New year, same story

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The entire world greets the new year with celebrations and hope while we kickstart it with blood and bullet wounds. At least 29 people sustained injuries throughout the city due to aerial firing. The current governmental set-up (notice how I didn't call it the government), like every year, published adverts in various newspapers stating that those indulging in aerial firing will be arrested and charged. Just like every year, thousands engaged in this act with impunity.

On the bright side, the government (okay I said it) has devised a 5-year plan ensuring 'economic boosts' and 'more investment' from other countries. This so-called 5-year plan will help the country prosper.

But before we talk about the future 5-year plan, what happened to the statement made by the then Minister for Water and Power where he said that loadshedding would be completely eliminated by 2018. This isn't me pointing fingers, this is history and these are facts which are on record. The internet is a scary place, it just doesn't seem to forget.

Anyway, in 2030, I will be writing about this 5-year plan and how it fell flat on its face when it was introduced back in 2025. Call me pessimistic but things aren't going to change until we get new faces in the parliament. These old ones have ruined the country and its institutions for too long. We can't progress with them; we can only progress without them. The squad needs to be rebuilt and old players have to either retire or be sacked.

Imagine a government slowing down the country's internet in these times of digital revolution. Get a grip, have some character.

Pakistan's counterterrorism policies have also been found wanting, to say the least. Year 2024 saw Pakistan's security forces lose the highest number of its soldiers. These brave martyrs lost their lives while fighting insurgents throughout the country and at the border. Safe to say, the country's counterterrorism policies have been below average. And why wouldn't they be? When you shift focus from sharpening your knives to slowing down the internet, you lose focus on your priorities.

The outgoing year proved that social media wasn't a threat to national security, insurgents were. As much as we would like to believe that digital warfare is a rising threat to us, I hate to break it to you, it isn't. The conventional warfare is what's a threat and always was. Insurgents don't fire bullets off of the internet, they blow themselves up near airports to discourage foreign investment.

In my little experience working within the legal system and the field of academia, we're because of having powerful people on important posts who lack expertise in their fields. Just look at the qualifications of our current ministers and see if they correspond to the ministries they're holding. Again, this isn't me pointing fingers or placing blame, these are hard facts. Until we don't recognise this, we aren't getting anywhere.

Leave the formulation of policies to the academics, leave the politics to the civilians, leave the internet to the tech people. We need educated and experienced people in positions of power, not 70-year-old in suits who work only so that they can remain in power.

Also, my last piece hit some nerves. Let me say it again. The young lawyers deserve a decent pay and humane supervisors. Stop asking your associates to update serial numbers in court rooms for you. Let them proceed with matters and pay them on time. Not only does the monetary aspect matter, respect your employees too. If being a mentor means going hard on your associates, then you're living under a rock. Times have changed.

Year 2025 is here, be a dignified mentor, teach the younger lot and don't be a hypocrite. Worshipping God is supposed to make your heart softer, not harsher.

And unless you can deadlift at least twice your body weight, don't pick an argument with your subordinate.