barely need any labour,” he added.
Heaps of highly nutritious farmyard manure and silt from the river are spread to enrich and stabilise the soil’s pH levels, says Mahmood Nawaz Shah. Photo credit: Mahmood Nawaz Shah/IPS
Sugarcane waste, which otherwise was often burned, causing greenhouse gas emissions, is used to nourish the soil at Mahmood Nawaz Shah’s (right) farm. Photo credit: Mahmood Nawaz Shah/IPS
Does regenerative agriculture live up to the hype?
It’s hard to find definitive data on regenerative agriculture. Organic farming data may come closest. India has up to 2.66 million hectares of agricultural land under organic farming, according to the The World of Organic Agriculture 2023 yearbook, which places India among “countries with the most organic producers” alongside Uganda and Ethiopia. However, the data given by India’s department of agriculture and farmers welfare puts natural farming at just 0.65m hectares.
In Pakistan, the area under naturally organic agriculture in the country is about 1.51m hectares, or about 6pc of all agricultural land, according to the Pakistan Organic Association (POA), while land certified to be cultivated organically is just 64,885 hectares. “The government has not realised the virtues of this kind of farming and there is a complete absence of government policies and practices, particularly for organic food regulations and certification,” pointed out Dr Hasan Ali Mughal, founder of POA.
Further, 10pc of the landlords in Pakistan own 52pc of the land, where they prefer to carry out mono-cropping of wheat and rice, said the FAO spokesperson, Irshad. He predicted that regenerative agriculture “cannot become mainstream in Pakistan” due to poor soil conditions.
But soil revival using solutions from nature takes time, says Mohammad Zaman, 47, a farmer from Tando Jan Mohammad of Pakistan’s Sindh province’s Mirpurkhas district. He met with some initial resistance from his father when he decided to adopt a more “natural” way of farming on their 30 acres of mango orchards in 2017. But he has, so far, spared his 400 or so mango trees from all kinds of insecticides, fungicides, and pesticides. “I sell online and I’ve realised there is a growing demand for chemical-free fruits among consumers,” he said.
Seven years later, he is most satisfied. “I could not have chosen a better path for farming,” he said, as the soil fertility is even better than when his father was farming. He also grows ber, or Indian jujube, following the same principles.
“My water application is reduced by 50pc as the dead and live mulch cover keeps the land moist,” said Zaman, who also grows sugarcane and bananas. “We broke the myth that sugarcane and bananas are water guzzlers,” he said. He, however, uses fertiliser on the banana crop “sparingly” but intends to wean it off in two years.
This was endorsed by Indira Singh, lead at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the Indian Institute for Human Settlement (IIHS), in Bengaluru.
“Getting soil rejuvenation may take a little more time, but eventually, as the soil microbiomes bloom, they will see change, which will lead to a sustainable solution,” she said.
The once derelict ground that Bordoloi took on lease is now a flourishing food forest today in Sonapur, about 30 km from Guwahati city in Assam, India. Photo credit: Sanskrita Bharadwaj/IPS
Looking for larger solutions
Graphic credit: IPS
Graphic credit: IPS
Some would like to see more government support for regenerative farming.
Shah, currently the president of the Sindh Abadgar Board, an organisation of agriculturists in Sindh, said farmers are not being prepared for adapting to climate change and are not provided with solutions to counter those challenges.
Islamabad-based Dr M. Azeem Khan, former chairman of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, agreed. The governments, he said, will need to modify existing farm equipment, build new ones, and make them available, as most small farmers cannot afford them. Further, the state will need to build the technical capacity of its extension workers, who can not only convince but also train farmers to give up their “old ways” and to let nature take its course.
“Seeing is believing; only then will farmers accept change,” Khan said.
Khan said cheaper electricity, like solar, surety to procure produce, provision of timely and subsidised inputs, repair and maintenance of farm machinery, and an effective advocacy system focusing on how to move towards regenerative and environment-friendly agricultural practices would help.
“At the outset, the change may be costly,” but it is possible, he said.
This article was originally published as a part of a cross-border reporting workshop organised by the US-based East-West Center on Inter Press Service and has been reproduced with permission.
Header image: Farmer Samir Bordoloi showing a tea bud as he stands amidst his tea shrubs. He cultivates various crops such as turmeric, jackfruit, papaya and king chilies on nearly 12 acres of land. Bordoloi calls himself a “compassionate farmer”, and believes in zero tillage, no pesticides and chemical fertilisers. Photo credit: Sanskrita Bharadwaj/IPS
Today marks six months to Oct 7, the day Hamas fighters launched the deadliest attack on Israel in its history. It is again time to count the losses. They begin with the dead; over 33,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis. The toll in Gaza is likely to change within just a few hours as Israel continues its unyielding bombing of the enclave.
The tally of suffering does not end here though. It must include the pain of orphaned children, maimed Palestinians and grieving mothers who lost their newborns to hunger. It must also account for the pain of the 134 Israelis held hostage for the past six months.
Recording all this agony could last a lifetime and would still not be enough. But any accounting for the past six months still needs to go wider.
Here, Dawn.com presents a timeline of all the major events that have taken place during this period.
Unprecedented events of Oct 7
In an unprecedented move, Palestinian group Hamas stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct 7, killing 1,163 people and taking 240 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Thus, began a long and fierce Israeli military campaign, which has as of April 6 killed more than 33,091 and wounded 75,750 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The very next day of the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is at “war”, called up thousands of military reservists, and retaliatory airstrikes on densely populated Gaza began, along with a total siege of the coastal enclave, which is squeezed between Israel and Egypt, Reuters reported.
Hezbollah joins conflict
The following day, Lebanon’s fighter group Hezbollah began cross-border shelling attacks against Israel that would continue throughout the conflict, drawing Israeli counter-strikes.
Hezbollah said it had launched guided rockets and artillery onto three posts in the Shebaa Farms “in solidarity” with the Palestinian people, according to Reuters.
“Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you,” said senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine at an event in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh on Beirut’s outskirts in solidarity with the Palestinian fighters.
Israel’s total blockade on Gaza
Two days later, Israel imposed a “total blockade” on the Gaza Strip, declaring that no electricity, food, water, or fuel would be permitted into the territory. Meanwhile, its military intensified airstrikes on Gaza, indicating preparations for a potential ground invasion.
The ‘beheaded children’
On Oct 12, the White House retracted President Joe Biden’s statement claiming that he had seen images of beheaded children following Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel, Al Jazeera reported.
The reversal came after Biden, during a meeting with Jewish leaders at the White House, mentioned seeing “pictures of terrorists beheading children”.
“I have been doing this a long time, I never really thought that I would see … have confirmed, pictures of terrorists beheading children,” said Biden, who described Saturday’s attack as the “deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust”.
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks, following a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, during a press conference in Nantucket, Massachusetts, US, November 26, 2023. — Reuters
The claims gained traction after Nicole Zedeck, a reporter with the Tel Aviv-based news channel i24NEWS, stated during a live broadcast that she had spoken to Israeli soldiers who had witnessed decapitated babies.
In response to inquiries from The Washington Post, a White House spokesperson said that the president’s remarks were based on news reports and assertions from the Israeli government.
“A White House spokesperson later clarified that US officials and the president had not personally seen pictures or verified such reports independently,” The Post reported.
‘Move south’
A few days later on Oct 13, Israel instructed residents of Gaza City, home to over one million of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants, to evacuate and move southwards “within 24 hours”.
Palestinians flee their houses, heading toward the southern part of Gaza Strip after Israel’s call for more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to move south within 24 hours, in Gaza City October 13. — Reuters
In subsequent weeks, Israel pressed for the evacuation of the entire northern region. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans fled their homes, initiating a displacement process that swiftly uprooted nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip. Families were forced to flee multiple times as Israeli forces advanced.
The first (of many) hospitals bombed
On Oct 17, an explosion at Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Baptist Hospital in Gaza City triggered outrage across the globe. Gaza’s health ministry spokesman said an Israeli air strike killed hundreds of people at a hospital in the Palestinian enclave, but Israel said a Palestinian barrage had caused the blast, a claim later backed by the US.
A man inspects the area of Al-Ahli hospital where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other, and where Palestinians who fled their homes were sheltering in Gaza City, October 18. — Reuters
The death toll was by far the highest of any single incident in Gaza at the time, triggering protests in the occupied West Bank, Istanbul and Amman.
The Palestinian Authority’s health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of “a massacre” at the hospital. The strike occurred during Israel’s intense 11-day bombing campaign in Gaza.
In light of the blast, US President Joe Biden’s planned summit with Arab leaders the following day was called off. While in Israel, Biden reiterated its right to defend itself but also told Israelis not to be blinded by their anger.
US, UK intercept Houthis’ missiles
A US Navy warship intercepted missiles and drones launched from Yemen over the Red Sea toward Israel on Oct 19, according to the Pentagon.
Yemen’s Houthi group, in solidarity with Gaza, continued sporadic long-range attacks on Israel and targeted Red Sea shipping.
Israel strikes Orthodox church
A Greek Orthodox church in the Gaza Strip which was sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians was hit overnight by an Israeli air strike on Oct 20, according to the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Palestinian health officials said 16 people were killed, Reuters reported.
The Israeli military said a part of the church was damaged in a strike on a militant command centre and it was reviewing the incident.
Palestinian Christians react at the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church which was damaged by an Israeli strike, where Palestinians who fled their homes take shelter, in Gaza City on Oct 20, 2023. — Reuters
Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter in the Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius from Israeli bombardments.
The Orthodox Church said in a statement: “The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expresses its strongest condemnation of the Israeli air strike that has struck its church compound in the city of Gaza.”
At last, aid trickles into the strip
After days of diplomatic negotiations, on Oct 21, Israel finally permitted aid trucks to pass through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza. However, the amount allowed was only a fraction of what Gaza desperately needed, as essential supplies like food, water, medicines, and fuel were dwindling. The challenge of ensuring sufficient supplies persisted through the coming months due to Israel’s blockade, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
The Israeli military said that humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip would go only to southern areas of the enclave, and the shipments would not include fuel.
Trucks carrying aid wait to exit, on the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 21. — Reuters
Israel launches ground offensive
A week after initiating limited incursions, Israel commenced a comprehensive ground offensive in Gaza on Oct 27. The operation started with an assault on the northern region, with a pledge to free all hostages and eradicate Hamas.
“This is the second stage of the war whose goals are clear to destroy Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and — to bring the hostages home,” Netanyahu told reporters.
“We are only at the start,” he said. “We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground.”
Family of Al Jazeera journalist killed in Israeli strike
The wife, son and daughter of Wael Al-Dahdouh, one of Al Jazeera’s correspondents in Gaza were killed on Oct 25 in an Israeli air strike that the Gaza health ministry said killed at least 25 people, according to Reuters.
The network said the strike hit the area where Dahdouh’s family had fled to following an Israeli warning as it planned a Gaza ground incursion.
“Their home was targeted in the Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza, where they had sought refuge after being displaced by the initial bombardment in their neighbourhood, following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call for all civilians to move south,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.
Al Jazeera said other members of Dahdouh’s family were buried under the rubble. The network broadcast live footage of Dahdouh crying as he saw family members laying lifeless at the hospital.
Palestinians trapped inside the strip
On Nov 1, evacuations commenced from Gaza via the Rafah crossing for approximately 7,000 individuals holding foreign passports, dual nationals, their dependents, and individuals in need of urgent medical care. The vast majority of Gaza residents remained trapped in the enclave with no means of escape.
Palestinians with dual citizenship walk at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, November 1, 2023. — Reuters
After days-long siege, Israeli forces enter Al Shifa hospital
On Nov 15, Israeli troops stormed Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa in Gaza City, following a siege lasting several days. During this period, medical personnel said that patients, including newborns, died due to a lack of electricity and supplies.
Israeli authorities alleged that the hospital had been utilised to conceal an underground headquarters for Hamas fighters, a claim denied by the staff.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the military incursion into the hospital “deeply concerning”.
Subsequently, the military conducted a tour of a tunnel at the site. Within a few weeks, all hospitals serving the northern region of Gaza had ceased operations.
“The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths wrote on X, adding he was “appalled” by reports of the raids. “Hospitals are not battlegrounds.”
A satellite image shows Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza November 11, 2023. — Maxar Technologies/Reuters
Furthermore, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said, “We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get the medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire.”
While Israel said that the “IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas” at the hospital and the intention was not to harm civilians.
Israeli soldiers walk at the Al Shifa hospital complex during what they said was a delivery of humanitarian aid to the facility in Gaza City, in this still image from handout video obtained November 15, 2023. — Reuters
First temporary truce
On Nov 21, Israel and Hamas declared the first ceasefire of the conflict — facilitated by Qatar — agreeing to halt hostilities for four days. The purpose was to facilitate the exchange of female and child hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian women and teenagers imprisoned by Israel, as well as to allow for increased aid deliveries.
Hamas initially said in a statement it would release 50 women and children in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women and children.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worked in Gaza to facilitate the release of hostages, Qatar said.
Hostages are handed over by Hamas to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel amid a temporary truce, in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip, in this screengrab taken from video released November 27, 2023. — Reuters
Eventually, the ceasefire was extended for a total of one week, resulting in the release of 105 hostages and approximately 240 Palestinian detainees. However, the ceasefire collapsed on Dec 1, leading to a resumption of hostilities.
People embrace after released Palestinian prisoners are released amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 28. — Reuters
Assault in southern Gaza
Around Dec 4, shortly after the ceasefire expired, Israeli forces initiated their first big ground assault in southern Gaza, targeting the outskirts of the main southern city, Khan Younis.
International organisations warned that this escalation, extending the military campaign throughout the entire length of the enclave, including areas already housing hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals, would drastically worsen the humanitarian crisis.
A wounded Palestinian lies as he is rushed into Nasser hospital following Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 4, 2023. — Reuters
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel to avoid further action that would make the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza worse and to spare civilians from more suffering.
“For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Israel’s closest ally, the United States urged it to do more to protect civilians and said the Israeli offensive in the south should not repeat the “massive” civilian toll it has had in the north.
A clear shift of the US’ rhetoric
On Dec 12, President Biden remarked that Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza was causing it to lose international support, marking a notable shift in rhetoric from the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
Biden’s remarks, made to donors to his 2024 re-election campaign, were his most critical to date of Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s invasion in Gaza.
“Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world … But they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” Biden said.
In subsequent weeks, several senior US officials visited Israel, urging the country to take greater measures to protect civilians, de-escalate the conflict, and transition to a more targeted approach against Hamas leaders.
Israel kills three hostages
On Dec 15, Israeli forces killed three hostages in Gaza, claiming it was “by mistake”. This incident sparked significant criticism of the conduct of the conflict within Israel, despite the campaign still having widespread domestic support.
People protest following an announcement by Israel’s military that they had mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas, at a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, December 15, 2023. — Reuters
A statement from the military said that during an intense battle in Gaza it “identified three Israeli hostages as a threat”. “As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed.”
The military said the hostages were killed during combat with fighters in Gaza and expressed its condolences to the families while saying there would be “full transparency” in the investigation into the incident.
Assault on central Gaza
Around Dec 26, Israeli forces initiated a major ground assault on areas in the central Gaza Strip. This assault followed a series of airstrikes, once again causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee, most of whom were already displaced.
The UN World Health Organisation said its staff had seen tens of thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in Khan Younis and the Middle Area on foot, on donkeys or in cars. Makeshift shelters were being built along the road, it said.
“WHO is extremely concerned this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in the south, which are already struggling to meet the population’s immense needs,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, said.
“This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid.”
First significant pullback of troops
As fireworks to welcome the New Year took off in several cities across the globe, the health ministry in Gaza reported that Israeli forces killed at least 100 Palestinians in the last 24 hours.
The next morning, amid increasing pressure from the US, Tel Aviv announced that it would withdraw thousands of troops from the besieged enclave in the first significant pullback since Oct 7.
The Israeli military, in a statement, said that five brigades or several thousand troops were being taken out of the enclave for training and rest, Al Jazeerareported. While army spokesperson Daniel Hagari did not clarify the decision, he said: “The objectives of the war require prolonged fighting, and we are preparing accordingly.”
Hamas deputy chief killed in Lebanon
Just a day later on January 2, Hamas’ deputy chief Saleh Al Aruri was struck down by a drone in Beirut — the first on the Lebanese capital since the Gaza crisis unfolded. The killing removed a big name from Israel’s most-wanted list.
Even though Israel neither confirmed nor denied a role, the attack came a month after Israeli broadcaster Kan aired a recording of the head of the domestic security agency vowing to hunt down Hamas in Lebanon, Turkiye and Qatar even if it took years.
Aruri was buried in Beirut on January 5 in a funeral attended by hundreds of people.
UK, US retaliate to Red Sea attacks
In retaliation against Houthi forces for their attacks on Red Sea shipping, US and British warplanes, ships and submarines launched dozens of attacks across Yemen in the second week of January.
The Houthis carried out a large number of attacks on what they deem to be Israel-linked shipping in the key international trade route. The group has controlled a major part of Yemen since a civil war erupted there in 2014 and is part of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance” arrayed against Israel.
According to the US Air Forces Central Command, 60 targets at 16 Houthi locations were hit by more than 100 precision-guided munitions. The attacks raised concerns over regional conflagration.
Gaza deaths cross 25,000
By late January, Israeli forces encircled Khan Younis after 24 of its soldiers were killed in the enclave in what it called the largest single-day toll since Oct 7. It was also around this time that the death toll in Gaza breached the 25,000 mark.
It must be noted that Khan Younis was designated as a safe zone for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who evacuated from northern Gaza at the beginning of the Israeli offensive.
As its forces pushed further south, the Israeli military shelled and raided main hospitals — sheltering thousands of Palestinians — in Khan Younis, forcing people to move further towards Rafah, which would eventually go on to shelter over 1.2 million Gazans.
Displaced Palestinians use a donkey cart for transportation at a camp in Rafah.—AFP
‘Prevent acts of genocide,’ World Court tells Israel
On Jan 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, while hearing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, ordered Tel Aviv to prevent acts of genocide against the Palestinians and do more to help civilians.
The judges ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide, punish acts of incitement, take steps to improve the humanitarian situation and report back on its progress in a month. Although the ruling cannot be appealed, the court has no mechanism to enforce its decision.
However, the court did not touch upon the issue of a ceasefire in Gaza, which was requested by South Africa on the basis that “nothing will stop this suffering except an order from this court”.
UN funding halts after Israeli accusations
Just three days after the ICJ ruling, Israel opened a fresh pandora’s box, alleging that some staffers of the UN Palestinian aid agency were involved in the abductions and killing on Oct 7. In a six-page dossier, it claimed that some 190 UNRWA employees, including teachers, doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters.
In response, the UNRWA fired nine of the accused workers and condemned “the abhorrent alleged acts” of staff members. Later in Feb, the UN chief also established an independent body to scrutinise allegations regarding the neutrality of the agency for Palestinians.
However, following the allegations, major Western countries — including the US, Britain, Austria, Japan, Canada, Italy and Finland — froze their funds vital for the UN agency, which is a lifeline for desperate Palestinians in Gaza.
After weeks of diplomacy led by the United States and mediated by Qatar and Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected a Hamas counter-offer for a ceasefire in Gaza on Feb 7. “Delusional” was the word he used to describe the term of the offer.
In the following months, Washington and other mediators pushed hard for a ceasefire, one in time for the start of Ramazan.
But a deadlock persisted as Hamas said it would agree to a truce and release of hostages only if the proposal ended with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel, on the other hand, maintained that it would not pull out until the Palestinian group was eradicated.
Israel strikes crowded Rafah despite warnings
As truce talks faltered, Israeli officials threatened to attack Rafah, situated near the border with Egypt — a move the US and UN warned would lead to high civilian casualties.
But between Feb 8 and 9, the Israeli military launched several rounds of air strikes and tank shelling on Rafah. Netanyahu and other top officials said they were planning to expand their military offensive in the enclave to include the border town, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3m population was forcibly displaced.
UN chief Antonio Guterres responded to the news by calling it “alarming” and warning that it “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare”. Meanwhile, all the US had to offer were words of caution.
US passes bill for aid to Israel
On Feb 13, as international pressure mounted on Israel against its offensive in Rafah, the US Senate passed the long-delayed $95bn bill with aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
According to a report by The Guardian, around $14.1bn of the bill was dedicated to Israeli and US military operations in the region. “About $4bn would go to boost Israel’s air defenses, with another $1.2bn for Iron Beam, a laser weapons system designed to intercept and destroy missiles,” it said.
The legislation, on the other hand, allotted just $9.2bn in humanitarian assistance to provide food, water, shelter and medical care to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine and other war zones around the world.
Israel raids Gaza’s largest functioning hospital
Two days later, footage of chaos, shouting and gunfire in dark corridors filled with dust and smoke emerged from Gaza. Israeli forces raided the biggest functioning medical facility, Nasser Hospital, in the enclave.
Israel claimed the raid was based on information that Hamas fighters were hiding and had kept hostages in the facility, claims which the group termed as “lies”.
But the health ministry in Gaza said that patients and medics were enduring “dire and frightening conditions” after the raid, as thousands of displaced civilians who had sought refuge in its grounds were forced to leave by Israeli troops. More than 460 people, it added, were made to go to an old hospital building “without food, without milk for children, and a severe shortage of water”.
US vetoes yet another call for ceasefire in Gaza
On Feb 20, the US, for the third time since Oct 7, exercised its veto power to block an Arab resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
The resolution, moved jointly by Algeria and a group of Arab nations, saw 13 votes in favour, one abstention (Britain) and a lone negative vote from the United States.
Justifying the veto, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “Sometimes hard diplomacy takes more time than any of us might like. Any action this council takes should help and not hinder these sensitive ongoing negotiations.”
“We’re at a pivotal and critical moment. Let us commit to doing this the right way at the right time,” stressed Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield. “That’s why the US is proposing a separate resolution that would work towards a temporary ceasefire based on the formula that all hostages are released,” she said. It would also condemn Hamas, she added.
The flour massacre
On Feb 29, more than 100 Gazans were killed queuing for aid in the presence of Israeli troops who opened fire, in one of the deadliest attacks of the conflict. The incident occurred on al-Rashid Street at the Nabulsi Roundabout on the southwestern side of Gaza City, where food deliveries had been scarce, Al Jazeerareported.
Palestinian authorities said most of the dead were killed with heavy machine guns fired by Israeli forces in a “massacre”. Israel claimed most died in a stampede, and its troops fired only at “looters”, with a source acknowledging that troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat”.
This happened just a day after the World Food Programme informed the United Nations Security Council that more than 500,000 or one in every four people were at risk of famine in Gaza. One in every six children below the age of two were acutely malnourished, WFP added.
The incident was condemned across the globe and prompted Arab countries to push for a statement in the UN Security Council blaming Israeli forces for the killings of civilians. However, the US once again came to Israel’s rescue and blocked the statement.
Hopes for ceasefire before Ramazan dashed
On March 10, heartbreaking images of Gazans praying atop the rubble of a mosque hit by an Israeli air strike just days before came forth. Palestinians entered Ramazan unlike ever before as the world yet again failed them.
Despite talks, the month began with no ceasefire in place. Negotiations continued in Cairo and Doha in the upcoming weeks. Both Israel and Hamas released proposals for a truce of around 40 days but rejected them over intractable differences.
With the commencement of the holy month, US President Joe Biden pledged international efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the enclave and committed to working tirelessly for an immediate six-week ceasefire. The UN chief, on the other hand, urged all parties to “honour the spirit of Ramazan by silencing the guns”.
Worst level of food shortage
On March 18, the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC) global hunger monitor said famine was projected in Gaza by May without an immediate ceasefire and surge of aid.
It described the pervasiveness of food shortages as the worst it had ever witnessed anywhere. More than half of Gaza’s population — far more than the 20pc associated with famine — was already experiencing the worst level of food shortage, category 5 or “catastrophe”, Reutersreported.
However, Israel claimed that the report’s methodology was flawed and denied that there were any food shortages in the enclave. It blamed the persistent hunger on the operation of aid agencies and fighters for hoarding food.
The UN chief called the IPC report an “appalling indictment” and said Israel must allow complete and unfettered aid access across Gaza. It must be noted here that Israel initially allowed aid into the enclave through only two checkpoints on the southern edge. Tel Aviv said it would open further routes by land as well as sea and airdrops.
New assault on Al Shifa Hospital
The day the IPC report was released, Israel launched a fresh assault on the Al Shifa Hospital, where thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter.
Over the next two weeks, the Israeli military claimed to have killed hundreds of fighters and arrested as many. However, the medical staff at Al Shifa and Hamas deny allegations that fighters were present at the facility, adding that several civilians were killed while medics and patients were rounded up.
Palestinians living near Al Shifa reported hellish conditions, including corpses in the streets. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza media office, said Israeli forces had killed 400 Palestinians in and around the hospital including a woman doctor and her son and put the facility out of action. “This is a crime against humanity,” he stressed.
After a two-week siege of Al Shifa, Israeli forces finally left the medical facility on April 1 leaving behind rubble, death and devastation.
After several vetoes, the UN Security Council finally passed a resolution on March 29, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during Ramazan, an unconditional release of prisoners, and urgent expansion of aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.
“This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable,” Guterres said promptly after the vote.
The development came as the US did not use its veto and abstained from the vote. The move did not sit well with ally Israel as Netanyahu’s office said the US had “abandoned” its previous position in which a ceasefire was directly linked to the release of hostages.
Israel bombs World Central Kitchen aid convoy
On April 1, Israel struck a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy and killed seven aid workers — citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada — of the charity, drawing a global outcry.
WCK said they had been travelling in two armoured cars emblazoned with the charity’s logo and another vehicle. Despite coordinating movements with the Israeli military, the convoy was hit as it was leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea.
In a report, Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing defence sources familiar with the details, said an Israeli drone fired three missiles “one after the other” at the aid convoy.
Netanyahu said the airstrike in Gaza was unintended and “tragic” as the military pledged an independent inquiry. “This happens in war. We are conducting a thorough inquiry and are in contact with the governments. We will do everything to prevent a recurrence,” he said.
While the US said there was no evidence Israel deliberately targeted the aid workers, other countries which have generally been friendly towards Tel Aviv all demanded action to protect aid workers, underscoring Netanyahu’s increasing diplomatic isolation over Gaza.
Subsequently, the Israeli military dismissed two officers and formally reprimanded senior commanders following an inquiry into the grisly attack.
UN rights body demands halt in arms sales to Israel
On April 5, the UN Human Rights Council demanded a halt in all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its aggression in Gaza.
In Geneva, the 47-member UNHRC in a resolution presented by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation noted that Israel was “using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” in the Palestinian enclave.
The council supported a call “to cease the sale, transfer, and diversion of arms, munitions, and other military equipment to Israel, the occupying Power…to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”.
According to a report by the Washington Post, the US and Germany — two countries that supply almost all imported weapons to Israel — both voted against the nonbinding resolution at the UNHRC.
Header: People walk near tent camps where displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes take shelter in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 9, 2023. — Reuters
After half a year, the United States has finally managed to heimlich a promise out of the Israelis to open more aid crossings. What provoked this belated back-thwacking was not the 33,000 Palestinians subjected to Israel’s carnival of killing, but that seven (mostly foreign) aid workers were murdered by the IDF. Their deaths a tragedy, while those of the Palestinians, a mere statistic.
This may be the 13th war Israel has waged on Gaza since 1948, but the world has changed during this onslaught. Never before has the international community had dinner watching a deranged country take vengeance on defenceless children by forcing them to die a slow torturous death while a dystopian algorithm called ‘where’s daddy’ takes out their father when he comes home.
This nakba may undo all the old certainties; the world before and after October 7 is a different one.
The ‘rules-based international order’ is dead
In January of this year, I started teaching international criminal law at the Lahore University of Management Sciences to yawning law students who would turn up to my 8am class. I spent much of the four hours of classes on genocide talking about what wasn’t genocide.
Displacement is not genocide, ethnic cleansing isn’t genocide, open borders are usually a sign that it’s not genocide. When asked whether I thought what Israel was doing was genocide, I replied ‘probably not’. This was based on the very high threshold set by the law and the International Court of Justice’s past precedent. But a key fear was also that the ICJ would not hold that genocide had been committed, upholding this high threshold, and that everyone would treat this as an exoneration of Israel and a failure of international law, when it is neither. We have simply set the threshold for this crime that high in law.
Between January and now though, my opinion has changed. The starving of civilians and refusal to allow aid trucks in, places this — to my mind — now squarely as one of the acts of genocide; that of deliberately inflicting upon the group conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction with the intent to destroy them. It seems that the ICJ may now also be leaning this way. South Africa has asked for new provisional measures twice since January and the ICJ granted the second one on March 28, ordering Israel to allow in relief supplies saying that famine was now no longer looming over Gaza, it was setting in.
This is not as interesting though as the judge’s separate opinions, seven of whom said the court should have asked for a ceasefire and that Israel would not be able to comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention without halting military operations and letting in aid. The notion being that the starving of Gaza was genocidal. The Somali judge, Yusuf, went further and said: “The alarm has now been sounded by the Court. All the indicators of genocidal activities are flashing red in Gaza.”
In the coming days, the Court will listen to the case brought by Nicaragua against Germany for co-authoring Israel’s genocide and war crimes. The largest supporter of Israel, the US, cannot be brought before the World Court because of reservations to its jurisdiction — nobody can try the US for genocide unless it has consented to being so tried. But Nicaragua may have picked Germany (over say, the UK, Canada or the Netherlands) because it has made Israel’s security its very reason for existing. Angela Merkel famously said in 2007 that Israel’s security is Germany’s Staatsräson, its reason for being a state. Outsourcing their guilt has resulted in Germany potentially being complicit in gross international crimes, the kind they ironically promised they would ‘never again’ commit.
South Africa and Nicaragua are trying these countries perhaps because their current governments — the African National Congress and the Sandinistas — had strong links with the Palestinian liberation movement when they themselves were rebel movements. In both cases, the Israeli state supported the overthrown apartheid government in South Africa and the brutal Somozan dictatorship in Nicaragua. Liberation movements, it seems, remember well those who supported them and those who supported their oppressors and in an act of bureaucratic kindness for their comrades-in-arms, they have picked up the Palestinian cause in memory of this support.
We don’t know how the Court will decide either of these cases. What we do know though is that both the victim and the perpetrator of the Holocaust — the most well-known genocide in history — have been dragged before the ICJ for committing and supporting another one against the Palestinian people. And the countries taking them there are both from the Global South.
Shifting blocs
Outside of the courtroom, the sands of power relations between states have shifted. The US has pushed China and Russia together, in what can only be explained as an act of hubris on the part of the superpower. It seems to believe it can take on both of them at once.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is aghast at the West’s hypocrisy. Acclaimed author and editor Adam Shatz calls the West’s janus-faced approach to the conflict compared to others — in which Russia’s occupation of Ukraine is egregious, but the Israeli occupation of Palestine is fine — similar to “the fractures of 1956, when people in the ‘developing world’ sided with Algeria’s struggle for self-determination, while Western countries backed Hungary’s resistance to Soviet invasion”.
After October 7, the term Zionist has become a slur in the Global South in much the same way as ‘jihadist’ became one in the West post-9/11. At the same time, the West continues to treat those shouting anti-semitism at the tiniest infraction akin to an oppressed minority group eligible for EU funding.
Much of the world has accepted that Palestine is the most moral issue of our time for reasons wrapped up in ideology, religion, and morality. For the West, these are the old, false gods that they have forsworn for their new gods of individualism and capital.
These new crusaders don’t clutch the Bible, but liberalism. The East though remains wary of this new religion; it has seen what liberalism has mutated into in the West, with its alienation, empty consumerism, and dismantling of community, the export of which led to the invasion of Iraq. It also remains the reason for the West’s continuing unflinching support in the face of genocide.
Israel is after all the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, the villa in the jungle, a civilised nation among Muslim primitives. Israel plays on this as being the last bastion between Europe and savagery with Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel, saying in 2015: “Israel is in the forefront of the global war on terror. This is the frontline between the free and civilised world and radical Islam. We’re stopping the wave of radical Islam from flowing from Iran and Iraq all the way to Europe. When we fight terror here, we’re protecting London, Paris and Madrid.”
It’s also why Hamas is the quintessential barbaric enemy; after all, they pledge fealty to the old gods in their demand for Palestinian statehood.
Hamas’ resistance
Nationalism is perhaps one of the most powerful ideologies on the planet and Hamas is demanding a birth certificate for the nation-state of Palestine. It does so though through armed resistance, which, in both the intifadas and on October 7, has included the commission of war crimes against civilians. That is why the question of ‘do you condemn Hamas?’ so famously wielded by Piers Morgan for every pro-Palestinian on his show has become such a sticking point in the West.
Those advocating for decolonisation seem to think that all violence is justified in the goal of liberation, whether that be against combatants or civilians. International law does allow us to have some consistency on this — people fighting for their right to self-determination have the right do so through all means necessary, including armed struggle.
However, this right to resistance has to be exercised within the parameters of international law. That’s why the first phase of Al-Aqsa floods on October 7 when Hamas targeted IDF soldiers and military targets was a legitimate act of resistance and hence, legal. But afterwards, when they went after grandmothers in the kibbutzim or rave-goers, it was not.
But the demonisation of Hamas and its war crimes fulfils a much more insidious aim of denouncing the liberation group and its dogged resistance against the Israeli occupation as a whole. This is especially while the West trips over itself to designate them as a “terrorist organisation” — a moniker long given to liberation movements to delegitimise them.
The term ‘terrorism’ is a useless one. There is of yet no legal definition for this word owing to the international community’s inability to decide when freedom fighting is terrorism and when it is not — though likely it remains in the outcome; whether they win or not. National liberation movements. when successful, are no longer terrorists. The ANC and the Sandinistas are examples of this; once they became the state, the label can no longer be applied.
The notion that Hamas wants the destruction of Israel is also incorrect. The group pragmatically recognised the state of Israel in 2007 and the need for a Palestinian state to exist alongside an Israeli one. It is in line with Edward Said’s foresight that both Palestinians and Jews have a right to live in that area and that they are condemned to live there together. Hamas fights then for an end to occupation, the right of return for Palestinians expelled from their homes, and the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.
Collective punishment
The commitment to armed resistance is also why Hamas is such a polarising movement among Palestinians. The group has watched closely the trajectory of the PLO, which then became the Palestinian Authority, and how it has become a corrupt, toothless, quisling leadership subservient to the Israeli state.
The PA is now essentially a security sub-contractor for Israel, allowing it to inflict an essentially burden-free occupation in the West Bank; an occupation of Palestinians by Palestinians. And the PA, despite being allowed into the corridors of power, has not been able to get Palestinians any closer to having their own state. Its path to pacification has been littered with too many promises that have enriched its leaders but not the Palestinians it represents.
Meanwhile, Hamas boasts that its armed resistance works. It forced the Israelis to disengage from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and is the only reason why the strip is not embroidered by Israeli settlements in the same way as the West Bank. This is also with limited support from the rest of the Muslim world; criticising the Arabs, a leader in Gaza said: “Hamas defends the Ummah’s honour with self-made weapons while all the weapons piling up in the storage warehouses of the Arab armies are rusting, and if they’re ever used, they’re used against their own people.”
The people of Gaza feel pride in the resistance. Researcher and author Tareq Baconi writes that “[i]n countless conversations, I was reminded that while the Israeli army can drive up to any house in the West Bank and arrest its members — even to the house of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas! — it was unable to step foot in Gaza. At least not without incurring a beating. This strip of land is thought of as undefiled, Palestinian, sterile of Israel’s occupation.”
Hamas claims that “fighters’ trenches not negotiators’ hotels are what [will] resolve the conflict” and while support for it may waver, given the extent to which Palestinians are punished in its name, it was strong in opinion polls taken right after the October 7 attacks.
On the other hand, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is now ‘extraordinarily unpopular’ and 84 per cent of Palestinians want him to resign (going up to 93pc in the West Bank). That’s why it’s unwise to say the Palestinian people are not represented by Hamas and, therefore, should not be collectively punished for their actions. Hamas may in fact represent the Palestinian people and they still should not be collectively punished for them.
However, they have been and will continue to be. After Hamas was elected into power in 2007, an embargo was placed on the Gaza Strip, sanctions were imposed, and aid was frozen. This is the first time that such measures have ever been imposed on an occupied people as opposed to the occupier.
The only way Hamas could ensure the survival of those placed under this blockade was by creating a honeycomb of tunnels beneath the strip to ensure that food and supplies could be smuggled in. Israel now drops 2,000 pound bombs to destroy these tunnels, killing the refugees camped above them.
Golda Meir, Israel’s first female prime minister, famously said: “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children but we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.” The gymnastics of logic in this response is shocking. The Palestinians have forced the Israelis to kill their children, to bury them in rubble, and to starve them to death.
The future is not yet written
Six months on, nothing and yet everything has changed. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered, 12,300 of whom are children, by the IDF and their algorithmically overdosed killing machines. The death toll on the Israeli side, amid this casino of execution, is over 1,400 — including almost 1,200 killed on Oct 7 and another 251 since.
Both the perpetrator and victim of the Holocaust are on trial for collaborating to commit a genocide against the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, for their right to return, for their right to resist, is now overshadowed by their need to simply survive. They are being starved to death by the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
At the start of Tareq Baconi’s seminally important book, Hamas Contained, he recounts an uncomfortable conversation which I want to reproduce in full:
“My fixer in Gaza told me a story. There was once a village whose men were all drafted to fight in some faraway battle. While the men were gone, enemy soldiers invaded the village and raped all the women who had been left behind, and went on their way. The women, shell-shocked and bloodied, mourned their fate as they congregated to comfort one another in the village square. One woman was missing. They went looking for her and found her lying under the soldier who had tried to rape her. With her own hands, she had managed to kill him and save herself from the lot of her fellow villagers. Joy at her safety soon soured. The raped women now worried they would be judged by their husbands for not similarly fighting for their honour and fending off their rapists. In no time, this undefiled survivor became a symbol of their shame. Swiftly, they conspired to kill her.
The storyteller turned to me and said, that woman, the survivor, is Gaza. She has refused to submit to Israel’s occupation and its rape and pillage of Palestinian land while other Palestinian and Arab leaders have succumbed. She has become a source of pride for Gazans who maintain their armed resistance against Israel. She is now a shameful reminder for those who have accepted their fate. Arabs and Palestinians elsewhere have looked away as she is bombarded, incessantly and mercilessly. Israel has focused all its efforts on shaming and breaking it. For she remains the only proud bit of Palestine that refuses to yield.“
If there is a chink of light that can be offered, my hope rests not with the institutions created in the wake of the horrors of a World War, but with the desire for liberation. If international law must fail, let nationalism win.
May we see a Palestinian state within our lifetime.
Header image: Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building after it was destroyed in an Israeli strike the night before in the Rimal neighbourhood. — AFP/ File
Until a few years ago, gas was never a concern for the residents of Karachi. Multiple burners in homes were often lit with constant, reassuring flames, symbolising an uninterrupted supply. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly difficult to keep the stove burning.
Pakistanis are now confronted with the stark truth that the country is running out of gas.
A few days before the month of Ramazan began, the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) assured the public regarding uninterrupted gas supply for Sehri and Iftar preparations. According to the utility’s statement, gas supply would be guaranteed from 3am to 9am for Sehri, the pre-dawn meal essential for fasting, and from 3pm to 10pm for Iftar, the evening meal when the fast is broken.
“SSGC wishes a blessed Ramazan to its esteemed customers and would like to assure them of uninterrupted gas supply for Sehri and Iftaar preparations,” the company said in a statement.
The power utility’s statement — SSGC
Despite these assurances, many areas across the city experienced gas shortages during Sehri and Iftar, causing distress to residents, particularly the homemakers who bore the responsibility to prepare meals during the month and feed their families.
Where did the gas go?
According to SSGC spokesperson Salman Ahmed Siddiqui, the “constant eight to 10 per cent depletion of gas reserves in setups owned by upstream or exploration and production companies” is the main reason for the current gas crisis in the country.
“The situation has been compounded by the fact that for the last several years, there has not been any major gas discovery to compensate for shrinking reserves. The declining reserve situation has therefore caused a gas demand-supply gap,” he said.
In July 2023, it was reported that Pakistan witnessed a decline of around 5pc in its domestic natural gas production compared to the previous year.
According to the audit report submitted by the Petroleum Division to the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) for the year 2022-23, the country’s natural gas reserves were estimated at over 63.248 trillion cubic feet (TCF), with approximately 43.736 TCF already consumed.
As of this year, the estimated proven gas reserves in the country amount to 18.34 TCF, according to the Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ).
Natural gas contributes significantly to Pakistan’s energy consumption, comprising 33pc indigenous gas, 10pc RLNG (Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas), and 1pc LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). However, a 5pc annual increase in demand has led to the depletion of indigenous gas reserves over time, exacerbated by a lack of “substantial new discovery since 2001”.
This imbalance between demand and supply has created a deficit of 0.628 TCF per annum, prompting the import of 0.328 TCF LNG to bridge the gap.
Currently, the shortfall of 0.30 TCF is managed through curtailment and load management across various sectors or is faced by the general public, as stated in the report.
Let’s talk about infrastructure
Decades-old pipelines, forming the backbone of Pakistan’s gas infrastructure, extend over approximately 150,000 kilometres. These pipelines not only contribute to “line losses and Unaccounted for Gas (UFG)” but also lead to fluctuating gas pressure experienced by consumers.
One such consumer familiar with these challenges is Numaira Malik, a homemaker, residing in Karachi’s Federal B Area.
“We don’t have a problem with the gas timings in Ramazan but the main issue is the fluctuation in its pressure. Sometimes, it’s very high and other times it’s extremely low, especially during iftar hours. If we want to cook one thing, we can only keep one burner on while turning off all other burners,” she said.
At the time of Sehri, the gas is completely fine and there is no issue for her, however, preparing Iftar is a different story. “We can turn on all four burners and they work fine. But for iftar, it becomes a problem. We start preparing iftar way in advance now,” she said.
Like other homemakers we spoke to, she speculated that “electric machines” that some people use to ‘pull’ gas can be one of the reasons for the low pressure. “If our neighbours use them, that makes the pressure of gas for us very low. But we don’t know that,” she added.
Malik’s concerns resonate with other homemakers, such as Mona Nayani from DHA Phase-V, who shared similar experiences of dealing with low gas pressure during crucial meal times. She suspects that the use of “electric machines” by neighbours could be contributing to this issue, depriving them of adequate gas pressure.
The challenges extend beyond just pressure fluctuations. At times, gas becomes entirely unavailable, forcing residents like Nayani to resort to alternative cooking methods such as preparing “rotian” for Sehri at night or purchasing chai from hotels to start the fast without having Sehri.
“Bari mushkil se Sehri banti hai [The Sehri is cooked with great difficulty]. Sometimes, it’s not even made,” she lamented.
Echoing Malik’s thoughts, she also complained about “machines”.
“Sometimes gas is coming but suddenly vanishes meaning people have machines at their homes. When they switch their machine on, people like us lose access to gas,” Nayani expressed.
“When we visit nearby houses, we notice food being cooked, indicating that people have machines in their homes. This results in us not getting access to gas between the hours when gas is provided. Sometimes, the pressure drops to almost zero, making cooking nearly impossible.”
Occasionally, they also have to buy chai from hotels for Sehri. “Sehri kiye bagair roza rakhna parhta hai [We have to fast without eating Sehri],” she expressed.
Living in Lyari, Saba Naveed also said that even though her area gets gas on time, its pressure only remains good for an hour in the morning and afternoon at its respective times.
“During the week, one or two days the pressure is extremely low where it just slowly goes away,” she added.
A schedule not for ‘all’
Saima Ishaq, a resident of North Karachi, expressed frustration with the inconsistency of gas supply in her area. According to her, gas never arrives on time in the afternoon, consistently running 15 to 20 minutes late.
“Even though the pressure is fine initially, if we want to cook anything after Iftar, the gas pressure is not up to the mark at all. Ap roti nahi bana sakte uspe [You cannot cook Roti using that]. And by around 9 pm, the gas supply completely vanishes,” she said.
Ishaq has no option but to prepare both Iftar and dinner between 3:30pm and 6:30pm, doubling her workload. She explained that after this time, the gas supply was insufficient for cooking anything.
Another significant challenge for women like Ishaq is catering to the needs of younger children. With the gas supply depleted after 9am, she “cannot cook anything for her toddler” or “even heat milk for them”.
“If you have any old or sick persons at home or people who are not fasting, you can’t cook or warm anything for them,” she said. “If I want to make anything for my child, I need to make it during Sehri hours or early morning hours because you can’t cook anything in the afternoon”.
A woman uses wood to prepare Iftar food for her family in the corridor of her home in the Korangi area in March 2023.
— Shakil Adil / White Star
These fixed gas timings not only pose challenges for children, the elderly, and those who are unwell but also impact religious minorities.
Angel Thomas*, a Christian resident of PECHS, faces particular difficulties during Ramazan. Since she does not fast, she must either adjust her eating schedule or go hungry for most of the day. “How can I have lunch? Since restaurants are closed, I cannot get food during the day. If I do get takeaway, there is no place for me to sit and eat since the food court is closed,” she said.
Even if she returns home from work to prepare lunch, she encounters the issue of gas unavailability at the time. Consequently, Thomas often resorts to eating items like bread that do not require cooking.
Regarding complaints about gas pressure, the SSGC spokesperson emphasised the connection between gas pressure management and the supply of gas.
He explained that if there is insufficient injection of gas into the SSGC’s system, which is responsible for the transmission and distribution of gas, the company faces low-pressure situations.
“In the current demand-supply gap scenario, the company, however, carries out gas pressure profiling especially at night to ensure that its line pack or distribution system remains sustainable for the majority of the population to keep on getting gas,” Siddiqui said.
Earlier, sources within the power utility informed Dawn that the inadequate and deteriorating distribution system of the gas utility was a primary cause of the city’s low gas pressure. However, they noted that pressure further decreased during Sehri and Iftar due to the simultaneous use of stoves by the majority of the population.
The SSGC spokesperson also mentioned that the company is “implementing a master plan in its franchise areas of Sindh and Balochistan”. This plan includes laying down new gas lines and rehabilitating the old network to improve gas pressure, and supply, and reduce line losses or Unaccounted for Gas (UFG).
UFG is the difference between how much gas goes into the pipes at one end and how much comes out at the other end for people to use.
Explainer: What is ‘Unaccounted for Gas’? — American Gas Association
Previously, there had been reports indicating that neighbourhoods near the infrastructure of the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, like Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Gulshan-i-Iqbal, had a consistent gas supply, while other parts of the city faced frequent gas problems.
This contrast was evident in the experience of Fatima Ansari, a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, who said she was fortunate to have gas “24 hours of the day” and faced “no problems due to gas”.
When Dawn.com asked the SSGC regarding this matter, Siddique acknowledged that “areas which are at the tail end or are at a sizeable distance from the distribution network do feel the pinch of low supply”.
He said that their “rehabilitation plan includes expanding the distribution network to those areas that are at a considerable distance from the supply lines”.
Over the past few years, SSGC has made significant efforts to expand and upgrade its network, particularly in areas like DHA, Clifton, and old city regions such as Lyari, he added.
The infamous ‘machines’
Munira Ali, who resides near Boat Basin in Clifton, mentioned that the gas supply adheres to the schedule provided by the SSGC during Ramazan but sometimes experiences a delay of about 10 to 15 minutes.
However, when she cooks at her mother’s house on II Chundrigarh Road twice a week, she faces a “very distinct” story. Last winter, they didn’t receive any gas at all, forcing them to install an electric machine. “We live on the top floor of the apartment complex where it is very difficult for gas to reach us because it’s usually consumed by floors that are lower than ours.”
“At around Iftar and Sehri times, we do receive gas, but the quantity is significantly low. With the rush of preparing meals before Iftar, we need to use the machine to pump out gas quickly for timely cooking,” she explained.
Contrarily, Eman Ahmed from North Nazimabad expressed discontent with the use of such machines.
Despite gas supply resuming at 3pm, “its pressure is very low because people with compressors suck it and then we get the bachi kuchi gas [leftover gas] after a while”, she said.
“We resorted to buying an electric hot plate last Ramazan due to the gas shortages. Now when we get gas, we cook using that. Otherwise, we just use the hot plate to cook food,” Ahmed added.
Moreover, she expressed reluctance towards purchasing gas cylinders due to safety concerns such as leakage and the risk of explosion.
Suction pumps or gas compressors are deemed “illegal and dangerous” by the SSGC, as stated by Siddique. He stressed that using compressors is not just unethical but also robs neighbours of gas, which is already scarce.
“Residents in tail-end areas have been found using compressors, with little regard for the risks involved and of course, the law to this effect, since as per Gas (Theft Control and Recovery) Act. 2016, they carry a penalty of Rs1 lakh fine and 6 months imprisonment,” he pointed out.
To combat this issue, the SSGC has taken proactive measures. They have conducted raids on residents using illegal pumps and launched mass media campaigns to raise public awareness about this problem.
“If residents find their neighbours using illegal pumps while depriving them of gas, they must immediately report to SSGC’s 24/7 Call Centre or social media platforms,” he said.
So, what will happen next?
In areas such as PECHS and Nazimabad, homemakers told Dawn.com that despite adapting their routines to the gas schedule, they still face ongoing struggles.
Zulekha Farooq, residing in PECHS, noted that while the gas pressure is acceptable in her area, its timing is not prompt enough, especially in the afternoon. “In the afternoon, it should be coming earlier than it does that is at 3:30pm.”
“For Sehri, timing isn’t a problem, but afternoon gas schedules need adjustment,” she said. Farooq highlighted the challenge of preparing Iftar due to delayed gas availability, affecting their house help’s schedule as well.
“Gas supply should start earlier so that our Iftar can be cooked on time and our house-help can go home early as she also needs to prepare Iftar at her home,” she said.
Lubna Arshad, a resident of Nazimabad, explained that they have “shaped” their daily routines according to the gas schedule, which has enabled them to avoid any problems. “But households with young, elderly, or sick members face difficulties as they need everything [such as food] on time,” Arshad explained, noting the burden on women managing household tasks.
She wondered whether these gas timings would continue after Ramazan. “I hope [the gas] issue can be solved as soon as possible and whatever are its causes, are resolved.”
It’s not just Arshad who has this question on her mind.
Siddique, addressing the future, assured that the gas utility’s “system is more or less intact, contrary to the general perception. Out of 3.2 million SSGC customers, only 1pc is facing supply and pressure issues”.
He said that in Ramazan, due to “greater gas usage”, the “overall supply situation gets affected”.
“Our plan is never to restrict customers to only a certain number of hours of supply. Hopefully, with usage returning to normalcy post-Ramazan, the gas supply situation should improve,” he stated.
*Names have been changed as per the participants’ preferences.
Lama, a 19-year-old Palestinian, has been displaced thrice since October last year when Israel began its relentless bombardment of Gaza. Once an aspiring business student, she now runs a kitchen in Rafah’s Tal Al Sultan area, providing hot meals to hundreds of people free of cost.
“Families in Gaza have had no source of income since the beginning of the war, and it is very difficult to get a decent meal,” she lamented. “A warm meal has become a distant dream for children and adults.”
In its recent report, Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification, the global hunger monitor, said famine was projected in Gaza by May sans an immediate ceasefire and surge of aid.
It described the food shortages as the worst it had ever witnessed anywhere. More than half of Gaza’s population — far more than the 20 per cent associated with famine — is already experiencing the worst level of food shortage, category 5 or “catastrophe”.
“Virtually all households are already skipping meals every day and adults are reducing their meals so that children can eat,” the World Health Organisation highlighted, adding that children in Gaza are dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease.
As she shifted from one refugee camp to the other, Lama witnessed how managing a single meal a day had became a daunting task. Last year’s iftar feasts were now just a distant memory.
“Our days in Gaza for the last five months have been filled with fear, loss and great fatigue. We fear how we will sleep tonight. Will we sleep? And what sound will we wake up to?” she said.
Lama serves hot meals to children in Gaza.
Amid these desperate times, there is one thing that makes Lama forget her exhaustion and overcome her anxiety — seeing a child smile after receiving a meal. It makes her want to do more to help others, which has been possible with the support of the Rebuilding Alliance.
From one Palestinian to the other
The non-profit organisation, in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), has been serving hot meals to the people of Gaza since the beginning of the conflict. In February, it was able to reach the milestone of feeding 100,000 Palestinians in a day.
Rebuilding Alliance, under its campaign, ‘By the Hands of Your People’, funds field kitchens across the coastal enclave, run by hired community chefs and local NGOs. This is not the first time though. The organisation has been supporting community kitchens and doing much more in Gaza for over 20 years.
In October last year, at least 4,000 meals were served every day, said Adam Ramadan, the deputy director of Rebuilding Alliance. This number increased to 50,000 meals a day in February.
“Currently, we have 30 kitchens operating across Gaza … they are located in Rafah, Deir al-Balah and even in the north where the situation is the worst,” he told Dawn.com.
But how is the organisation, which is headquartered in the US, funding these kitchens in the current circumstances?
The deputy director of Rebuilding Alliance explained that the WFP provided the kitchens with essential food items such as flour and lentils. For items such as vegetables and meat, Adam said the NGO was in touch with vendors willing to deal with them on a credit basis.
“Once we collect our donations, we pay them,” he said, adding that these were the perks his NGO, unlike others working in the enclave, enjoyed because of its two-decade-long history.
Heba, an architect based in Gaza, took charge as the programme coordinator for Rebuilding Alliance after she lost her house to Israeli bombing. She coordinates with local NGOs, cooking teams and kitchens across the city.
“Each partner NGO has nine or 10 kitchen points. Some are cooking points, others are baking points as they only prepare bread, and some do both cooking and baking. There are central kitchens, home-based kitchens, field kitchens, and bakeries,” she explained.
Once the meals are prepared, Heba went on to say, they are distributed among people of all ages. “It is truly a relief for them. Many families come from distant places just to have one meal. There are large gatherings of people at all distribution points,” she added.
Providing a sense of dignity
Moreover, WFP also gives Rebuilding Alliance a modest amount to be distributed among the community chefs. “Most people refuse to take money, but we are insistent because we want them to feel a sense of dignity and acknowledgement,” said Adam.
Other expenses incurred during the campaign, on the other hand, are paid through crowdfunding.
Community chefs cook meals for displaced Gazans.
However, transferring and receiving funds is never easy. “The only way for Gazans to collect cash is through the Bank of Palestine, and opening an account there is a long process that requires approvals from the Israeli government.
“Thankfully, we have contacts with the bank’s CEO,” said the Rebuilding Alliance deputy director. Despite that, the final step of having paper notes in one’s hands depends on luck. After Oct 7, the bank’s branches across Gaza were shut down.
The only way locals can get money is at ATMs, which are mostly overcrowded. It is best if one leaves for the machine at 4am because the exercise usually lasts 12 to 15 hours.
“It is worse for women, and most of the time their salaries are just sitting in the bank accounts,” Adam told Dawn.com.
Never-ending challenges
One of the biggest problems that Rebuilding Alliance has faced post-Oct 7 is the skyrocketing prices of fruits, vegetables and other food items. As of now, a tomato costs $3 in Gaza, which amounts to approximately Rs835. An egg costs as much while the price of a potato stands at $11.
Even wood, which is the major source of energy used for cooking, is reaching the “price of gold”, said Adam. “It is sad, but some people are taking advantage of the situation,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, Heba said there was a shortage of commodities in the market which made it hard for kitchens to find vegetables and meat at affordable prices. “Many, many farms have been destroyed so the supplies are short.”
However, even in times of crisis, resilience breeds innovation.
Volunteers carry freshly cooked food for displaced families in Gaza.
“Chefs find innovative ways of cooking. They try to overcome the shortage of commodities in the market. For example, they use onion and garlic powder rather than fresh onions. The price of 1 kg onion is now $9 and before the war, it was less than $1,” Heba said.
It must also be noted that before Oct 7, nearly 800 aid trucks used to enter Gaza every day, which has now decreased by more than four times. Now, on a good day, 240 trucks manage to cross the border into Rafah, according to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
Adam explained that aid coming to Gaza was under Israel’s discretion. “Israel stops the aid for about a week, using it as a means to punish civilians and pressure Hamas into a ceasefire agreement on their terms,” he said.
For the Rebuilding Alliance, the WFP collaborates with the United Nations for food trucks entering Gaza. When aid is blocked, the organisation amps up its advocacy in the US and reaches out to senators and house representatives who in turn approach the Israeli embassy.
Coming together
In recent months, particularly after Oct 7, people from diverse backgrounds have approached the Rebuilding Alliance to become a part of the hot meals programme.
“We are seeing kitchens being run by doctors, teachers and artists,” Adam told Dawn.com.
Children stand in queues to collect freshly cooked food in Gaza.
Laila Kassab, a mother of five, is one such example. She used to find solace in her paintings but was forced to abandon her art completely during the Gaza crisis. Instead, she felt more compelled to volunteer for humanitarian work.
“I decided to start helping the displaced,” the artist said. “I felt that my children and I were very happy that we can lighten up the hearts of children.”
But Laila, Lama and several other chefs in Gaza need support to keep the smiles intact on the faces of their neighbours, friends and families.
“Given the immense need, we cannot feed everyone,” said Lama. “We do not have enough resources to provide hot meals to all families in my neighbourhood,” she added, calling on people across the globe to donate to her cause so that more and more displaced families could be fed.
Find details here if you want to donate to Rebuilding Alliance.
Shakeeba, 23, has dreams as big as the challenges she faces. Currently enrolled in the first semester at the Department of Radiography at Khyber Medical College (KMC), Peshawar, her path has been marked by resilience and sacrifice.
Born to parents holding Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC), her roots lie in a journey across borders — a journey they embarked upon when she was a child. Despite the odds stacked against her, Shakeeba, whose family lives in Khurasan camp [a designated camp for Afghan refugees in Peshawar], has relentlessly pursued her education.
Her story echoes the struggles of thousands. Restricted by limited opportunities for ACC holders, Shakeeba was forced to move to Afghanistan after completing her FSc in Pakistan to pursue a degree in medicine. Yet, fate dealt her another blow when the Taliban imposed a ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan, leaving her with no choice but to return to Pakistan to continue her studies.
“I have wasted so many years already struggling to complete my education to achieve my dreams,” said Shakeeba. “So now, the news of our deportation to Afghanistan is incredibly painful to hear. It feels like all my struggles have been in vain.”
Afghan girls playing outside their home in Khurasan Camp in Peshawar.
In Afghanistan, a harrowing truth persists: girls are denied the right to education, making it the only country in the world enforcing such a ban. This injustice transpired on Sep 17, 2021, when the Taliban prohibited girls older than 11 or beyond sixth grade from pursuing higher studies.
As a result, the aspirations of Afghan girls are stifled — their potential locked away behind closed doors. The restriction not only robs them of the experience of academic learning but also crushes their dreams for a brighter tomorrow. Tragically, the only flicker of hope lies for those privileged enough to carve a life outside of Afghanistan.
Forced to flee, now forced to return
For the past several decades, Pakistan has served as a home for Afghan refugees. However, the current discourse on deportations has considerably complicated the situation.
On October 3, the Government of Pakistan said that an estimated 1.7 million undocumented refugees, the vast majority of them Afghans, were living in different parts of the country. It then ordered everyone who did not have documentation to leave the country by Nov 1 or risk being forcibly evicted. These unregistered migrants were also referred to as ‘aliens’, who had no form of identification, including either a POR (Proof of Residency) card or an ACC (Afghan Citizen Card).
The POR cards were introduced in collaboration with the UNHCR and were issued to over 2.15 million Afghan refugees between 2006 and 2007. These cards were valid for two years, after which they would have to be renewed every two years. In 2017, the Government of Pakistan, in collaboration with the Afghan government, introduced the ACCs, which were to be issued to those who could not obtain the PoR cards for some reason. In January 2022, the UNHCR estimated the number of ACC holders to be around around 840,000.
No official data has been released as to how many of the estimated 1.7m undocumented Afghans have left for their country since November 2023, though the figure likely fell hugely short of what is now being considered a grossly exaggerated number.
But according to informed sources, the total number of undocumented Afghans who have returned to Afghanistan via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in the first round stands at around the half million-mark.
Notwithstanding the lack of data, the authorities have now decided to move on to the second phase of deportations — targeting those holding ACC permits. This looming reality is particularly alarming for Afghan women, whose fundamental rights stand imperilled back home.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and a prominent advocate for Afghan girls’ education, voiced concern over Pakistan’s deportation practices that appear to target Afghan refugees. “The policies of Pakistan regarding Afghans are flawed (outdated) and failed,” he said.
Yousafzai stressed that people only flee their homes when faced with dire circumstances. Forcing individuals, especially women, into environments where basic human rights such as education, employment, and freedom of movement are compromised, unequivocally violates humanitarian principles and international law. He denounced the deportation of Afghans, rejecting the use of the term “refugees” for them due to their long-standing history and multi-generational presence in Pakistan.
Inside the home of an Afghan refugee family, located at Kababyan Camp near Warsak Road, Peshawar. The father of these children is unable to work because he is paralysed. The eldest son and mother earn for the household, and only the younger children go to school.
“This decision is very unjust, especially considering the awful circumstances in Afghanistan, particularly for vulnerable groups like women pursuing education, journalists, musicians, and others. My empathy extends to those Afghan girls receiving education in Pakistan, and are forced to return to a nation where access to education is systematically restricted,” he said.
UNHCR spokesperson Qaisar Afridi shared Yousafzai’s sentiments. Shedding light on the pressing issues faced by ACC holders, he stressed the profound human rights challenges they face, drawing particular attention to the predicament of Afghan girls, who were currently enrolled in schools and colleges in Pakistan, and whose academic pursuits now hang in the balance with the threat of deportation to Afghanistan.
“While we understand Pakistan’s sovereign right to implement legislation, we have asked the government to take Afghan refugees’ difficult circumstances into account. We are in constant discussions and negotiations with the Government of Pakistan to address the challenges faced by Afghan refugees,” he added.
Education for refugees — a luxury instead of a basic right
Tahira, a 25-year-old resident of Kohat with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology, shared her family’s concerns amid reports of deportations unfolding in different phases. Despite holding Proof of Registration (POR) cards, they fear being the next targets in the aftermath of the deportation of ACC holders.
A school for Afghan refugee children at the Khurasan camp in Peshawar. The teacher is talking to students to understand their situation amid news of a fresh deportation drive.
She reflected on her family’s experience as refugees, describing how they encounter numerous hurdles on a day-to-day basis — from mundane tasks such as opening bank accounts to more significant milestones like being enrolled in a university. “We hold onto hope that undergoing the lengthy processes in Pakistan will eventually grant us access to education and employment opportunities. But the ambiguity surrounding the situation as of now has cast a shadow over our future.”
Tahira also highlighted her younger sister’s case — having just passed her matriculation exams, her family is now grappling with uncertainty about her college prospects. “We’re unsure whether to proceed with my sister’s higher education or hold off due to the uncertainties surrounding the government’s actions. It’s a heavy burden for us as we are made to navigate such difficult decisions,” she added somberly.
Tahira expressed a profound sentiment: she would rather stay in Pakistan — even at the cost of her life — than venture to a country where women face severe restrictions on their access to jobs, education, mobility, and most importantly, their freedom to simply be.
According to Abbas Khan, Pakistan’s Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees, Tahira and her family’s apprehensions are justified. He confirmed the intention to deport holders of Proof of Registration (POR) cards following the completion of the second phase targeting Afghans with ACC. “Although the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) is raising issues regarding Afghan girls’ education and other vulnerable communities, engaging with various stakeholders, including UN representatives, the repatriation plan remains unchanged,” said Khan.
Even as negotiations continue, Khan underscored that there’s been no decision to halt the deportation plans thus far. He clarified that officers, like himself, are obligated to proceed with phases two and three of the deportation process unless instructed otherwise by the government.
The human cost of deportation
For his part, Yousafzai stressed upon the government to rethink its stance and preserve the educational dreams of these young learners enrolled in Pakistani institutions. With a heartfelt plea, he urged decision-makers to lead with empathy and compassion in shaping policies affecting these vulnerable communities.
Afghan refugee children outside their home near the Torkham border.
“Having been internally displaced in 2009, we have firsthand experience of the grave consequences of relocation. These Afghans consider Pakistan to be their home, therefore deporting them would be like forcibly removing them from their homes. The decision to deport Afghan refugees ought to be reversed,” he said.
For now, Shakeeba dreads the impending doom of the forced deportation of her family, fearing it may derail her aspirations and educational pursuits.
“We’ve called Pakistan home all our lives, born and bred here. The thought of being uprooted to Afghanistan, where women’s rights are at risk, is daunting. It seems authorities overlook the struggles of students like us during the decision-making process. While we’re prepared to comply with Pakistan’s procedures, we earnestly request the government to not deport us.”
Header image: Afghan refugee children at a school in Khurasan Camp in Peshawar. — All photos provided by author
I have a long-time acquaintance who moved to Pakistan from Malaysia when he was almost an adult. For the sake of his privacy, let’s call him Junaid. He is a globe-trotting critic — the kind of acquaintance you can’t shake off, no matter how hard you try. He swapped the palm-fringed shores of Malaysia for the bustling streets of Pakistan, bringing along more than just his luggage; he brought his opinions too, and boy, does he love to share them.
Having also lived a few years in Saudi Arabia, he’s now busy comparing us to a country that could buy and sell us as a side project, and still telling us how terrible this country is. From bashing Pakistan to praising the latest country he’s set foot in, Junaid’s commentary is as consistent as the sunrise.
Fast forward to our latest encounter right after the elections — Junaid, unable to cast his own vote because he couldn’t get himself a CNIC from Nadra for unknown reasons — found joy in ridiculing those who did. He laughed about how ‘stupid’ PTI supporters were for thinking that voting was going to change the country.
Now, this is an obnoxious man, so I take his comments with a pinch of salt. But he’s not alone in his disdain. A journalist in Islamabad, alongside a Twitter columnist, joined the chorus, labelling PTI supporters as everything from ‘uninformed’ and ‘ignorant’ to ‘over-zealous ideologues’ and ‘fanatics’.
But Pakistan isn’t just a battleground for political debates. It’s a free-for-all where everyone is itching to tell you how to live, how to pray, and even how to think. There’s a Junaid in every corner, ready to school you on the “correct” way to practice Islam or why your political views are outdated, leaving no room for alternative voices — not in politics, not in religion, and not even in culture.
Pakistan seems to be split into a minority of two extremes — the liberals and the religious — whose voices are the loudest. In the meantime, no one knows what the vast majority of Pakistan wants, because no one is listening. Most of us are stuck in the middle, drowned out by the roar of extremism on both ends, silently wondering: “What about us?”
Unaffected by global events
In the global spotlight, there’s a dialogue we’re missing out on. While Israel ramps up its genocidal assault on Palestine (because let’s not forget the escalating violence by the Israelis in the West Bank, despite our focus on Gaza), a new cognisance about colonialism has taken hold.
In their efforts to bring their cause to light, Palestinian voices in the diaspora are leading the charge, exposing colonialism for the ugly truth that it is. Through decades of patient campaigning and organising, Palestinian civil society has raised an awareness across the Global South of the devastation colonialism wrought, its lasting scars and its modern-day manifestations.
In Pakistan, we have also recognised this, but we seem unable to emerge from that looming shadow. Our leaders are both deeply embedded in the neo-colonial capitalist structures and snake pits of the Global North — more concerned with their own pockets than their country. Their collective visions of Pakistan’s future are borrowed from the Middle East or the West, while our intellectual class remains fixated on India. Our leaders completely abrogate any responsibility while the majority of Pakistanis are left to fend for themselves, trapped in poverty, illiteracy, and injustice.
Small sections of civil society are helping to alleviate some of these issues, but unless they can scale up at a phenomenal rate, there is little chance that they’ll do more than apply band-aids to the seething wounds inflicted upon us. Meanwhile, if there is some semblance of organisation within society, some spark of engagement and participatory citizenship — however you may dislike how they participate — we are quick to shut it down with contempt, derision, and indifference.
This is the same contempt a feudal feels for his serfs. The same contempt I’ve seen middle-class women hold for their domestic staff. The same contempt a school owner in a Katchi Abadi in Karachi has for his students (“Why give them parathas when all they’re used to are rotis?”). This isn’t just a lack of empathy; it’s a legacy of colonialism ingrained in our society. It’s the language of the British Raj internalised, absorbed, and well-padded with expensive foreign educations in neo-colonial USA or through Saudi Arabia’s deliberate attempt to spread Salafism.
Divide et Impera
Just as we continue to battle the quest for ‘fair skin’ — our deep-seated gora complex — and the drive to bury our native languages in favour of English, we should recognise that we’ve inherited this attitude of contempt from our oppressors.
After the 1857 War of Independence (which is still referred to in the UK as the Mutiny), Lord Elphinstone wrote:
“I have long considered the subject, and I am convinced that the exact converse of this policy of assimilation is our only safe military policy in India. Divide et impera (divide and rule) was the old Roman motto, and it should be ours. The safety of the great iron steamers, which are adding so much to our military power, and which are probably destined to add still more to our commercial superiority, is greatly increased by building them in compartments. I would ensure the safety of our Indian Empire by constructing our native army on the same principle; for this purpose I would avail myself of those divisions of language and race we find ready to hand.”
Similarly, Brigadier John Coke, an officer in the North West Frontier (before it became a province of Pakistan), said:
“Our endeavour should be to uphold in full force the (fortunate for us) separation which exists between the different religions and races, and not to endeavour to amalgamate them. Divide et impera should be the principle of Indian Government.” [sic]
Years earlier, Lord Macaulay had already started the process of breaking down the subcontinent’s existing education system. Having received an extensive grant for investing in education for the ‘natives’, he was hesitant to invest in existing materials which were all in either Persian, Urdu (which he called Arabic), or Sanskrit.
He lobbied strongly to replace all oriental literature with English books, because he “never found one among them (orientalists) who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is, indeed, fully admitted by those members of the committee who support the oriental plan of education.”
Lord Macaulay relished the idea of educating the Indian into “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”
The British wanted us divided. They also considered us unable to progress on our own without their superior intellect and help. The US feels no differently. Nor does Saudi Arabia. Both countries have continued to colonise us and divide us.
Where once we longed to be British, we now long to be American or Arab (the rich Arabs, that is. No one here yearns to be a Yemeni). We educate our children in US universities. We internalise their language and their ideologies. These children return to their home countries to bring enlightenment to us. They bring back with them not solutions to the daily struggles of a family of 10 who can’t save for their futures, but principles of capitalism, secularism, liberalism, and rationalism that only serve to crush any last vestiges of identity the population is still clinging on to.
Meanwhile, those coming from the Middle East bring with them the outward trappings of Salafism and a complete disdain for Sufism, our music, our poetry, our rituals and customs, disregarding them all as either ‘innovations’ in Islam or superstitions learned from Hindus.
And this is possibly the logic (and I can find no other logic for it) behind the division of Pakistan into two non-contiguous land masses.
A small example of this attitude is the hugely popular Coke Studio. Leaving aside the irony of a programme sponsored by a global corporation that abets apartheid in Palestine and represents the worst aspects of capitalism, the programme itself is instrumental in reminding our middle classes of the great Sufi legacy we can and should remember, revere, and tap into.
However, as one former colleague of mine put it, it’s too ‘populist’ for him. Suggesting music from Coke Studio at my previous place of work (with a select few, all of whom were educated abroad and belong to the upper crust of society) will return a turned up nose and much mocking. Salafists, on the other hand, simply dismiss music as ‘unIslamic’, and have the same reaction to the popularity of the programme.
In all cases, these segments of society view each other and the vast majority of their fellow citizens (who don’t agree with them) with complete and utter contempt.
Break open the compartments
Britain’s iron steamers left a long time ago. Whatever veneer of civilisation the Global North had has been well and truly stripped since this latest war on Gaza, along with it any notion that Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, could be the spiritual leader of the Ummah.
The United States’ own domestic affairs are in a deep divide. Evidence of the corruption of their leadership, judiciary, media, and political system is visible for the whole world to see. Its social poles keep moving further and further apart. If we must learn from empire, perhaps this is what we should be looking at: what not to do with our own societies.
It’s time we stopped scoffing at each other’s views.
It’s time we stopped dismissing the other for their desi accents or local brand of shoes.
It’s time we turned inwards in contemplation; remember that we are all, from all parts of the country, human beings whose diversity gives us strength rather than dividing us.
It’s time we moved beyond the circles of school and family that keep widening the rift between the silent majority and the vocal few.
Start by actually speaking to the people (which is something that none of the reigning political parties do either) and finding out what they really want, rather than assuming you know what is best for them. Start by listening with the respect we learned from our elders, not the crude superiority of the white man towards the brown native.
Some spaces are sacred — so sacramental, in fact, that they etch themselves into the very fabric of one’s being. This is the story of one such place — a sanctuary of peace and spirituality that touched my soul in ways I never expected.
At 8am, I climbed the stairs and stepped into the main courtyard of the darbar [hall]. Under the crisp bright March sky, petrichor from last night’s rain lingered in the air, carrying a touch of chill. I was enveloped by the serene silence; greeted with the fragrance of roses along with the scent of burning wood emanating from a nearby chillah gah — a sacred spot where the shrine’s custodian once meditated.
View of the chilla gah at Darbar Shah Chan Charagh — image provided by the author
Seating myself against a pillar, I marvelled at the grandeur around me. As the sun ascended above the neighbouring tall, aged buildings, visitors began to pour in at the Darbar Shah Chan Charagh to perform their everyday rituals.
Office employees parked their motorcycles outside and entered to touch the Alam (Shia ornamental motif) and seek blessing before starting their day. Women, accompanied by children dressed in their school uniforms, lit diyas (lights) and distributed sweets in the hopes of having their mannat (wish) fulfilled.
Women touching the Alam at Darbar Shah Chan Charagh
Soon after, the shutters of shops outside squeaked open, announcing the start of another day in androon [inner] Rawalpindi.
Religion at the heart of Shah Chan Charagh
Shah Chan Charagh and the neighbouring Bhabra Bazaar, stand as two of Rawalpindi’s oldest settlements. What once comprised a few houses has now transformed into one of the busiest and most densely populated neighbourhoods.
Today, it is known for its 400-year-old shrine and the Tazia procession on the ninth of Muharram. Before Partition, it was primarily inhabited by Sikh and Jain communities living in grand havelis and houses adorned with intricate artwork. Among these architectural marvels stood Haveli Sujan Singh — once famous as the grand darbar of the city.
A pre-partition house in the neighbourhood of Shah Chan Charagh — image provided by the author
As I stepped out of Darbar Shah Chan Charagh to explore the neighbourhood, a stall owner arranging his merchandise next to a pre-Partition house caught my eye. Inside his shop, the soothing tunes of a Sufi ghazal filled the air, as he placed diyas, candles, and posters of various Sufi saints on the table, including Khawaja Khizr (the saint of the sea who rode on the back of a fish to save a damsel in distress).
It felt as though the spirit of Shah Chan Charagh’s saint was reviving his legacy by guiding the boats of those distressed in the sea of souls.
khewanhaar ki laaj tumhi ko
daata khaṛi hoon, du’aare du’aare du’aare
du’aare darya kashti baandho
mauj aaye bahr-i-ulfat mein khizr
The boatman’s pride and honour rests in your hands;O benefactor, I am standing near the shore, near the shore, near the shore. Tie the boar near the shore; let joyous waves surge in friendship’s sea, Khizr).
Guardians of heritage
I was called here by my friend Hussain Rizvi, who, aware of my interest in visiting historically rich places, invited me to explore his ancestral haveli, ‘Imambargah Syed Muhammad Agha Rizvi’. The bazaar retains its reputation for crafting Shia Alams till date. Recognised for its revered saint, it once saw numerous Jain and Hindu temples. However, the crumbling structures and dilapidated remains today, only echo tales of the past.
As we made our way towards the haveli, we passed by several shops parallel to houses embellished with detailed wood and brickwork. Tucked away on the street adjacent to the darbar, the haveli stood as a striking landmark.
Facade of the haveli (Imambarah) — image provided by the author
With its expansive fading red facade, numerous arched windows, and blended elements of Sikh and Victorian architecture, the building struck out prominently amid its surroundings. Divided into two sections, the ground floor served as a spacious hall dedicated to the Imambargah, while the upper two floors were reserved for residential quarters.
Hussain Rizvi and his siblings are the first generation to be born and raised in this house. He traced his family’s origins back to being the caretakers of Bara Imambargah in Lucknow, who then migrated during partition and settled here.
As he opened the door, I stepped into the main hall of the Imambargah. It was a vast, carpeted space with cupboards and windows tucked in the corners. The roof soared open in the middle, supported by wide pillars and surrounded by balconies, reminiscent of the typical Sikh structures found in Gurdwaras across Sindh and Punjab.
The walls between the pillars were decorated with Shia motifs, perhaps once hosting Sikh symbols. Large banners showcasing the battle of Karbala were placed on the surrounding walls.
Poster depicting the War of Karbala inside the Imambargah — image provided by the author
“The white walls you see had paintings beneath them,” Hussain explained as he guided me through the hall. “We covered them with white paint, but the original paint is so vibrant that it often peels away, revealing the hidden paintings and figures beneath.”
As he guided me through the hall, his father, Syed Raees Abbas Rizvi, a retired engineer from PTV, entered and joined our conversation. Well-traveled and knowledgeable, he recounted his family’s migration to Pakistan after partition.
“We were allotted this house as we were among the caretakers of Bara Imambargah in Lucknow,” he reminisced. “Being displaced, I was determined to establish a similar sacred place here in remembrance of what we had back home.” He gestured towards the ground floor of the haveli. “I always felt this was sacred, so I continued its legacy by converting it into an Imambargah.”
Raees Abbas Rizvi shared a touching memory of when the original residents of the house visited from India. “The oldest among them,” he recalled, “removed his shoes to enter this hall, showing his respect. With tears in his eyes, he pointed out where his grandfather and father used to sit and read Guru Granth Sahib (the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism), while he played around.”
Syed Raees Abbas Rizvi sitting inside his haveli (Imambargah) — image provided by the author
He paused, his voice brimming with emotion, before continuing. “I’ve been offered to sell this place, but I will never leave. I communicate with the saint here. I was destined to occupy this place and keep it clean,” he said, gesturing towards the darbar visible from the door.
“It may not be the main Gurdwara, but it holds religious significance,” he added. “During construction, we discovered many religious paintings and murals that were later whitewashed.”
To my surprise, nestled between two houses on the left side of the street was the entrance to a Gurdwara. Adorned with the Sikh symbol ‘*Ik Onkar’*, the words ‘Gurdwara Baradari’ were inscribed atop the entrance door in Gurumukhi script. On entering, one could see the main Gurdwara building and its dome, now encroached upon by multiple Kashmiri settlers.
Gurdwara Baradari inscribed in Gurmukhi script on the wall — image provided by the author
Rukhsana Bibi (name changed), who politely declined to be photographed, graciously led us into the building, now her home, where remnants of Sikh names are still visible on the floor.
“Our families arrived here after Partition and claimed this space,” she explained. “As migrants, my in-laws, who once experienced communal harmony in the subcontinent, stressed that this is a holy place and should be treated as such.” Despite financial constraints, the resident families preserved the main hall while constructing extensions in the courtyard.
“The building appears to be deteriorating because we don’t have the means to maintain it, but we have preserved every symbol, including the Gurumukhi script, out of respect for this sacred site,” she added earnestly.
Adjacent to this street is the ‘Dhakki Mohalla,’ preserving its pre-Partition name. As you walk towards the bustling Chan Bazar, your gaze is drawn to an intriguing Urdu nameplate placed on the facade of an aged building, now transformed into a beauty salon. The plate declares the building’s heritage as the ‘Dharamshala Sardar Jawala Singh Nandrajog,’ erected by Jugindar Sindh in loving memory of his esteemed father Natha Singh, and grandfather Sardar Jawala Sindh in May 1927.
Nameplate of the Dharamshala outside the beauty parlour — image provided by the author
Traditionally, Dharamshalas were sanctuaries for pilgrims, offering solace and shelter near revered temples. However, today, this historic site has morphed into a bustling hub, housing both a shoe shop and the aforementioned beauty parlour.
Despite the passage of time and numerous renovations, the current proprietors — migrants to this vibrant locale — have chosen to honour the legacy of the original builders by preserving the cherished nameplate. It stands as a tribute to their predecessors’ virtues and the enduring spirit of familial remembrance.
Yet, as you wander through the neighbourhood of Shah Chan Charagh, once home to majestic pre-Partition buildings, a sombre realisation dawns — these architectural marvels now stand on the brink of oblivion. Neglected and undervalued, they face an uncertain fate in the wake of soaring land prices and waning interest.
The setting echoes of bygone eras and the moving tales of the residents are gradually succumbing to the onslaught of modernity. With each passing day, a piece of history is lost, replaced by gaudy structures that stand as monuments to progress, erasing the cherished memories of past generations, one site at a time.
Unspoken wounds of the partition
The Partition of the subcontinent in 1947 stands as one of the most profound humanitarian crises in history. While numerous facets of this tragic event have been scrutinised, its psychological toll and the deep sense of loss remain largely unacknowledged — both by those who directly endured its horrors and by subsequent generations. As Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s inaugural prime minister, lamented, “The most dreadful aspect of Partition and its aftermath was the psychological trauma — the distortion of the human psyche, particularly among the younger generations on both sides of the newly drawn borders.”
Individuals like Raees Abbas Rizvi, who carried fragments of their memories into their new homelands, find themselves trapped in the anguish of identity and bereavement — their struggles etched into the very stones that surround them. Shedding light on Italo Calvino’s words from his book, ‘Invisible Cities,’ the characters discover in each new city the remnants of a past they hadn’t realised it possessed: “The unfamiliarity of what you once were or once owned awaits you in foreign, unclaimed territories.”
Today, while some religious sites from the pre-Partition era remain intact, cherished by an older generation bound by sacramental reverence, the succeeding generation grapples with economic turmoil and inflation — their connection to such emotional anchors growing ever more tenuous.
Sadly, there is little attention and support available to safeguard the memories enshrined within these sacred spaces. With time, it seems inevitable that they will vanish, swallowed by the shifting sands of history.
In capturing the essence of my experience here, I realise that some moments are too sacred to be confined to mere words — they reside within us, eternal and unchanging, even as the world around us evolves.
As Calvino said: “Memory’s images, once they are fixed in words, are erased. Perhaps I am afraid of losing [this place] all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.”
Header image: View of Imambargah Syed Muhammad Rizvi from Darbar Shah Chan Charagh — image provided by the author
“National security” — a term abused so frequently by successive governments in Pakistan that it would be better off archived. Over the years, the term has been stripped of its true essence — devolved to an enervating level of widespread dismissal among many of us; mutated into an ugly weapon and spiked with alarmingly sweeping conditions.
From the deepest recesses of ambiguity, “national security” is very conveniently dislodged to cover arbitrary measures — an easily predictable rationale from the state to justify its blatant infringements across the rights spectrum. Hence, when the continuing suspension of X (formerly Twitter) was recently ascribed to “national security” threats by the Ministry of Interior in court, it hardly came as a surprise.
We are no longer buying into this rote rationale. And no apologies for not doing so.
Continuous blackout
This week marks the second month of X’s suspension in Pakistan, with the platform having been inaccessible since February 17, 2024, in the country, a week after the nation went to polls. The election day itself saw the light of day through an enforced connectivity blackout.
Citizens seeking their polling details were left in the dark. Cellular services were shoved into a spiral of frustrating inoperability. Phone calls stumbled into empty signal bars on the screens. Access to information about real-time events during the polls was lost — or to frame it more accurately — strategically blocked. Lofty promises to hold “free” and “fair” elections were shredded in plain sight. No surprises there. All was carried out under the pretext of “national security” on a day when the nation was exercising the right to decide its future.
It is curiously difficult to understand why citizens have to bear the brunt of these perceived national security concerns specifically on communication channels, and of late, social media platforms. The law and order situation in Pakistan does not illustrate a pleasing picture either. It hasn’t for as long as I can remember.
We wake up to horrific reports on a range of crimes. Raping of minors and adults, young people shot dead in street robberies, brutal crimes against women, targeted killings, attacks on minorities, mob lynchings, and enforced disappearances are just a few of the unfortunate realities to which we have inadvertently become accustomed over the years. I, to this day, wonder how I survived the mugging on a busy road that left my head split open despite zero resistance. If all that does not concern security and does not warrant proactive containment measures, it would be enlightening to know what does.
With these crimes only on the rise, it is beyond one’s ability to comprehend how the surreptitious takedown of an entire social media platform will preserve national security. To say the suspension of X without any word from the government for months is beyond embarrassing would be an understatement, given our consistently fragile position in the international digital market.
Mum’s the word
What is frustrating is not just the ban itself, but the way it has been treated with sheer ignorance and appalling lack of accountability. It has made a spectacle of our presence in the global digital community, where we are already languishing in the lowest ranks. And that too on several fronts, be it access to the internet or establishing safe spaces to safeguard digital rights, Pakistan’s performance is nothing short of disappointing.
However, when it comes to content takedowns, such as on TikTok, we even surpass the United States (US), which boasts a far more advanced communications infrastructure — not to mention the geography and its status as a “superpower”. There is, however, no transparency around such large volumes of content removals. National security concerns or breach of hidden sanctimonious statutes of “morality” and “decency”? The government knows best, of course. We, as a people, can only take a guess out of the two — as these are the only official stock responses.
Maybe our national interests are not even remotely compromised by our federal information minister very casually dismissing the suspension of X in the media to the nation. Twitter is working in the country. Tweets are also being made. Show a notification on the ban if there’s any, and we’ll talk then. The public servant only went on to admit later that the platform was already banned when the new government came into power. The audacity to pull off such a farce in the face of naked truth.
Forget the media, the travesty of accountability by authorities in courts continues to breed the rampant culture of impunity. The apportioning of the blame. The obviously deliberate attempts to weasel out of answering. The back-and-forth tossing of responsibility. The flagrant flouting of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. That does not undermine our national interests at large, maybe, and by extension, national security.
Block everything
Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Bigo — you name the platform and we already have a blockage either in continuity or indented in history. Maybe blocking is the easy way out. It at least projects some semblance of dedicated efforts on the part of the authorities. With blocking comes a modicum of what the state wants us to believe guarantees security.
A religious event or festival approaching? Block mobile phone services across the country, for who exactly would a complete loss of communication impact? Cricket happening? Block the roads, for hours-long snarlups across the country’s largest city (Karachi) wouldn’t hurt. Some random figure in the government took offence at some random piece of content posted online by some random person from some random corner of the country? Block the platform for the whole nation, as who, in their right mind, wouldn’t want an entire online resource taken down for “sacrilegious” content? How lightly the weightage of security is eroded. Again, threats to national security concerns, maybe.
If you don’t agree with these control or mitigation strategies, then it brings us to what exactly preserves national security. Is it the failure to contain the continuing crimes highlighted above? Is it the draconian cyber legislation aimed at equipping the authorities with formulated controls to broaden censorship and surveillance and target citizens? Is it the killing or disappearance of journalists who are picked up from their homes by unidentified men or them being taken to court for merely doing their work by law enforcement agencies? Is it the watchdogs still seeking out and harassing dissenting voices under laws that have been struck down by the court? Or is it the aversion to resounding calls to respect fundamental rights by advocacy groups from around the world?
Not much to be achieved through these arguments. Maybe it is the blocking of a social media platform, after all. Don’t forget. It is “national security” that is at stake here.
But please be reliably informed. While the government may claim it’s all in the name of national security, many of us aren’t entirely sold on that explanation. We can’t just swallow what we’re being fed without questioning it.
