FOR four hours this week, all social media platforms in the country were shut down, a measure the government said was necessary ahead of the clampdown on violent TLP supporters on Friday. Successive governments have blocked mobile networks and platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and YouTube on separate occasions in the past, but this blanket freezing of all internet-based communication applications is unprecedented.
Without prior notice, the government prevented millions from using these platforms to “maintain public order and safety” — a step that bodes badly for future internet freedoms as the threat of more unannounced, arbitrary bans looms. The negative effects of such a ban have not been lost on the government.
After the clampdown, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid apologised to Pakistani citizens for the inconvenience the government’s step had caused them, and said that the measure had become “essential” as violent protests were feared. However, his apology does not change the fact that the move was a naked display of the state’s ability to block social media and the internet at will. If anything, it has shown that in the future, a protest campaign or demonstration by one of the mainstream groups, can also trigger such a draconian step in the name of public safety. For large-scale public protests, where violence is always a possibility, such a ban has set a dark and dangerous precedent.
The state should employ more effective strategies to deal with such situations and handle the latter through strong law-enforcement mechanisms. Depriving citizens of their fundamental right to communication is contrary to democratic norms, and should only be considered when there is a serious threat of a terror attack. By framing its action as a necessary evil for public order, the state has unwittingly admitted its failures.
The interior minister’s promise that this would not happen again is simply not enough, especially given how rapidly freedoms are being eroded in the country. Attempts by the government to criminalise criticism, block access to platforms and grant the authorities sweeping powers of surveillance are a normalised reality. Digital rights activists have repeatedly criticised the social media rules framed under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, through which the government can block and remove content it deems unlawful. With all these signs of the government’s desire to control the conversation on these platforms, this past week’s blanket ban is yet another reminder of the government flexing its censorship muscle.
More cabinet changes
PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan has reshuffled his cabinet yet again in what is obviously another attempt to shore up his government’s performance. It is of course the prime minister’s prerogative to bring in new people in the cabinet, and rotate the existing ones if he feels they are not performing, but changes with such frequency in key ministries should also be a cause for concern. Finance is arguably the most important ministry in the federal government and fixing the economy that the PTI claims was ‘broken’ when it inherited it in 2018, means that the new government should have had the clarity to pursue a consistent line of policy. Four finance ministers in less than three years gives the impression that the PTI government continues to experiment with a solution.
What compounds this confusion is the fact that the government has not bothered to explain why the previous finance ministers were removed. Asad Umar was the ‘economy czar’ of the PTI during the opposition years and it was his economic worldview and policy prescription that constituted the PTI’s agenda. Why was he then removed as finance minister within a relatively short period? An explanation by the PTI leadership would have at least made it clear what his mistake was and how the party intended to correct that mistake. Without any such elaboration, he was put to pasture and Hafeez Shaikh, a technocrat with no links to the PTI, and no contribution to the party’s policy planning, was inducted. When Mr Sheikh was fired, again there was no explanation given other than a feeble one that he had failed to control inflation. If any explanation has come about where the PTI’s economic performance has gone awry, it has in fact come from Shaukat Tarin, the new finance minister. In an interview earlier this month, he had stated that PTI had pursued a flawed policy since it came to power. In other words, Mr Tarin indicted his two predecessors.
Similarly, repeated ministerial changes in important ministries like power, information and economic affairs suggest that the PTI leadership is still unsure of what it really wants to achieve in terms of specific deliverables. Fawad Chaudhry, for instance, was delivering a decent performance as the information minister in the early days of the PTI government. No explanation was given as to why he was removed in haste. Neither has the government cared to explain why he has been brought back as the information minister once again. Such impetuous decision-making makes for bad optics and accentuates the perception that the PTI leadership remains unsure of itself even at this late stage in its five-year term. This also sends ambiguous signals to the bureaucracy that is supposed to implement the larger agenda of the government. The PTI government needs to settle down to a consistent way of governing. It is about time.
Peasant rights in Sindh
IN a seminar held in Nawabshah recently, the Sindh Human Rights Commission and Hari Welfare Association reiterated a common and long-held complaint about the state of human rights and quality of life in the province: for all its progressive legislation, Sindh suffers due to a lack of implementation of these laws. This yawning chasm in governance is experienced most keenly in rural areas, where basic labour rights — such as a minimum wage, safe working conditions and guaranteed paid leave — for workers and peasants remain elusive. Despite the passage of the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act in December 2019 (which was hailed at the time as a milestone for rural women workers) there is no evidence to suggest that any measures have been taken to implement it. Nor has there been any substantive change to on-ground conditions since the Sindh High Court’s landmark judgement, also in 2019, upholding the prohibition of unpaid work in the Sindh Tenancy Act by striking down an amendment to omit it, and ruling that cases would fall under the jurisdiction of the judiciary rather than the executive. Similarly, the Sindh Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 2015, is little more than a paper tiger as this form of modern-day slavery is still considerably prevalent in the region.
Through a combination of indifference and collusion, the provincial government and other arms of the state apparatus have abetted the landed elite’s stiff resistance to formalisation and documentation of the rural workforce. Breaking this cycle of human suffering requires moving beyond progressive rhetoric and honouring our commitments to protect millions of vulnerable citizens. Only a genuine engagement with these stakeholder groups, including formal mechanisms to ensure implementation, reporting and reviews to identify gaps and shortcomings can begin to redress decades of cruelty. The Sindh government must engage positively with human rights bodies and peasants groups, and send a clear signal that no one, no matter how powerful or influential, can deprive any individual of their rights.
