It’s becoming harder and harder to sift through the swarms of politically-motivated youngsters for an honest opinion on what the elections could bring. The old guard have seen their graphs fall, but dynastic nature of politics in this country will have assured that a good number of them, no matter how unpopular, will still be back in the lower house. Most of the new parties will have done well to make any inroads into those guaranteed vote banks.

Meanwhile, the PTI, with its Naya Pakistan and anti-conservation lion-hunting agenda, seems to be the most popular party. Whether that popularity was a mirage or fact will be well-known by the time this piece is published.

Whichever party wins, the participation of first-time voters, or lack thereof, could well be what forms our next government. And that is what is really scary. Apart from the tried, tested and mostly failed old guard, a plethora of new faces have emerged. While most are from the PTI, the PPP and the PML-N have not been afraid to send out some newbies and political amateurs as well. In each party’s case the call has been the same — vote for the party, not the candidate.

And that is the problem.

The party is not going to be responsible for my constituency. The individual is. Whoever won, that individual is not Imran Khan. It is not Nawaz Sharif. And it is certainly not Zulfikar Bhutto (although even in death, Bhutto seems capable of being a better MNA than most of these guys).

By the way, the only reason I did not mention the ANP or MQM is that both of these parties are inconsequential as far as the Islamabad-Rawalpindi region is concerned. The PML-Q, once a contender here, has moved into the same category.

Back on topic, each of the big six parties in Pakistan, and even some of the smaller ones, are based on a cult of personality, rather than their manifestos or positions on issues.

If you disagree, just honestly ask yourself, are you voting for Imran Khan or the PTI?

Are you voting for Nawaz/Shahbaz, or for the PML-N?

Are you voting for the PPP, or for Bilawal Interchangeable-Last-Name?

Almost 2,500 years ago, Plato objected to the Athenian concept of democracy on the grounds that such democracies lacked unity and votes were cast on impulse rather than any interest in the greater good.

The impulse, in Pakistan’s case, is rooted in the desire to see the unpopular rulers ousted by any means, usually without thinking through about the alternatives. With an electorate that is mostly illiterate, the ability to comprehend what ones vote stands for is limited, usually boiling down to a free meal or familial ties.

However, as Plato wrote in The Republic, “The people always put forward a single champion of their interests, whom they nurse to greatness. Here, plainly enough, is the root from which despotism invariably springs.”

In 1977, Bhutto was called a despot and removed by a ‘saviour’, who turned out to be a genuine despot. His daughter was accused of corruption — a despotic trait — and also removed. Nawaz Sharif met the same fate in 1999. Musharraf, then a saviour and media darling, was branded a despot as soon as he sacked the judiciary. Some would brand the sitting president as the same. Each time, the ‘despot’ was greeted with garlands of roses and left with garlands of shoes.

There is a reason why no party has been able to hold a majority for two consecutive election cycles. Parties come to power promising the sky, and leave after delivering sand. All because they don’t know what they stand for. Roshan Pakistan when we can’t afford to produce enough power? Roti, Kapra, Makaan when poverty and inflation are out of control and food insecurity is rife? A utopian Naya Pakistan months away, made from a country which needs foreign aid just to stay afloat?

We all wish the best for our country, but for that, we need solutions, not rhetoric. The battle was not won on Saturday. It starts on Monday.

The writer is a sub editor on the Islamabad desk.
vaqas.asghar@tribune.com.pk

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.

ISLAMABAD: Half a century ago, the leaders of two perennially warring nations sat down to sign the Elysee Treaty. With the stroke of a pen, centuries of cold and hot wars were replaced by a friendship that would lay the foundation for the world’s most successful economic union.

Earlier this week, the embassies of France and Germany worked together to celebrate 50 years of the Treaty of Friendship in a language everyone can understand — music.

French Ambassador Philippe Thiebaud played host at a piano concert by French pianist Martine Mirabel-Pitte held at the German Embassy.

After the guests were seated, Ambassador Thiebaud opened the show by welcoming guests and reminding them of the significance of the Elysee Treaty in Franco-German relations, before moving on to state the importance of cultural exchanges in improving bilateral relations between states. “We are trying to promote Pakistani culture in our countries and our own culture here, and music is a great medium for this. Enjoy this evening of music and friendship.”

He then introduced German Ambassador Cyrill Nunn, who joked about how he is doubly-happy about the event because, “My mother is French, so it’s also a matter of heart”. He then noted how, despite close Frenco-German ties, “Oddly we always need an American piano to play,” referring to the Steinway on stage.

Mirabel-Pitte then took the stage and explained the set she was about to play, mostly from the late 19th and early 20th century.

Trained at Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, Mirabel-Pitte has also extensively explored avenues for dialogues amongst culture by visiting South East Asia and taking lessons with Master Gita Lulin Maung

Ko Ko and is very active and interested in cultural exchange work.

She explained that this era held musical significance because it is when styles began to move in a different direction from Romanticism, and identified Johannes Brahms as “the last true romantic composer”.

After a mellow opening, Mirabel-Pitte moved on to more uplifting stylings. Taking a pause, she then explained how she prefers music from the Romantic era because it is emotional, and joked, “When I play, I play for myself, because no one else.”

Maybe everyone should play for themselves, because the precise, delicate, passionate nature of the manner in which she made every keystroke resonate within the souls of the audience made the experience pure joy. This was only made more obvious by not one, but two encore performances after the set was completed, and the thunderous standing ovation that followed.

Apart from the two German composers, the works of Frenchmen Gabriel Faure and Claude Debussy were also included in the set, which Paul Molloy, Australia’s deputy high commissioner, found “lovely”, adding that her “selection of pieces was very relaxing and inspiring”.

Apart from the intimate assembly of diplomats, which included ambassadors and senior officials from EU member states and others such as Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Oi, who is himself an accomplished

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2013.

No, that’s not a typo, but an actual statement from an audience member during Wednesday’s ILF session on Nuclear Pakistan: An Overview of the Strategic Dimensions.

At an event which has the word literature in its name, one would expect the audience to display some familiarity with the subject on hand, at least if they want to make a statement. Instead, the misidentification of South Korea as North — the Korea we allegedly did sell weapons to — was one of the highlights of a ridiculous question and answer session.

A young audience member, after spending a good deal of time providing his full name, school, class, and other personal details, referred to an undetectable nuclear bomb that Pakistan has made, referencing the cold start doctrine and an earlier discussion on India flattening Pakistan with nukes if we send any east of the border.

Even James Bond and Blofeld dealt with more believable weapons.

Meanwhile, a number of retired military men and nuclear researchers kept making statements, rather than asking questions of the audience, with one gentleman using nuclear research on strains of cotton to justify the expenditure on maintaining Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Most anti-nuke advocates, have a problem with bombs, not cancer research or crop development.

Towards the very end, another gent seemed more interested in creating analogies of Pakistan as a dangerous insect, yes insect, than asking an actual question.

Amid all this people began leaving, and the back rows began gossiping, forcing the speakers to raise their voices to try and get their points across.

Most unfortunate though, was the wasted opportunity following an interesting start to the session, which featured defence analysts Dr Zafar iqbal Cheema and Zulfiqar Khan voicing the pro-bomb perspective, countered by physicist and nuclear disarmament activist Dr AH Nayyar, with Raza Rumi moderating.

Cheema raised the point that nuclear weapons are unique. Relevant to South Asia, he said such weapons create a strategic military equilibrium and stops the arms race, making troop strength irrelevant. “India has a large, stable economy and can spend on conventional arms.

In the last two years, it was the biggest importer of conventional arms. Pakistan cannot even afford a quarter of that, so they balance it with nuclear weapons.”

Khan said the existence of nuclear weapons has made war less likely, but the strategy has changed, bilateral security issues remain, and strategic security is still a problem. He also said that growing asymmetry between Pakistan and India is threatening the minimum deterrence policy.

Nayyar’s lonely attempt to illustrate the farcicality of the belief that nuclear weapons bring peace started with Pakistan’s changing posture on nuclear weapons. First they were to deter Indian nuclear attacks, then changed to a situation where they are a deterrent against conventional attacks, and are now sold as source of peace, he said, adding that we tell the world “we are an unstable society with the bomb.

“To stop them falling into the wrong hands, help us [monetarily].” He offered Kargil as proof that the bomb cannot stop wars, and in fact nuclear weapons “give leeway to engage in covert
wars, instead of humiliating defeat (referencing Kargil)”.

We may claim we are making bombs to protect people, but the people are mostly ignored. He said a nuclear war in South Asia would not be limited to the battlefield, and millions of civilians would die, even if five bombs of the same yield as the Hiroshima bomb — Little Boy — were used.

The nuclear weapons in both countries’ arsenals are far more powerful.

On nuclear safety, Cheema said Pakistan offers foreign powers information on safety, while most other nuclear states don’t. Nayyar agreed, saying Pakistan has built a strong safety net and convinced experts, while pointing at Gen (retd) Khalid Qidwai, who heads the Strategic Plans Division, and indirectly, the nuclear weapons programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2013.

Rehman was speaking about his new book “From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History”, launched at the Islamabad Literature Festival.

Professor Rehman started off light, explaining that he wrote the book simply because “writing is my hobby”.

Moving on to the book, Rehman provided a short history of the development of Urdu and Hindi into separate languages from their common roots, adding that over 1 billion people speak Hindi or Urdu as a first or second language.

He then gave an anecdote from a meeting between former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, and General Ayub Khan. Shastri and Khan were speaking without an interpreter.

Khrushchev asked both men what language they were speaking in. Shastri said Hindi, while Khan said Urdu. A baffled Khrushchev asked them how they understood each other, but received no reply.

While explaining that 1780 was the first time Urdu was called ‘Urdu’, moderator Harris Khalique, a noted poet in his own right, asked a question on how the language changed over time. Professor Rehman quoted a few verses from 14th century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer using the original old English to show how languages evolve.

He then used Sufi scripts from the 1300s which have quite a bit of ‘modern’ Urdu interspersed with Persian to illustrate Urdu’s evolution.

On the significance given to Urdu during the era of the British Raj, he said the rulers had made Urdu the language of the lower courts rather than Hindi, and explained that Urdu served as an identity marker because jobs were attached to it.

This led to the Hindi-speaking community developing pressure groups because Hindi-literate people felt alienated as they needed to learn Urdu for government jobs.

This led to a divide, which, when coupled with the loss of Muslim power in the centre, led to the ‘Islamisation’ of Urdu, and the ‘Sanskritisation’ of Hindi. Sanskrit and local dialect words were purged from Urdu, replaced by Persian and Arabic ones, Literary and cultural allusions moved to Islamic ones instead of those from local culture. Meanwhile references to Indian landscapes disappeared, replaced by Persian ones, while Indian romantic poetry, which focuses mostly on a man’s love of a woman, was replaced by Persian-style poetry, where a man loves a figure of indeterminate gender.

At the same time, there was also the enforcement of speaking Urdu with a Persian accent, possibly because after the loss of the empire — during which time it was the language of the elite — it was the only thing Muslims controlled.

Hindi adherents did the same, replacing common words with rarely-used Sanskrit terms. However, some influences from Hindi were not broken from, such as hard-ending sounds.

He said the language of Bollywood is actually closer to Urdu, illustrating that many directors keep munshis (clerks) or moulvis on set for Urdu dialogue pronunciation assistance.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2013.

However, opinions usually derail the conversation from its factual basis. The session on Dynastic politics at the Islamabad Literature Festival was also derailed. Fortunately though, it was by fact, not opinion.

Sorry to throw a spanner in the works, but no one is talking about the biggest political dynasty of all — the Pakistan Army.

That was Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, QAU professor and Awami Workers Party leader, reminding his fellow panellists that for all the talk of Bhuttos, Sharifs, Gandhis, Makhdooms and others, the  focus should be on the ‘family’ that is “the largest landowner in the country, the owner of the largest corporation, and…”

The lights went out.

“Obviously my opinions aren’t very popular”, Akhtar quipped, realising no one heard the end of the statement.

Earlier, the moderator, journalist and political analyst Babar Ayaz, kicked off the event by introducing the speakers, educationist Hamida Khuro, Akhtar, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member and former diplomat Ashraf Jehangir Qazi and journalist Ghazi Salahuddin, who came racing in to the hall just before the actual discussion started, apologising profusely.

Ayaz started by stating the significance of dynastic politics in the Pakistani context due to the ‘love’ the middle class has for the products of such a system. However, he said, we are not the only place with dynastic influences, citing other countries from the region and developed countries like the US and England.

He asked Khuro why we give preference to lawyers and doctors who come from families where the professions are a ‘family practice’, but not politicians.

Khuro replied that historically, in most places, governments are in the hands of dynasties and monarchies. “Meritocracy is a middle class, post-industrial revolution concept,” she said, adding that the apprenticeship factor, or learn from the father, matters. For most politicians it is simply a family trade and name recognition is a factor, Agendas matter, but the name is always there.”

Salahuddin was asked to whether dynastic politics were bad for Pakistan. He ran off an anecdote from a recent conference in South Korea. “We were talking about leaving military rule for democracy. In February, the daughter of the former military dictator became president. The name was recognisable, and in the Pakistani context, dynastic politics is based on charismatic leadership,” he said, and gave regional examples such as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Indira Gandhi, and Benazir Bhutto.

Qazi spoke of dynastic politics as “a form of class warfare, which military intervention adds to by strengthening dynasties. The military itself is a meritocracy, but doesn’t act as one when it rules.”

He added that the focus of military rulers and, political masters is different. Changing politicians can change the focus, but the military dictator’s mindset is always the same. Whoever the dictator may be, it is always a disaster, he said.

Later, to a question on the ‘mullah dynasty’, Qazi said secularism is wrongly translated for the masses as irreligiousness, whereas, quoting the poet Iqbal, he explained the actual meaning is politics based on knowledge of the world.

Akhtar gave an example of the military’s abuse of the perception it is pro middle class. “The army has been in power forever, inheriting it from its colonial predecessor. It claims to be pro-middle class and slams dynastic politics, but acts the same. The middle class is happy when generals take over and claim they will clean up the system, but six months later, the generals are aligned with the same Chaudhrys and Mirs.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2013.

The music video for Junaid’s new track Mein Chala, which was composed by Noraiz Munir and arranged by Adnan, was launched with a short fashion show by Crush. He took the stage to perform Mein Chala, a performance which captivated the crowd. Junaid later covered his brother’s upbeat song Lift Kara De before introducing former Sur Kshetra contestant Mulzim Hussain who sang Teri Dewani.

Omar, a guest at the event was appreciative of the song and the video, while Saba, a student, said she was impressed with his vocal abilities.

Though he has made a late start to his career, after the show Junaid told The Express Tribune that he wants his singing talent to be appreciated without being compared to his famous sibling. “I know I will be compared,” he said. “People will ask ‘is he as good or not?’”

However, Junaid admits that his closeness with Adnan has put him at an advantage for the start of his career, and he hopes his mark on the music world will be judged independently of his popular brother.

As for an album, Junaid doesn’t have a timeline in mind yet but said he is working on a few songs at the moment.

Junaid’s inspirations come from:

Adnan Sami

Rahat Fateh Ali

Nazia and Zoheb Hassan

Kishore Kumar

Lata Mangeshkar

Asha Bhosle

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2013.

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Omar was enthused by the experience of working with well-established acts from the rap genre, underscored by elation over the chance to work with Everlast.

“I worked with Everlast on Hand Over Your Guns, which was probably the most exciting collaboration on the album for me,” said Omar. “Everlast has been one of my favourite songwriter-vocalists, an artistic influence and somebody I’ve looked up to since I was about eight-years-old. Working with him was a great opportunity and the song seemed to unfold beautifully.”

Everlast was not the only big name on the collaboration list, as Omar quickly listed old school legends such as B-Real of Cypress Hill, Xzibit and Kool G Rap, along with newer talent and underground heavyweights such as Sick Jacken, Demrick, Hard Target, Greydon Square and Gravity among the other collaborators. He was disappointed that the track Sugar Low, which was supposed to be in collaboration with Pakistani musician-actor Meesha Shafi, was recorded without her because of scheduling issues. “But the song was written with her in mind as a feature, so I’ll say that her spirit is very much in it,” he added.

From the album, Omar feels strongly about all of his music, but some songs mean more than others.

“I feel most strongly about the title track, The Mushroom Cloud Effect, as well as Hand Over Your Guns,” he said. The latter, which features Everlast, “probably best represents me as an artist and songwriter”. It can be interpreted in many different ways — as a post apocalyptic sci-fi war song, a love story, or a universal peace anthem. It also crosses genres and can’t be pinned down that easily. “In general, my favourite songs would be the ones I experimented on a little more,” he added.

Omar has an upcoming tour with gigs lined up in Dubai, Europe and the US, and perhaps elsewhere. “Still adding to that list, we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

On the production front, a series of collaborative EPs is on the cards for 2013. “I’m doing one with co-VEN, one with Talal Qureshi and one with G Rocka of Soul Assassins,” Omar continued. “I’ve also been more open to side projects such as song writing or production for other artists, acting, and endorsing brands, as well.”

He is also shooting a video for the last single of the album, but as for a release date he said, “I’ll keep that a surprise for now.”

The NoTube situation

The usually optimistic artist has a bone to pick with the government, specifically over head-in-the-sand censorship policies.

“The YouTube ban has hurt all of us. Musicians don’t sell records in Pakistan, but they can still get some YouTube ad revenue and have the potential to go viral and reach an international audience,” he said regretfully. “We’ve been royally screwed and nobody seems to care.”

Meanwhile, when asked about local media helping fill the void, Omar could only say, “If local TV stopped shamelessly alienating local talent in favour of Bollywood, then it might help.”

With years of effort comes recognition, but Omar still doesn’t see himself as famous. “I live a fairly interesting, exciting and spontaneous life. Sure, I get recognised and people show love, but I’m not really out there and I don’t really put myself out there, either,” he said.

The young artist prefers to have his work, rather than his person, recognised. He quotes an anecdote, “I was recently in a room with a 100 people inside in Lahore, and ‘Paki Rambo’ came on. Nobody knew who I was, but everybody knew the song and the lyrics,” he said, adding with pride how good that felt. “I always want my work to be more famous than my face.”

On his love life he said, “What holds value to me, should remain hidden…for now.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2013.

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ISLAMABAD: The law seems to be something the legal fraternity has little respect for. Whether it be garlanding confessed murderers in roses and demanding pardons for them, picking fights with cops, soldiers and civilians, or that Pakistani favourite — land grabbing.

Just take the recent case of a football ground in the capital’s sector F-8. Located right next to the sector’s main commercial area, which also houses the district courts and the chambers for a number of lawyers, the ground is probably the best -maintained public park in the sector, and a good place to go in an entertainment-starved city. There are always a number of youngsters playing in the area, some of whom ‘defy the law’ by playing cricket in a football ground.

So the ground is definitely a place for much-needed recreation, but that’s not all. When these kids are done with their football or cricket, they often head to one of the nearby restaurants for a bite. In essence, the park is also increasing commercial activity in the area and keeping the market looking busy. However as small as the actual impact may be, these things matter to small businesses, and taking them away would very likely take a bite out of the bottom line.

Meanwhile, the main market area where lawyers’ chambers are set up reminds one of a labyrinth. Many lawyers lack workspace and are waiting for the new judicial complex in Sector G-10 to be completed so they can move in to the chambers there.

All well and good. Patience is, after all, a clichéd virtue, but one that seems lost on the legal fraternity (except when they want to keep charging clients by getting stay orders).

Lawyers have started building around 35 chambers on the football ground after getting legal cover from a civil court. Fine, except the civil court seems to have ignored a Supreme Court order on encroaching on public property, which is exactly what is being done here. I am not a lawyer, but I do know what legal precedent is, and SC trumps civil every time.

Last month, the lawyers claimed that an NOC from the district administration proved that they were allowed to build on the site, which was odd because the district administration said no such thing. Though the district commissioner readily admitted to issuing the NOC, he clarified that permission to build would have to be taken by the CDA, because that’s the law.

Lousy laws. Always making life difficult for people who practice it.

The decision to build was backed by the district bar, which would imply that at least a few lawyers familiar with CDA bylaws would be on hand for consultation. So why was the CDA never approached?

Maybe because they knew that “the land has been marked for a football ground and if lawyers start construction, the CDA Enforcement Directorate will definitely take action”. That was CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid in February, after local traders had fisticuffs with lawyers over the issue. Curiously, the traders knew exactly who to call about the offence — the Enforcement Directorate.

The very legal move on the part of traders led to FIRs being lodged by both parties against each other, and a suggestion from the amazingly creative Islamabad police to solve the problem by sealing the park. After all, who cares if kids don’t get to play there? It’s not as if exercise and group activities are good for their health and personal development.

Oh wait, they are.

On Friday, allegations came out that lawyers had ensured that two notices served on the CDA failed to arrive at the civic agency. Effectively, a no-show by the CDA could essentially be interpreted as CDA approval. Further allegations included attempts by the CDA’s lawyer to water down a scathing Enforcement Directorate report on the issue.

Then on Saturday, when members of the public approached the court to offer their opinions, their lack of a lawyer became a minor issue, rather than the infringement of their rights as area residents and direct beneficiaries of the park. Understandably, they said lawyers refused to work for them, fearing the wrath of their colleagues

All this makes one wonder; maybe the F-8 traders should take up law. What’s the worst they could do? Abuse it for personal gain?

On a side note, a college principal in Rawalpindi was allegedly threatened by police officials after a judge took offence to students playing sports in the college grounds/ court parking  lot (the college building is ‘temporarily’ being shared with lower courts). However, the judges seemingly have no issue with rapists and murderers being paraded through the college, or with a potential hostage situation, which incidents of firing and escape attempts suggest are not unimaginable.

Apparently, judges just don’t like sports.

The writer is a sub editor on the Islamabad Desk. vaqas.asghar@tribune.com.pk

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2013.

Among the group was a little boy, his faces, hands and clothes covered in muck, and his skin showing signs of one or more serious skin conditions. The Express Tribune spoke to him as he ate the remains of a discarded banana — now nothing more than a blackened peel.

“I really like bananas but I cannot afford to buy them,” said Abbas, a seven-year-old from conflict-riddled Bajaur Agency. He did not take a break to talk, as he quickly picked up a yogurt box with something left in it, ignoring the used diaper right next to it.

Abbas, his mother and five younger siblings shifted to Faizabad in 2010 after his father was killed during a military operation in the tribal agency. Now he is the sole breadwinner for his family.

“I work from early morning till after sunset and earn Rs200 to Rs300 a day for my mother,” he said, ignoring the pungent smell of his ‘worksite’.

He was a nursery student when his school was blown up by militants. Though he was a small child, the image of a pile of rubble that used to be his school is still fresh in his mind.

“My classroom was a pile of gravel.”

Even at his young age, Abbas recognises the value of education. “I want to get educated so I can earn lots of money instead of doing this.”

This, was a specific reference to the hazards he faces every day. While collecting reusable trash items, he comes across hospital waste, such as syringes and containers filled with blood and other biological hazards, along with animal carcasses and offal.

After a hard day’s work filling up their bags with recyclable treasures, the children lug them away on their frail shoulders to contractors around the area.

Sajid looked around 10, but wasn’t sure of his age. He walked with a limp, caused by a shard of glass that cut him as he fished through medical waste near the Pakistan Institute Medical Sciences, hoping to find syringes.

Though there are several non-governmental organisations working to help such children, none of them have the accurate data on child trash-pickers. The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) estimates that there are around 5,000 such children in the twin cities.

“As many as 300 children pick through trash in Pirwadhai alone,” says Sohail Ahmad, project manager of the SPARC Drop-in-Centre, which helps destitute children.

A sharp increase has been witnessed in the number of children begging or doing such jobs in Islamabad and Rawalpindi since the recent floods and military operations in the tribal areas.

In most cases, there are middlemen who engage these children. For all of the hazards the work involves, the children only receive a pittance, while their handlers keep the lion’s share, Ahmad said.

Even the right to health seems a luxury these children can ill-afford.

Dermatologist Dr Nadeem Ahmad Khan Niazi told The Express Tribune that rag-picking children are vulnerable to almost all diseases imaginable.

“The rag-pickers are susceptible to diseases like tuberculosis and cancer due to their exposure to hazardous materials. Diarrhoea, malaria and skin diseases are common among them,” Dr Niazi said.

Scavengers are treated as social outcasts and have to bear verbal and sometimes physical abuse from local residents or even their fellow trash-pickers. “Most of them are vulnerable to sexual abuse as they sleep in parking lots, on pavements and at mazaars,” Ahmad said, adding that in most cases, the children ask the operators of roadside stalls to act as their banks, which in turn puts the adults in a position to sexually exploit them.

As the rich and powerful on the other side of the capital rush to legislate in the favour of others with wealth and power, these children are a constant reminder that a society is not judged on how well they keep their kings, but on how they treat the peasants among them.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2013. 

Around two weeks back, a pre-teen girl went missing from Bhara Kahu. Her parents told the police that her tutor kidnapped her. Unfortunately, the police were not particularly interested in investigating. Days later, the burnt body of a little girl was found in I-9. Forensics on the body showed that the missing 11-year-old was no longer missing.

Missing person case solved, rape-murder case opened.

The ensuing murder investigation saw the tutor and her ‘boyfriend’ picked up by the police. They quickly confessed to the crime.

Cased closed?

Not at all.

This is where the case details started turning into a bad movie script. During interrogations, the police learnt that the man claimed to have AIDS. Blood tests haven’t confirmed whether or not this was just a strange ruse or if he really has the disease. However, he did admit to killing two (grown) women before the eleven-year-old, because he thought it would cure his AIDS.

HIV/AIDS is incurable. Decades of research have only yielded antiretroviral treatments which can prolong an infected person’s life while reducing the number of attached problems.

However, there is a strong, albeit baseless belief in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries — of which Pakistan is apparently one — that virgin women are the cure to the disease.

The murderer, after finding that his two adult victims were unable to cure his AIDS, he went for a younger victim.

Apart from not curing the infected person, such contact exposes the uninfected individual to HIV, and further spreads the disease. The belief is responsible for a worrying number of rape, sexual abuse and child molestation cases. Yet, while African governments are at least willing to try to educate their people on the issue, our state is unwilling to admit that ‘intimacy’ can exist in a relationship between unmarried couples. Add to that the misogyny in society, and new problems rise up.

I recently came across a flyer for an invasive feminine product targeted at improving the love life of new parents. While the product had some minor health and other benefits for the woman using it, the flyer only listed why it would make the woman’s husband happier. Apparently, even feminine products need to be marketed to men.

Legal abortions in Pakistan are hard to come by, and although rape victims qualify, the victim needs her husband or male guardian’s permission to get an abortion, even if it is the husband or guardian that raped her.

Uneducated women, and even some educated ones, have no opportunity to consent to the choice of their husbands, even if the husband already has a handful of wives. Conversely, existing wives often don’t find out about their hubby’s new ones till after the wedding.

Selling daughters, often underage, or ‘giving’ them away to relatively richer and more powerful families is an accepted, if disgusting, cultural norm. Until recently, if a 16-year-old girl ran away from her arranged 80-year-old husband, a court would have returned her to her family. The same family that got her engaged to a decrepit old man.

See the problem?

The confessed criminal had to have gotten the disease from somewhere, and judging by what he thought would cure him, it’s quite certain that a woman of the night may have contributed. Or it may have been his female accomplice.

Who knows.

But what is known of the murderous duo, is that he is a masters degree holder, and she is a final-year masters student. On paper, these are two highly educated people, who would presumptively have learnt something of the world beyond their business degrees. In practice, they clearly knew nothing, and the term I wanted to refer to them by them is unprintable.

The only ‘saving grace’ is that since victim number two was the daughter of a senior police officer, the chances that these two make it to trial, or somehow are cut loose by the courts, are next to nil.

We live in country where fake peers and other quacks will say the cure to female infertility is in their bodies, and people buy it. We live in a country where talk on the matter between anyone, let alone parents and children, is so taboo that one would wonder why Pakistanis haven’t gone extinct. Yet, when it comes to love for pornography, we’re number one, at least according to Google’s data on certain search terms.

Maybe that explains why we haven’t gone extinct.

The writer is a sub editor on the Islamabad Desk. vaqas.asghar@tribune.com.pk

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2013.