Arshad Nadeem’s feat
THE once unthinkable has been made possible by Arshad Nadeem. The javelin marvel ensured Pakistan got its first medal at the World Athletics Championships when he won the silver in Budapest on Sunday. For a country whose past entries have never gone beyond the qualifying stage, Arshad has advanced to the finals in successive editions, and has a medal to show for it. His feats in javelin have put Pakistan on the map. He has proved to be Pakistan’s best bet to end a long Olympic medal drought, which will be 32 years by the time of the next Games in 2024. With a throw of 87.82m, which saw him finish just 35cm behind Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, who won India’s maiden gold at the event, Arshad showed he belongs among the world’s elite throwers. Hailing from Mian Chunnu, his journey has been remarkable in a country where top track and field athletes have been few and far between.
Arshad’s potential was never in doubt; the 26-year-old, who won gold at last year’s Commonwealth Games, competed at the World Championships after a year out of international action following an elbow surgery and recovery from a knee injury. Unlike the athletes who he competed against, Arshad doesn’t get the chance to feature in Diamond League meetings — track and field’s top seasonal event. And yet, he’s been able to shine at international events, leaving one wondering where, finances permitting, he would have been had he been competing regularly on the circuit. Arshad doesn’t have a sponsor; foreign training camps for him are arranged by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan — usually at places it finds financially viable. Arshad’s next face-off with Chopra will come at the Asian Games, and then there is a whole season before the Olympics come around. It is high time Arshad received backing to fulfil his potential. He has shown that the distance between him and golden glory isn’t that great.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2023
Armed & dangerous
ACCORDING to discussions held in the UN Security Council recently, the multilateral body’s counterterrorism experts have raised the alarm about “Nato-calibre weapons” ending up in the hands of IS-K, through the TTP.
The UN experts have rightly pointed out that these weapons pose a “serious threat in conflict zones and neighbouring countries”. What is particularly troubling is that IS-K may have access to drones with increased payloads. Pakistan should be wary about this nexus between the TTP and IS-K, as both terrorist groups have targeted this country.
The Afghan Taliban, however, remain dismissive, with a spokesman saying that IS-K’s presence in Afghanistan has “been reduced to zero”. Either the Taliban are not aware of the facts on the ground in their own country, or they are being economical with the truth, as the UN contends that 20 different terrorist outfits remain active in Afghanistan.
The fact is that in the aftermath of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, American forces left a bonanza of weapons and military equipment in the country. According to testimony Pentagon officials gave to the US Congress, gear worth over $7bn, including guns, ammunition and other military equipment, was abandoned in Afghanistan as US forces shipped out.
Much of this was snapped up by the Taliban, and through their ‘good offices’ has ended up with militant groups such as the TTP. Now this lethal weaponry is being accessed by IS-K, along with being sold in the black market.
The Taliban need to firstly acknowledge the problem, and thereafter ensure that none of this sophisticated gear ends up in the hands of terrorist groups. Kabul’s rulers insist on being accepted by the global community. However, to gain the world’s recognition they must act like a proper government, and ensure that deadly weapons don’t make their way to militants.
It was also highly irresponsible of the US to leave such high-value military gear behind. American military officials say there was no “realistic way” of retrieving the gear. This is not reassuring behaviour on the part of a country that is a military superpower.
Pakistan has long criticised the Taliban for allowing their soil to be used by terrorist groups. The UN’s latest findings justify this country’s concerns, and Afghanistan’s neighbours need to press the Taliban to take action against militants working under their very nose.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2023
Sutlej floods
CLIMATE change-related devastation seems to have become such an ordinary feature of our news cycle that it does not appear to be arousing the same level of angst as our more ephemeral problems do. With national attention focused more on political and economic challenges, widespread devastation continues in Punjab along the Sutlej, which has swelled manifold to reportedly its highest level in 35 years, inundating vast areas along its banks. The flooding was triggered by the flow of large volumes of water into Pakistan from India, where heavy monsoons in the north of the country — rainfall was reported as almost three times the norm in the Ladakh region, for example — have fed the river and forced it to spill its banks. Satellite images captured by Nasa’s Earth Observatory depict a huge level of flooding in both countries, with before and after images of the Sutlej taken around mid-June and mid-August showing how radically the landscape has changed in a very short while.
With hundreds of thousands of citizens already relocated, efforts to secure affected populations and move them to safer lands are still ongoing. Thankfully, the authorities have been proactive in their rescue operations, managing to move thousands of residents and livestock from hundreds of settlements in the fertile plains alongside the Indus’s easternmost tributary to safer locations before there could be any major loss of life. The Punjab relief commissioner believes life will be back to normal “soon”, and the people will eventually be able to return to their homes, but that is unlikely to be the end of this episode. Vast tracts of cropland have been submerged, and their produce may be destroyed by the time the waters recede. There will also be new health challenges in the affected areas arising from waterborne diseases, which will require timely action by the provincial authorities.
Within a year of 2022’s catastrophic monsoon and the floods that followed, we are witnessing a rerun of the disasters wrought on our lands by climate change. The locus may have shifted to another geographical area, but the worst effects of the damage done to the global environment by developed nations are again being faced by the vulnerable populations of the Global South. With COP28 just a few months away, Pakistan, India and all other nations bearing the brunt of climate disaster must join forces and seek the operationalisation of the agreement to compensate countries for loss and damage arising from climate change, which was reached at the conference last year. Key issues like who is to pay, who will benefit, and what amount will be allocated to the loss and damage fund have yet to be decided, and, with time already having run out for the people of the subcontinent, the matter needs urgent attention.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2023