School assault
SHOCKING details about a series of assaults, reportedly committed at a Karachi school, point to the ugly fact that sexual predators often operate in society while hiding behind the veneer of ‘respectability’. According to police, the owner/principal of a school located in the metropolis’s Gulshan-i-Hadeed area is accused of assaulting numerous women, and filming the crimes to blackmail the victims. The suspect would allegedly lure the women by offering them employment and then assault them. Some reports say up to 45 women may have been assaulted, while five victims have confirmed they were raped by the individual. Police say incriminating video clips have been recovered from the suspect’s phone. The scandal surfaced after a technician repairing CCTV cameras at the school discovered the videos, which were later uploaded on social media by the worker’s associate. This crime bears disturbing similarities to the Islamia University Bahawalpur sex and drugs scandal that broke a few months ago. Officials of the varsity have been accused by police of providing drugs to students, while also making obscene videos of female teachers and students. The IUB matter is currently being probed by a tribunal.
It is a matter of concern that none of the staffers of the Karachi school, members of the local community or police officials were aware of the crimes being committed on the premises. It needs to be probed whether the suspect was acting alone, or was abetted by others in this monstrous crime. If found guilty, this individual deserves the maximum punishment under the law. Female police officers need to be involved in the case so that the victims can record evidence with ease. Unfortunately, there are far too many such cases being reported countrywide, particularly involving technology and the uploading of obscene content online to blackmail girls and women. The FIA and other law-enforcement agencies need to actively pursue such predators, so that they are unable to destroy lives.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2023
Elahi’s ordeal
THE extent of institutional capture is stunning. It appears that no authority in Pakistan, bar one, has it within its power to set an ailing septuagenarian free. Repeated contempt of court warnings and show-cause notices have failed to deter senior administrative officials, who have been openly defying court orders to keep Chaudhry Parvez Elahi behind bars. He barely walks out of a courtroom on bail that he is dragged back into custody in connection with some freshly discovered case. This cat-and-mouse game has greatly frustrated several honourable justices, but the high-ranking bureaucrats who keep crossing them seem unfussed. They are, after all, perceived as merely following the orders of a ‘higher’ authority. It is no secret that those running the country these days wish to see anyone who refuses to renounce their allegiance to Imran Khan’s party suffer. The executive appears in no mood — or position — to deny them that pleasure. The PTI president is certainly not the only one to have been arrested and rearrested following the events of May 9. However, he does seem to have the distinction of having been made to suffer the experience the most. He has been arrested 11 times since June.
Chaudhry Elahi should be punished according to the law if he has been involved in any misdoing. However, any punishment should follow due process. This has clearly not been the case with Mr Elahi, or any of the prisoners taken by the state in the aftermath of its decision to crack down on the PTI. Scores, including dozens of women, continue to be held without charge or trial, deprived of their liberty simply because it has been decided that they should be ‘taught a lesson’. Such arbitrariness hurts the state’s interests. There has lately been much talk about Pakistan’s impending turnaround following large foreign investments. However, given the sorry state of law and order, we should not expect much change in our overall trajectory. No amount of dollars pumped into the economy will be enough to ‘save’ Pakistan if its justice system is kept in its current weakened and compromised state. As long as the law remains susceptible to easy manipulation, smart investors will steer clear. No one wants to put their money in a place where the laws change based on the whims of a few. The authorities would do well to heed that.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2023
Sugar prices
SUGAR prices are a major political economy issue in Pakistan. Any small or large upward change in domestic sugar prices tends to trigger much noise in the media, with the government activating its administrative machinery to launch a ‘crackdown’ against sugar mill owners and traders to bring down retail rates.
Sometimes the judiciary also intervenes because of the massive public attention sugar prices draw, thanks to the political profile of most mill owners.
A ‘probe’ is ordered, lengthy reports are prepared and recommendations formulated to ‘reform’ the sugar trade and keep prices in check. But nothing really changes.
The reason for the recurring ‘sugar price crises’ is well known: the government’s involvement in the sugar economy to protect politically powerful large cane growers and factory owners.
The solution is also obvious: withdrawal of the government from the market, and removal of restrictions on free import and export of the sweetener to let demand-and-supply forces take their own course.
However, no government — civil or military — has shown enough political will to implement the solution for fear of losing the support of large growers and wealthy millers. Hence, both farmers and factory owners remain deeply invested in this crop because of guaranteed, risk-free profits.
It was, then, not surprising when the discourse over sugar’s rising cost gained momentum recently. Many accused the previous PDM government of allowing the export of ‘surplus stocks’ lying with mill owners earlier this year, blaming it for the current price spike.
Others held sugar’s unchecked smuggling to Afghanistan, due to the large gap between the domestic and international prices of the commodity, responsible.
Punjab’s caretaker government has blamed the price surge on an interim Lahore High Court order that stopped it from monitoring the commodity’s supply chain to ensure implementation of the notified price of Rs100 per kilo.
Interestingly, the caretaker administration has done nothing to get the interim order, that was passed in May, vacated, despite consistently rising retail prices and awareness of sugar smuggling to Afghanistan via Balochistan. The administration’s report on the matter, presented to the Punjab chief minister recently, is self-incriminating at best.
Past experience shows that the issue will fade away in the next few days or weeks. The retail rate will also come down to settle at a level matching the increased official support price for the next harvest. Sugar forms only a small portion of household expenses.
If the government wants to stabilise the market it should extricate itself from the supply chain. It is incorrect to say that the price of sugar can aggravate or mitigate economic shocks in poor or middle-income families.
If the authorities want to help these families, they should focus on reducing the overall cost of living for them — and not just that of sugar.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2023