Friday, April 2, 2021
Pakistan’s sweet deal with India could’ve helped consumers. But domestic politics came in way
Pakistan deferring sugar and cotton imports from India should be seen as parking the car by the side of the road rather than a full U-turn.
The test flight of a trade kite lasted a mere day before jingoism pulled it down. The common refrain has been that enhancing trade between India and Pakistan will help handle the more difficult challenges that bedevil relations, but this time, ironically, trade followed the more contentious issues. Pakistan announcing the import of sugar and cotton — its two most important cash crops and India’s most politically influential crops — following a two-year gap came after the Line of Control ceasefire.
The late February LoC ceasefire came out of the blue, and was obviously the result of some sophisticated back-channel communication and diplomacy between India and Pakistan. Not to mention the recent letters exchanged between PM Imran Khan and PM Narendra Modi that exuded uncharacteristically warm language.
The positive announcement of sugar and cotton imports could have paved the way for further enhancement of India-Pakistan trade relations. Given that the initial ice-breaking covers possibly the most politically important crops in both countries, any success in handling the fallout is likely to help bring in other items into the trade basket. But India-Pakistan relations are always fraught with many imponderables, since they constitute essentially domestic rather than foreign policy issues. Not surprisingly, the Pakistan cabinet has now decided to defer the decision on importing from India less than 24 hours after the ECC had recommended easing of trade. What it was easing was, in fact, the plight of the Pakistani consumer, but that is, of course, of lesser importance than the atmospherics of holding India responsible for all ills. Consumption is slated to go up during the month of Ramadan, but with high prices, the burden on the consumer isn’t about to get lighter. The deferment should be taken more as parking the car by the side of the road rather than a full U-turn. The India-Pakistan forward motion of the recent past has, of course, slowed. Why sugar and cotton matter Pakistan’s newly appointed finance minister, Hammad Azhar, began his tenure with a politically significant proclamation of importing sugar and cotton yarn from India.
Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Council (ECC), as part of a slew of announcements, recommended the import of these two vital crops from India. Rising retail prices of sugar and shortfall in the cotton crop were the stated reasons for allowing the import from India. The initial announcement to reopen trade in ‘influential’ crops followed a series of bilateral announcements that have eased tensions between the two endlessly squabbling neighbours.Pakistan would have imported 500,000 tonnes of white sugar from India to ease the extraordinarily high retail prices in the market. Consumers have been paying upwards of Pakistani Rs 110 for a kilo of sugar, a sharp jump from 2019-20 when it averaged a little less than Pakistani Rs 80. And with an annual average per capita consumption of about 25 kgs, Pakistan was staring at a sugar crisis. The import of cotton yarn was slated to begin at the end of June, by when the stocks of the previous crop would pretty much have been consumed. And were likely to last until the new crop is available by end of the kharif season. While the import of sugar would have somewhat eased the situation for the consumer, the stated purpose of buying cotton from India was to help the small and medium exporters handle the shortfall in Pakistan’s cotton crop. Indian cotton mill owners, who have stocks of cotton yarn, would have expected a windfall as their six-month-old investment was likely to pay dividends from the end of June when the Pakistan import window opens. Textile exports are critical to Pakistan’s economy, so, coincidentally, trade in cotton can benefit merchants of both countries. The fasting month of Ramadan begins in a matter of weeks, and with food inflation being an issue of deep concern, a positive move on critical consumer items would make eminent sense, economically and politically. A two-front situation for both Before the sugar and cotton imports were green-lighted, for a short while, Pakistan PM Imran Khan and his Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa had spoken positively about turning a new leaf in relations between the two countries. Gen. Bajwa, as the key player in Pakistan, especially when it comes to relations with India, in the recent Islamabad Security Dialogue declared: “A nation at peace and a region in harmony are thus essential prerequisites for attainment of national security in the true spirit…I also firmly believe that no single nation in isolation, can perceive and further its quest for security…And finally, it is time that we in South Asia create synergy through connectivity, peaceful co-existence and resource sharing to fight hunger, illiteracy and disease instead of fighting each other.” It is easy to dismiss the statement from Gen. Bajwa with a yawn and ‘heard it all before’ attitude. But that would not just belittle him, but also Indian interests. Since China began its Ladakh incursions in April 2020, India has looked at the very real spectre of a two-front situation involving neighbours to the east and west. Since the 1960s, it has haunted Indian security planners but 2020 was the closest it ever came to a two-front conflict. A very live, and bloody, daily exchange on the LoC coupled with China’s brutish behaviour in Ladakh was evidence if it was ever needed. So, getting out of a two-front situation is always in India’s interests, and coupled with a quiet LoC, it sets the stage for a normalised relationship with Pakistan. Islamabad/Rawalpindi too cannot accept its own two-front situation, with both India and Afghanistan sniping at it. Since there is no knowing which way Kabul will blow with its peace process, a sugary deal with India is always a good beginning to a hot summer.
https://theprint.in/opinion/pakistans-sweet-deal-with-india-couldve-helped-consumers-but-domestic-politics-came-in-way/632679/
Balochistan: Pakistani forces abduct five Baloch youth from Surab
The Pakistan forces have abducted five Baloch youth including two nephews of the Vice-Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons from Surab region of Balochistan on Wednesday.
According to details, Pakistan FC and plain-clothed intelligence officials conducted an offensive raid in the main Bazaar of Surab and abducted the five youth from a shop.
The abductees include two nephews of Mama Qadir (Abdul Qadir Baloch) who is currently the Vice-Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing persons.
The victims have been named Muhammad Asif Reiki and Allah Din Reiki son of Shabbir Ahmed Reiki, Mohammad Irfan son of Mohammad Hakeem Reiki, Zulqarnain son of Haji Farid Reiki resident of Dumb Sorab. The identity of the fifth youth could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Pakistani forces have beaten up the youth on spot, covered their heads, dragged them to their vehicles and took them away.
The whereabouts of all five youth remained unknown at the time of filing this news report. The relatives of the abducted Baloch youths have lodged an FIR with the local police regarding their enforced disappearance.
It may be recalled that Mama Qadir’s son Shaheed Jalil Reiki was forcibly disappeared by the Pakistani from Quetta Sariab Road on February 13, 2009. Mr Reiki’s dead body was found along with the dead body of Mohammad Younis Baloch in the November of 2011 Mand area of district Kech Balochistan.
The bodies of both men bore marks of gruesome torture and bullets wounded and it’s believed that they were torture in custody and executed in cold blood.
https://balochwarna.com/2021/04/02/balochistan-pakistani-forces-abduct-five-baloch-youth-from-surab/
Covid 19: Pakistan among new countries added to England's travel ban list
Travel bans are intended to reduce the risk from new coronavirus variants like the South Africa strain, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. They are based on advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre. Data has shown that most cases of the South Africa coronavirus variant found in the UK so far have been linked to international travel, with very few having come from Europe, said the DfT.
Which countries are on the red list?
Nearly 40 countries are currently on the UK government's red list of countries from which travel is banned:
- Middle East: Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Africa: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
- Asia: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines
- South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela
No direct flight bans from the four countries will be put in place, but passengers are advised to check their travel plans before departing for England.
Simon Calder, travel editor at The Independent, said the government has "plenty of evidence that there's a risk from new variants of concern coming in from these countries" and is alarmed about numbers.
But he said the changes could cause a "great deal of problems" for many in the UK whose family live in the four affected countries as they now have less than a week to get home if they are overseas.
He said "bookings are soaring" ahead of next Friday.
Under the current rules, foreign travel from the UK is banned apart from for exceptional reasons.
The earliest date people from England will be able to travel abroad for a holiday is 17 May, when the government hopes to move to step three of its lockdown exit plan.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56614950#:~:text=Travel%20from%20the%20Philippines%2C%20Pakistan,of%20new%20Covid%2D19%20variants.
اتحادیوں نے لاڑکانہ میں اسٹیبلشمنٹ سے مل کر پی پی کی مخالفت کی، بلاول بھٹو زرداری
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ اس کے باوجود پیپلز پارٹی آزادی مارچ کا ساتھ دیتی ہے اور جے یو آئی کو پی ڈی ایم کا سربراہ مانتی ہے۔
پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ وہ ن لیگ جے یو آئی ف اور پی ڈی ایم کو تجویز دیں گے کہ آرام سے سوچ سمجھ کر فیصلے کريں۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ مریم شریف صاحبہ کے ساتھ ہمارے اچھے تعلقات رہے ہیں، ہم نہیں چاہتے کہ سوالات کی وجہ سے کوئی ایشو پیدا ہو۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے براڈشیٹ کمیشن کی رپورٹ بھی مسترد کردی۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ تیس سال سے سوئس کیسز کا سنتے آرہے ہیں، آخر کتنی بار یہ لوگ ایک کیس کو ہارنا چاہتے ہیں، آصف زرداری سوئس کیس میں بری ہوچکے ہیں۔
بلاول بھٹو نے یہ بھی کہا کہ عمران خان کوئی ذمہ داری لینے کو تیار نہیں، جب کوئی مسئلہ ہوتا ہے وہ کسی نہ کسی کو قربانی کا بکرا بنادیتے ہیں۔
پی پی چیئرمین نے کہا کہ دنیا کے قانون کے مطابق نیب پکڑا گیا ہے، نیب کو سزا ملی ہے 60 ملین ڈالر کا براڈ شیٹ کیس میں نقصان ہوا، حساب کون دے گا۔
https://jang.com.pk/news/906392
Thursday, April 1, 2021
US envoy Kerry to skip Pakistan in 'climate crisis' trip to India, Bangladesh
"First Pakistan was left off the invitation list for the White House's upcoming global climate summit. Now US climate czar John Kerry is headed to India and Bangladesh for consultations. Ouch."
The Foreign Office had last week hinted that Pakistan was not invited to the White House summit because it was "one of the lowest emitters – with less than one percent of the global emissions".
Responding to a question on the alleged snub by the US, the FO spokesman had said:
“Looking forward to meaningful discussions with friends in the Emirates, India, and Bangladesh on how to tackle the climate crisis,” Kerry tweeted.
India says it will not only stick to the Paris accord to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35 per cent from its 2005 levels by 2030 but will likely exceed those goals as it ramps up use of renewable energy.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1615823/us-envoy-kerry-to-skip-pakistan-in-climate-crisis-trip-to-india-bangladesh
The PM is trying to sit between two stools - At stake, the government’s credibility
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/04/01/the-pm-is-trying-to-sit-between-two-stools/
Biden Must Press Pakistan to End Persecution of Religious Minorities
By Qasim Rashid
Last year the U.S. State Department labeled Pakistan a country of particular concern over its increasing persecution of religious minorities.
This label is the State Department’s strongest condemnation under the International Religious Freedom Act, and normally mandates sanctions for the designated country. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo intervened, however, with a presidential waiver to avoid such punishment.
The alliance between the two nations has sent $70 billion in economic and military aid to Pakistan since Pakistan’s founding. If not for the sake of sheer justice, then at least for the sake of protecting American interests, President Joe Biden must hold U.S. ally Pakistan accountable to repeal its discriminatory anti-Ahmadi legislation and actions. While the legislation particularly targets Ahmadi Muslims, it tragically also enables societal discrimination and violence against Pakistan’s Christian, Sikh, Hindu, and Shia communities.
Most recently, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has intensified the government’s decades-long violent persecution of religious minorities — particularly that of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. For the first time, the PTA has filed a lawsuit against two American citizens who belong to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, seeking to shut down a U.S. based website, trueislam.com. The PTA argues that because Ahmadis built the U.S.-based website, it violates Pakistan’s anti-Ahmadi laws. The PTA applied the same convoluted logic to order Google to remove any app built by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from the tech giant’s Play store.
Google has, sadly, capitulated to the draconian demands. Sam Brownback, the former U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, has compared Pakistan’s persecution of Ahmadi Muslims to the Chinese dictatorship, exclaiming, “[This is] Pakistan following in the China model.”
A Brief History of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was founded in 1889 by a man named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the awaited Messiah to reform Muslims, peacefully revive Islam, and reject all forms of religious violence. Despite suffering decades of violent religious persecution, it is well documented that Ahmadi Muslims have maintained their position against all forms of religious violence. Pakistan’s persecution of Ahmadis escalated in 1974, when, in an unprecedented vote, the General Assembly amended the country’s Constitution to formally declare the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community ‘outside the fold of Islam.’
Imagine, for a moment, if the United States passed a constitutional amendment declaring Catholics outside the fold of Christianity? Notwithstanding this absurd amendment, in 1984 Pakistan added Ordinance XX to its penal code, criminalizing any Ahmadi Muslim who proclaims to be a Muslim with arrest and fine. By 1986, Pakistan added Section 295-C, mandating up to and including the death penalty for Ahmadi Muslims.
These draconian laws have predictably left Ahmadi Muslims to languish in apartheid conditions. All books, literature, events, speech, and websites belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan are criminalized. Pakistan denies Ahmadis free and fair voting and forces Ahmadi Muslims to declare their faith on their passports as a means to prevent them from performing the Hajj pilgrimage. To perform Hajj, a Pakistani citizen must have “Muslim” on their passport for religious affiliation. To obtain a passport with “Muslim” as the religious affiliation, Pakistan requires applicants to complete a form declaring Ahmadi Muslims as “non-Muslim.” Since Ahmadis refuse to declare themselves non-Muslim, they are identified as “Ahmadis,” and thus denied the ability to perform Hajj. In other words, Pakistan’s government has created special ID cards to single out Ahmadis.
These apartheid conditions have led to systemic persecution of Ahmadi Muslims, including mass murder, grave desecration, expulsion of school children for their faith, and a complete lockdown of all religious practice. Pakistan has faced repeated condemnation from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for its incessant violation of religious freedom, yet the discriminatory laws remain.
The U.S. Must Demand Justice for Ahmadi Muslims
When President Biden repealed the ‘Muslim Ban’ his first day in office, he condemned the ban as “contravening our values, undermin[ing] our national security, jeopardiz[ing] our global network of alliances and partnerships and a moral blight that has dulled the power of our example the world over.” Indeed, we cannot ignore the connection between persecution of religious minorities and collapse of national and economic security. Look no further than the last four years in the United States. The United States has seen historic highs in hate crimes targeting American Muslims, Jews, and Black, Indigenous, and persons of color (BIPOC) individuals — all of which has undermined American national security.
Pakistan’s government has traversed this dangerous road for several decades, suffocating its own national security, and becoming “a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups,” according to the State Department. Pakistan’s economy also suffers as a consequence. For example, in the 1960s—prior to enacting discriminatory legislation—Pakistan’s economy grew at a rate of 6% per year, double neighboring India’s growth. By the 1990s, as Pakistan was in full swing of enforcing discriminatory legislation and implicitly legitimizing extremist groups, India surpassed Pakistan’s growth, and has never looked back. Major U.S.-based companies have already threatened to leave Pakistan due to its censorship laws.
The persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan is increasing, with yet another innocent Ahmadi gunned down last month in a spate of targeted murders. The U.S.-Pakistan alliance should continue. However, it should not be indiscriminate. If we do not emphatically demand justice of Pakistan’s government to its own citizens, we give a greenlight to not only continue that violent persecution, but also escalate in targeting American citizens. Advancing the U.S.-Pakistan alliance on the principles of justice and protecting religious minorities is imperative for a just, prosperous, and secure future.
https://www.justsecurity.org/75383/biden-must-press-pakistan-to-end-persecution-of-religious-minorities/
No Place For Minorities In ‘Naya’ Pakistan – OpEd
Two years ago, while speaking on the occasion to mark 100 days of his government being in office, Prime Minister Imran Khan made many a boast and promises. Besides waxing eloquent on turning Pakistan into a “model Islamic welfare state,” he also hit out at his Indian counterpart by saying, “We will show the Modi government how to treat minorities.” Unfortunately, despite this bold assurance, instances of atrocities against minorities in Pakistan have increased manyfold under Khan’s watch.
US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Samuel Brownback has made things embarrassing for Khan by making it clear that as far as Pakistan was concerned, “a lot of their actions [against religious freedom] are done by the government.” So, it’s not at all surprising that Washington has designated Pakistan a ‘country of serious concern’ for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” To make matters even more humiliating, Khan’s “how to treat minorities” barb directed at Modi boomeranged when US State Department summarily rejected US Commission for International Religious Freedom’s recommendation to designate India a ‘country of serious concern’.
Khan wants everyone to believe that his “Naya [new] Pakistan is Quaid’s [Jinnah’s] Pakistan” in which “minorities are treated as equal citizens, unlike what is happening in India” but this claim has hardly any takers. Au contraire, in its ‘World Report 2020’, Human Right Watch [HRW] has noted that along with women and transgender people, religious minorities in Pakistan “continued to face violence, discrimination, and persecution, with authorities often failing to provide adequate protection or hold perpetrators accountable.” Even Human Right Commission of Pakistan [HRCP] has been extremely critical about the PTI led government’s abysmal failure in protecting minorities, which it rightly feels are “doubly vulnerable”.
Islamabad dismisses widespread international criticism for failing to institute adequate safeguards to prevent religious persecution of its minorities by terming it an ‘opinion based on disinformation’. However, in its annual ‘State of Human Rights in 2019’ report [released in 2020], HRCP has noted that “Religious minorities remained unable to enjoy the freedom of religion or belief guaranteed to them under the constitution” adding that “Both the Hindu and Christian communities in Sindh and Punjab continued to report cases of forced conversion.” It also confirms that:
- “In Punjab, girls as young as 14 were forcibly converted and coerced into marriage.”
- “In Sindh, the case of two Hindu girls whose families claimed they had been kidnapped for marriage and converted forcibly, drew widespread attention when the Islamabad High Court ruled that the girls were not minors at the time of marriage and allowed them to return to their spouses.”
- “For the Ahmadiyya community in Punjab, this [religious persecution] included the desecration of several sites of worship.”
Contrary to Khan’s promise to ensure “that our minorities are treated as equal citizens,” the year 2020 saw an alarming swell in incidents of persecution of minority communities-the most common being the repugnant practice of Hindu, Christian and Sikh girls [some as young as 12 to 13 years] being abducted and after being converted, being forced into marriage. Even Pakistani NGOs estimate that about 1,000 such incidents occur every year and this is why no one takes Khan’s assurance of minorities in Pakistan being “treated as equal citizens” seriously.
Another issue of concern is brazen desecration of holy sites of worship sites belonging to minority communities. On Jan 03, 2020, a mob attempted to vandalise the historic Nankana Sahib Gurdwara and the entire incident was captured on video. However, Pakistan’s Foreign Office [FO] played down this incident by calling it a “scuffle” between two Muslim groups over a “minor incident” at a tea stall. In reference to New Delhi’s complaint against desecration of this holy Sikh shrine, the FO stated that “Attempts to paint this incident as a communal issue are patently motivated.”Whereas one would have really loved to believe that this incident had no communal angle, but following facts belie the FO’s assertion:
- If the incident was merely a minor scuffle between two Muslim groups, then how come the Gurudwara became the target of their ire?
- In the video, a mob can be heard cheering lustily as a speaker tells them that “We will ensure that there is not a single Sikh left in Nankana. And the name of this place will soon be changed from Nankana to Ghulam-e-Mustafa”.So, if this incident was just a row between two Muslim groups, then what explains the rabid anti-Sikh tirade of the speaker and its frenzied endorsement by the crowd?
- Lastly, if it was genuinely a minor and inconsequential incident as the FO claims, then why did Khan term this incident as “condemnable’ and take all the trouble of downplaying its distinctly communal character by saying that there’s a “major difference between the condemnable Nankana incident and the ongoing attacks across India on Muslims and other minorities”?
Besides Nankana Sahib Gurudwara, places of worship belonging to other minority communities in Pakistan were also subjected to vandalism last year. On May 9, 2020, a mob damaged the main gate and boundary wall of a church in Hakeempura area of Shekhupura district in Pakistan’s Punjab district and desecrated the Church’s Holy Cross. Once again, the authorities tried to brush this patently communal act under the carpet by terming it a property related dispute. In February, three Pakistani Christians who were constructing a church in Punjab’s Sahiwal district were assaulted and just two months later, a Pastor, his wife and son were attacked for building a wall on their own land. Once again, these incidents of intimidation of minority community members were passed off as instances of personal rivalry!
2020 also saw multiple incidents of Hindu religious shrines being either destroyed or desecrated. On Jan 26, idols of deities in Mata Deval Bhittani temple in Tharkarkar district of Pakistan’s Sindh province were desecrated and burnt holy texts kept inside. The police claimed that the perpetrators were minors and had broken into the temple just to steal money. What the police didn’t explain is that if their motive was only robbery, then why did the juveniles waste their time and energy in defacing idols and burning holy books?
On October 10, idols of deities inside Shri Ramdev Temple in Kario Ghanwar area of Badin district, Sindh, were destroyed, and the police once again ruled out communal angle by saying that the culprit was of unsound mind and a drug addict! Just two weeks later, a mob vandalised Nagarparkar Temple in Sindh province, damaging the idol of Goddess Durga during the holy ‘Navratri’ period. No one has been arrested. On November 2, a huge mob descended on Sheetal Temple in Karachi’s Lee Market area and destroyed idols of deities and other holy relics. This time the police sought to justify this highly communal act by terming it public reaction to blasphemous statements made by a Hindu boy.
On December 27, a mob not only vandalised and set ablaze a 100-year-old shrine housing samadhi [memorial] of a revered Hindu saint in the Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Dawn News TV quoted an eyewitness saying that the incident of desecration and arson occurred after “More than a thousand people led by some local elders of a religious party held a protest and demanded the removal of the Hindu place.” Two developments make official apathy [or tacit complicity?] obvious. One, according to news reports, “The locals also revealed that residents of the nearby villages had announced a protest demonstration with demands of removal of the Hindu shrine, adding that the police totally ignored it” and two, it was Chief Justice of Pakistan and not Prime Minister Khan who was first to take official cognisance of this sacrilegious incident.
Once again, the police tried to obfuscate reality. The District Police Officer [DPO] refused to acknowledge that the shrine had been vandalised and instead told media that a mob “attacked and demolished the under-construction building [within temple premises].” But Federal Minister for Human Rights Ms Shireen Mazari graciously acknowledged reality by tweeting- “Strongly condemn the burning of a Hindu temple by a mob in Karak, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa” – which is clearly visible in videos of this incident.
But desecration of religious shrines and abduction of girls followed by their forced conversion and marriages aren’t the only problem minorities face in Khan’s ‘Naya’ Pakistan. Even their settlements are being illegally demolished, often with official patronage. In May, a HRCP tweet mentioned that “HRCP is gravely concerned at reports that houses belonging to the Hindu and Christian communities of Yazman in Bahawalpur have been demolished, allegedly by local authorities with political influence.” It also stated that “evictions, the demolition of people’s houses, and land grabbing, esp. [especially] when such communities are doubly vulnerable, are highly condemnable.”
But if the administration is to be believed, then all’s well in Pakistan as far as minorities are concerned. Girls from minority communities aren’t being abducted but are of their own accord, eloping with their beaus [who at times are almost double their age]. Vandalism of holy shrines belonging to minorities isn’t due to the prevailing communal frenzy but the handiwork of petty thieves, drug addicts, mentally deranged persons, or consequences of some land dispute and occasionally, ‘justified’ collective punishment of a minority community for some alleged blasphemous utterance by one of its members. Coupled with this, since Khan keeps harping on how “minorities are treated as equal citizens,” in his “Naya Pakistan,” why worry or lose sleep over this issue?
https://www.eurasiareview.com/01042021-no-place-for-minorities-in-naya-pakistan-oped/
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
#Pakistan - Women during the pandemic
ONE year ago, the world ran on different rules. The rhythm of day was different, the management of time was different, people behaved differently and were scared of different things. One custom of that bygone pre-pandemic world was the division of male and female work and space.
In Pakistan, where the number of females in the workforce is below 30 per cent, women mostly stayed at home and men went to work. When the men left in the morning, the women turned to the repetitive tasks of washing and cooking that make a household run efficiently.
All of this changed when the pandemic hit. Men began to stay at home either because they lost their job or because their employer wanted them to work from home. The small respite that their wives and mothers and sisters had during the day when men did not dominate and demand this or that was taken away from the women. As men stayed home day after day, they required waiting on, a cup of tea now, a meal prepared fresh not just for dinner but also for lunch. They dirtied dishes and created a mess.
Schools also closed and the children too made their own demands, their own messes, trapped as they were in the home. Pakistani women thus were caught in a 24/7 cycle of work, trying to sate appetites, calm tempers and maintain harmony in an uncertain and constrained world.
The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.
Women everywhere are the primary casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, having had to pay the price whether or not they were infected with the virus. Data from around the world substantiates this truth. In China, peer-reviewed studies reveal a 300pc increase in violence against women. In Lebanon, there has been a 45pc increase in violence against women. In the United Kingdom, violence against women has doubled from the 10-year average. Similar increases in violence have also been reported in Germany and Tunisia. Next door in India, the onset of the pandemic has led to at least a 21pc increase in violence against women.
The statistics quoted here are all from peer-reviewed studies in journals. It is very likely that the situation is far worse than what is being reported. In Pakistan, social workers and those who work in shelters and in other facilities that attend to abused women, report an exponential increase. The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.
In much of the country, women have to ask male permission to leave the home even for essential tasks; now going out and getting any kind of respite from violence has become completely impossible. Visits from family members and meeting others at family occasions (which used to function as a means to ensure that women were not being maltreated) have ceased, giving abusive men carte blanche to do whatever they want to the women at home.
The situation of working women is just as bad. Those who have been told to work from home find that no one in the household seems to understand that they have to attend to work duties during work hours. These women find themselves forced to watch children and also be available for Zoom calls or other work interactions. Many others, like the 250,000 American women who were let go of by their employers in January 2021, have just lost their jobs and their income. The pandemic has set them years behind their male counterparts in career advancement.
The meaning of all these statistics is that in the post-pandemic world women will be at an even greater disadvantage than they were before it started. Those Pakistani working women who have either been fired or have had to quit their jobs because of the pandemic may not be able to return to work after it is over. The ability to bring in an income plays a huge role in the power women wield in their households; the lost earning potential, therefore will reduce their ability to make decisions in the household and to protect their own rights. This resection of women from the workforce is likely to have society-wide effects where cultural mores that keep women out of the workplace will be strengthened.
None of these realities are being talked about in Pakistan. This past International Women’s Day, a television channel hosted a conservative female social worker who could not stop talking about how the pandemic was a blessing in disguise because it permitted families to spend quality time with each other. Some in government have also propagated this kind of fantasy because very few, if any, efforts have been made to collect statistics about exactly how many women are being abused. Nor has there been any work done to provide additional resources to shelters and legal aid cells who are trying to help these women. Instead, the ludicrous fantasy that imagines families living together without any conflict and without women waiting on everyone else all the time, has been nursed and propagated.
Pakistan needs to wake up. The women of the country cannot be expected to shoulder all the burden of housekeeping, childcare, studies and work from home. Vaccinations are now available for the Covid-19 virus but no pre-emptive solution is present for a society and a world that has just been heaping the entire burden of a terrible and catastrophic event on its women. Men must be held answerable for the cruelty and selfishness they have exhibited this past year, attitudes that they have never questioned or considered. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and indeed that is what has happened to many Pakistani males who stand and watch and live their lives, oblivious to the burdens and abuse they heap on Pakistani women.