Sunday, 25 April, 2021
06 COMMENT
Little light at the end of the tunnel
Vaccination at snail’s pace Failure to purchase vaccine when it was available
Only consensual politics can heal these festering wounds
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N Saturday Pakistan recorded a grim milestone in the Covid -19 pandemic. The country reported the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic with as s many as 157 deaths in 24 hours pushing up the number of total fatalities so far to 16,999. A day earlier, the Army had to be called in because the civil administrations failed to enforce the coronavirus precautions. While the measure had become inevitable, this exposed the lack of capacity mainly on the part of two provincial governments, Punjab and KP, both run by the PTI, one with 98 fatalities and the other 37. Sindh and Balochistan trudged far behind reporting 11 and 3 deaths respectively. Those running the NCOC have belatedly realized that the country is also heading towards acute oxygen shortage. The realization of what can happen has apparently come after the harrowing reports appearing in the international media about people in India dying in and out of hospitals due to shortages in oxygen supplies. Instead of behaving like a rabbit in the headlights, there is a dire need to put in place an action plan to deal with the eventuality before it is too late Like Modi in India, the PTI leadership also prided itself over fewer casualties in Pakistan than expected during the first wave of the pandemic. It was interpreted among other things as Allah’s special gift for the country. Violating the requirements of medical science, the BJP government allowed devotees to participate in the Kumbh festival which helped spread the virus. Prime Minister Imran Khan takes pride in Pakistan being the only Muslim-majority country which had kept mosques open last year during Ramazan. The only way toward off covid-19 is to vaccinate the population, at least all those above 18, at the earliest. Despite claims of spending billions of rupees on pandemic control, the government failed to place orders for timely purchase of the vaccines, leaving the population at the mercy of the donors instead. The result: in a country with a population of 210 million only 1.5 million people, who comprise under 1 percent of the population, have so far been vaccinated. Unless the government picks up speed, the vast majority of the population will remain vulnerable to the pandemic.
aRif Nizami
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he prime minister is spot on: reducing poverty is the biggest challenge for his government. Addressing the newly formed eAC (economic advisory council) comprising of the top captains of business and industry, Khan was particularly perturbed by the scourge of rising inflation. Obviously, his audience included the freshly inducted finance minister Shaukat Tarin. his predecessor hafeez Sheikh was unceremoniously shown the door for precisely this reason. The PTI is soon to celebrate a quarter century, “of our struggle to reduce poverty”, according to the PM. he claims that the PTI, since coming to power in KP in 2013 has actually been able to reduce poverty in the province. Unfortunately, ground realities speak otherwise. According to some IMF estimates, forty percent of Pakistanis now are trying to survive below the poverty line. Thanks to the polices of the present government and the COVID-19 pandemic, the plight of the hapless common man has perceptibly deteriorated. Khan it seems has somewhat belatedly realised that his regime is between a rock and a hard place. he is on the one hand under pressure to salvage a sinking economy which is in a bigger mess thanks to his own mishandling while on the other, his govern-
Dirty politics All parties playing the religion card
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T seems both the government and opposition are making all out efforts to become the primary party in parliament that best represents and supports the cause of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The PTI had already made a mess of the situation when it agreed in writing with the TLP to bring the matter of the French Ambassador’s expulsion from the country to parliament a few months back for some temporary reprieve, only to backtrack on the promise completely. The violent nationwide protests that followed forced the government to make good on its word and a special National Assembly session was held in this regard on Tuesday where the opposition thoroughly lambasted the government over its response to the unrest. The remainder of the debate was scheduled to be held on Friday, but the government refused to table the resolution, deciding to send it to a NA standing committee, leading to the opposition creating a ruckus, staging a walkout and chanting trademark TLP slogans, in an obvious attempt to pander to its voter base and paint the government as their enemy. That the PPP, once considered a party with the most secular credentials of the lot, initiated and led the sloganeering is highly condemnable. The PML-N lost much of its religious voter base in the 2018 general elections to the TLP and were therefore not far behind in trying to regain some of that electorate as well. While the three major political parties of the country squabble for scraps, the TLP is singing all the way to the bank as FIRs are cancelled, arrested rioters released from custody and its demands are met. Since PTI took power, parliament has been treated as a battleground between the opposition and treasury benches and is only taken seriously when the government has to bulldoze an important self-serving piece of legislation. This wave of religiously charged mob violence does not bode well for a country already in the grips of extremism that typically evolves into domestic terrorism. When such a serious problem arises it is the duty of all elected representatives to unite and find a way forward towards rational disengagement rather than adding fuel to the fire. Unfortunately, politics has taken precedence over any such logical positive outcome.
Teaching to be understood Why understanding is crucial
Rabia ahmed
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hROWN into stark relief against a dark background of viruses is the fact that much of the world, and certainly most of Pakistan does not understand - not just about the corona virus but about viruses, microbes and bacteria in general. This is what exacerbates the problem we’re living through now. “It’s all western propaganda. Just something to keep us buying their vaccines,” says one Pakistani, an ‘educated’ one in fact, showing that the attitude is not restricted to the illiterate. “If Allah wants us to die, we’ll die,” says another. “Do whatever you will.” “There’s no such thing as a virus,” says yet another. “I’ve never seen one, have you?” No I have not, but that does not mean they aren’t there. In any case they can now be seen. Once upon a time diseases were explained away with supernatural explanations. Djinns were responsible, and of course curses. This belief still thrives, in fact it is very common, but at least ever since the microscope came into existence we can see the microbes and bacteria that cause many diseases. This has made it possible to accept the existence of viruses which are organisms that are not alive– they are more like androids than living organisms, but they can replicate
Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami
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ment has signed off on the IMF deal that consists of commitments too hard to fulfil. The kind of pledges made to the IFIs (International Finance Institutions) are so stringent that if met in letter and spirit will engender vast civil unrest in the country. Whatever route he takes its Armageddon at the end of the tunnel. The resurgence of religious extremism has made matters worse. The re-emergence of Tehreek-e- Labbaik Pakistan(TLP) on the scene is one significant manifestation of this phenomenon. It is bizarre that the government had to proscribe (albeit reluctantly) TLP as an entity. Contrarily, at the same time it is negotiating with it. The prime minister in his signature style made a faux pas by declaring that he agreed with the objectives of the TLP, however did not endorse their methods. how can the prime minister of Jinnah and Iqbal’s Pakistan endorse the objectives of such groups who simply do not believe in the constitution of Pakistan? Of course, blasphemy cannot be tolerated at any cost but the state cannot allow those objectives to be met through a flagrant violation of Pakistan’s law. Nonetheless, why is it only contingent upon Pakistan to pander to the zealots? If the cause was so dear to our heart why didn’t the prime minister dispatch his foreign minister to major Islamic capitals to mobilise the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) on the matter? Most observers agree that extraditing the French ambassador back home is not an option. Islamabad literally cannot afford it. The nub of the problem lies with the yawning cultural gap between the West and the Muslim world that has increased with the advent of social media and the so-called digital revolution. The western media has its own demons like for example endorsing the holocaust. Considered highly condemnable, it’s simply not the done thing. Western society on the other hand, fails to appreciate the sensitivities of the Muslims. Ironically Pakistanis are more sensitive about defending the Islamic cause compared to our brethren in the rest of the Muslim countries. For reasons quite obvious, the ruling party is having cold feet extraditing the French ambassador. A private member resolution demanding his expulsion is trying to be passed with the help of the opposition. The PML-N itself knowing its core constituency is forced to kowtow to the religious lobby. But the government is in no position to absorb the backlash in the west to such a measure. With the
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and spread. Viruses are too small even for microscopes. It was not until ernst Ruska, a German physicist who won a Nobel prize in 1986 for his work on electron optics, designed an electronic microscope that we saw them. And yet, as said above, the disbelief and the attribution to the supernatural persists, and its extent defeats all attempts to do what must be done to combat the spread of viruses, for example in the current pandemic. The only way to get around the problem is not simply to educate but to educate in a manner that speaks to ignorant minds. And please note, calling someone ignorant is not meant to be a taunt here, it is the description of a mind that does not know, and does not encompass and accept new ideas, mostly because it has been taught to rely on the blame game. The reason for the existence of such minds is not that such persons are unable to understand but that they have not been educated to do so, have not been educated well, or not at all. This is the fault of society, our fault. So what does it mean to educate in a way to speaks to ignorant minds? It means to use language that will be understood with plenty of examples that relate the thing being taught to the environment of the person being taught. It would help if practical demonstrations are given where possible, and if the students are granted the opportunity to participate in discussions regarding the subject. An example is the teaching style of an Indian teacher called Faizal Khan, popularly known as Khan Sir, whose videos have gone viral online. The video I saw can be seen on YouTube, and you can watch it here: https://tinyurl.com/bk3f9bzc In this Mr. Khan talks about what a RT-PCR Test is, what the CT value in an RT-PCR test means, how the pulse oximeter works, and how to recover from corona – and he
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imminent threat of black-listing under FATF hanging on its head like the sword of Damocles, it is impossible for Khan to raise the ante by further provoking the West. Being demoted to the blacklist is a possibility under such circumstances. But being kept on the greylist is a certainty. Why are we facing this conundrum now? Simply because the chicken has come home to roost! historically speaking, in order to break the back of prodemocracy entities in the country, such forces have been nurtured by the establishment with a little help from quisling politicians. The creation of MQM by general Zia ul haq as a counterweight to mainstream parties like the PPP in urban Sindh created a monster in the form of Altaf hussain. MQM, a party created in the name of ethnicity had its own negative ramifications for the future. Similarly, the Tehreek e Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) is a religious party was created in August 2015.with Khadim hussain Rizvi as its head. The Nawaz Sharif government in October 2017 altered the language in the election bill, thus changing the language of oath of office. The TLP successfully blocked the Faizabad interchange, one of the main traffic arteries of the capital as a mark of protest. The charismatic Rizvi was able to paralyse the whole country with the support of his largely Barelvi followers. Those were the times when the Sharif government was at loggerheads with the miltesatblishment. The popular perception was that the TLP was being tacitly backed by the powers that be. Lo and behold, when the matter was settled, a uniformed officer was seen distributing one thousand rupees each to the TLP protesters, ostensibly for their fare back home. Whether true or not, this act on behalf of the military leadership has been etched in the memory of the public with regards to the role of the establishment in political engineering. The government’s efforts to bring the matter of extradition of the French ambassador miserably failed when the ruling party was unsuccessful to bring the opposition on board. The National Assembly session had to be prorogued till May. In this context there is little light at the end of the tunnel for the prime minister. he has to move towards consensual politics by making serious efforts to bring the opposition on board. Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com.
manages to make it very easy to understand. Mr. Khan calls the coronavirus “susra corona”, a mocking colloquialism that brings the mighty corona down off its scary perch. It relaxes the students and enables them to understand what he says. Such as his funny explanation of what DNA is, that ‘if your child resembles your neighbour, you check the child’s DNA.’ I learnt, thanks to his video that viruses unlike humans are made of RNA which is composed of a single strand, rather than DNA which – as many of us know is composed of two intertwined strands. Mr. Khans ‘desi way’ of teaching science has attracted almost two million subscribers online. This is what we need here, to move from the current aim of passing exams and scoring for the school to understanding the subject at hand and learning to research, rationalize and derive. It means we need a sharp shift in focus, as huge as when the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) switched from facing the Baitul Maqdas in Jersusalem to face the Kaaba in Mecca while saying his prayers. Teaching by such means is important not just for literacy or mathematics. It is for other kinds of knowledge that are equally crucial. It will help people to understand the environment for instance why crop burning affects the air we breathe, how pesticides destroy our food, it will help them understand why it is important to boil water and enforce hygiene. It will make it easier for them to work on the land if they understand some basic physics, to use machines if they understand electronics, to make a living if they believe in the importance of knowledge. Such education will also help in the understanding of religion if people learn to apply its injunctions to life rather than leaving them within the pages of the Quran. Pakistan’s massive population has to be given something else to do besides riot, reproduce and die. It is a resource that must be harnessed if not for itself then for the survival of the country and its people.
Teaching is important not just for literacy or mathematics. It is for other kinds of knowledge that are equally crucial. It will help people to understand the environment for instance why crop burning affects the air we breathe, how pesticides destroy our food, it will help them understand why it is important to boil water and enforce hygiene.
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Rabia Ahmed is a freelance columnist. Read more by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com
Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk
