Underage marriage
WHEN custom undermines welfare, especially for girls, it should be abandoned. Far too often, the guardians of tradition repudiate empowerment, making it incumbent upon political parties to highlight regressive issues such as child marriage in their poll campaigns. A UN report released in May states that South Asia “still needs 55 years to eliminate the practice if it does not speed up”. Thus, last week, desperate circumstances forced civil society groups to demand that political outfits include the juvenile marriage restraint issue in party manifestos and contribute towards passing relevant bills from the Balochistan Assembly where the Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2023, is long pending. Under federal law and the laws of three provinces, the minimum legal age for marriage is 16 for girls; only Sindh stipulates 18 years.
In Pakistan, the cost of being a female — poor healthcare and education — is made worse with underage marriage. Our patriarchal social sphere leaves some 80m females vulnerable to premature wedlock and forced conversions. For over a decade, successive KP governments failed to move past the colonial Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, and the proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2021, fell through due to resistance from religious circles. In 2015, Punjab made a timid attempt with the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 2015. But, instead of repealing the archaic CMRA 1929, it left the marriage age untouched. At the other end, Sindh has commendable pro-women legislation, yet incidents of juvenile nuptials and forced conversions soar. The time is now for political parties to recognise that such laws legitimise child abuse; they empower elders to thrust consent on young girls. Political parties must craft sensitive narratives around the perils of these practices in the run-up to elections, and pledge enforcement of progressive edicts with robust implementation once in power. Women cannot live by primitive norms, trapped in lost childhoods and a bleak future.
Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023
Shocking images
THERE has been a variety of shocking videos and images emerging from Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, courtesy the former’s resort to barbaric methods in order to wipe out the population of the beleaguered Strip. The images of children’s bodies, or those of grievously wounded minors, are most disturbing, and are enough to debunk Israel’s fiction that it is acting in ‘self-defence’. Israel is indulging in slaughter, pure and simple, no matter what its apologists in important Western capitals might say. Now, a set of recent videos and images illustrate in appalling fashion the extent to which Tel Aviv is willing to go to dehumanise the Palestinian people, and take away their dignity. These images show up to 100 Palestinian detainees stripped to their undergarments, blindfolded and made to kneel on the ground as Israeli soldiers watch over them. Initially, there were some questions about the authenticity of these images. But the fact that they were broadcast on Israeli TV, and that Tel Aviv’s war machine did not deny they were responsible for this outrage, puts these questions to rest. The footage and pictures resemble the disturbing images of Europe’s Jews rounded up in Nazi death camps during World War 2, adding credence to the comparison between modern Israel and the Third Reich. It is ironic that the Israelis are replicating the same chilling methods on defenceless Palestinians that their forefathers faced at the hands of Nazi Germany.
The standard Israeli response is that they routinely round up Palestinians to ensure there are no Hamas operatives amongst them. Family members of many of the men seen in the videos deny any links to Hamas, with journalists, students and traders amongst the detainees. In reaction to these atrocious images, the Red Cross has emphasised the need to treat all detainees “with humanity and dignity”. But to Israel, “humanity and dignity” do not apply to Palestinians. And why should they, when the world’s most powerful state stands like a rock to protect Israel from all censure? The US, again, blocked calls for a ceasefire in the Security Council, perhaps because 17,000 dead Palestinians, including 7,000 children, are not enough to satiate Israel’s endless bloodlust. Many years from now, historians will remember the world’s criminal silence as Palestinian children were exterminated, starved and bombed ‘into the Stone Age.’
Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023
Future plans
NAWAZ Sharif is planning ahead. Perhaps confident of his chances in the next election, he seems keen to want to avoid the run-ins he has had with security establishments during past stints in power.
In general, it seems like he wants to take a strong stance on civilian supremacy and wants some guarantees that he will be able to run the country unhindered this time around. It is a carefully calculated power move.
The state seems to have all but run out of options, and Mr Sharif is leveraging the opportunity to push back on the issues that are most important to him. For example, he has repeatedly tested the waters by reiterating his demand for the accountability of those who ‘conspired’, in his view, to push him out of power in 2017.
Demanding such accountability just months ago could have rapidly backfired on the PML-N. Younger brother Shehbaz Sharif would always be quick to soothe nerves each time Mr Sharif publicly put forth this demand.
Not so more recently, while Mr Sharif has gradually grown more insistent on this ‘accountability drive’.
“Who ruined the country? Who brought the country to this point today? Why are the poor starving today? […] All these things are eating up the country,” Mr Sharif noted while addressing party leaders on Friday.
On Saturday, with Shehbaz Sharif by his side, he went further, “Those who have brought the country to this point, they should also be held accountable. They should be asked how you meted out such treatment [to] this country.”
In the same gathering, the former prime minister also defended his position on the Kargil issue, while stressing the need to improve ties with neighbouring countries, especially India.
He also recalled the visits of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 and Narendra Modi in 2015, rhetorically asking if anyone had come to Pakistan before them. It was clear that the thrice-ousted prime minister was keen to assert himself from the outset this time around.
It is encouraging to see that Nawaz Sharif remains committed to a strong civilian government and an independent foreign policy, and he is fully entitled, as a former chief executive, to pursue accountability and push the overreaching arms of the state back into their respective domains.
However, Mr Sharif should perhaps not consider himself the ‘ideal’ candidate just yet. It is clear that he still has a weak understanding of the Pakistani economy, which seems heavily influenced by the thoroughly discredited ideas of Ishaq Dar.
Therefore, while his ideas about civilian supremacy and assertive policymaking are commendable, until both he and his party figure out what good fiscal management entails, there is not much they can offer inflation-weary Pakistanis desperate for growth and meaningful change.
Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023