IHK status
ON Thursday, India gave final shape to the condemnable steps it had initially taken on Aug 5 by formally bifurcating India-held Kashmir into two union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. This ill-advised move has drawn strong criticism from Pakistan and China, as both states have territorial stakes in what is an internationally recognised dispute. “No step by the government of India can change this,” said the Foreign Office, referring to the disputed status of the region, while adding that an “iron curtain” remains in place in IHK. The Chinese reaction has been equally blunt, with Beijing saying that “India is challenging China’s sovereign rights and interests by unilaterally revising domestic law. However, it is unlikely that such firm reactions from two of its neighbours will change India’s attitude, considering the rigidity displayed up till now by its government in New Delhi.
Clearly, the Indian establishment seeks to subsume the Kashmiri identity and replace it with a new demographic reality. This is reflected by the fact that the Kashmiri flag has been done away with, and now people from outside the region can buy property in IHK. Yet Narendra Modi’s government is actively promoting the farce that ‘all is well’ in the occupied region, despite the fact that hundreds of men remain incarcerated — many under the draconian Public Safety Act — and a curfew-like situation persists. Moreover, a recent junket was arranged in which right-wing members of the European Parliament toured IHK to lend credence to the fiction that the situation in the region is normal. Many of these lawmakers represent parties that have been described as neo-Nazi; however, this is not surprising, considering that early leaders of the RSS — the BJP’s ideological parent — were unabashed fans of Nazism. Interestingly, the EU distanced itself from the visit, while a Liberal Democrat lawmaker said he was stopped from joining the trip to IHK when he demanded unfettered access to the region. “I am not prepared to take part in a PR stunt for the Modi government,” Chris Davies told the media.
The fact is that despite New Delhi’s best efforts to spin the situation in IHK, the truth is bound to emerge. This country has, of course, played a big part in making sure the voice of the Kashmiris is heard around the world, and such active diplomacy has certainly helped paint a true picture of what is happening in the troubled region. However, many of the states that claim to be champions of human rights are strangely silent when it comes to publicly censuring India’s behaviour in IHK. They are quick to point fingers at geopolitical rivals, yet remain mostly silent where the Modi government’s excesses in occupied Kashmir are concerned. This hypocrisy should end and India must be told in clear terms that the brutal siege of Kashmir is unacceptable.
The smog returns
FOR several days now, the inhabitants of Lahore have been complaining about the toxic air they are forced to breathe. As the dreaded October-November smog — frequently referred to as the ‘fifth season’ — engulfs Lahore once again, the residents of Punjab’s largest city are becoming increasingly fed up and demanding accountability and answers for this gloomy state of affairs.
As has become routine for some years now, the smog is expected to last till January-February of the next year. Undoubtedly, the pollutant-filled air will leave immeasurable public health damage in its wake, largely affecting the lungs and hearts of citizens, with the elderly and small children being particularly vulnerable.
Of course, such a strain on public health resources, life expectancy and the general quality of life has deep repercussions for our already gasping economy. The outcry this time around even led Amnesty International to take notice of the situation. The international rights group has condemned the Pakistani government for its failure to protect the lives of its citizens, qualifying it as a human rights issue.
Additionally, the lack of monitoring devices to measure air quality in real time makes matters even murkier, leading to disagreements about the exact figures and scale of the disaster.
Even though the outdoor air quality is said to have exceeded 550 on the Air Quality Index — which is quantified as hazardous — the minister of state for climate change downplayed the fears of concerned citizens in her recent address, saying the situation was being blown out of proportion due to ‘vested interests’.
She repeated a thus far commonly held belief that the smog was entering the country by way of our neighbour India, with the farmers there engaging in stubble-burning right before the harvesting season. While this is certainly part of the reason, a recent report by the Agriculture Department and UNFAO finds that most of the air pollution is likely to be locally created.
Meanwhile, environmentalists hold the transport sector, local manufacturing and agricultural industries that operate on substandard fuel quality chiefly responsible for the smog created each winter.
While the government has taken steps to address the issue, and these were pointed out by the minister, clearly not enough is being done on the ground to encourage sustainable changes. The seriousness of the threat posed by air pollution along with its long-term consequences cannot be downplayed.
Keeping truth alive
A DIRECT correlation can be drawn between a state’s response to attacks on journalists and the freedom of its press. Where there is impunity for a crime as egregious as murdering someone in search of answers, it inevitably follows that numerous non-fatal tactics to intimidate and coerce the press are even more rampant. It is indicative of a concerted effort to suppress the truth: typically, a pervasive climate of unchecked corruption and systemic injustice. As recently highlighted by the Committee to Protect Journalists in its annual Global Impunity Index, for 12 consecutive years, Pakistan continues to remain among the company of other states “where journalists are slain and their killers go free”. Today, on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, this ignominious scorecard merits scrutiny. Despite a relative reduction in violence in recent years, why is it that the press in Pakistan today is still far from able to operate freely, under peaceful and just conditions?
The reality is that successive governments have either been reluctant or recalcitrant in actively pursuing the course of justice for the families of slain journalists. Whether at the hands of militants, mafias or elements of the establishment, of the scores of journalists’ murders in the past two decades, only two have resulted in successful prosecutions. Inordinate delays and denials at every stage of the criminal justice process are tantamount to complicity with the perpetrators of these crimes. They are also a betrayal of any commitment to press freedom that the government might claim to have, as the after-effects of years of impunity are plain to see. These unsolved mysteries continue to cast a long shadow over the ability of the press to conduct critical or investigative reporting in Pakistan, with self-censorship becoming a means of self-preservation. But, while truth can be suppressed, distorted and even manufactured — for a time — it can never die. History rarely looks kindly upon those who, whether by inertia or intent, stand in its way.