NEVER the ideal indulgence for the fainthearted, politics in Pakistan may be poised to enter a real action-packed phase. This is indicated by the tone of important opposition politicians and reconfirmed by the rigid response of the current custodians of the system. The latest, as anticipated, Shahbaz Sharif has been arrested and Maryam Nawaz has spoken. Mr Shahbaz ‘in’ the lock-up and Ms Nawaz ‘out’ in the open could actually mean Shahbaz left ‘out’ of the game to ponder over latest reconciliatory techniques and Ms Nawaz being ‘in-charge’. Those willing the PML-N to take the more adventurous route are so excited to see their leader’s daughter assume the mantle. Already, it has been presumed that the most daring and never trodden road to salvation that Nawaz Sharif and Ms Nawaz have been promising to take is beckoning as a real possibility. In the time since the new potential ‘in-charge’ of the House of Sharif’s political affairs declared ‘war’ on those on the other side of the divide, the stress has been on finding signs that will determine just how strong a punch the opposition can make of it. The opposition leaders say the fight is inevitable, and given the resolve of the accountability people, and frankly considering the one-sidedness of the drive in the name of rooting out the corrupt, the general belief would be that a big collision is imminent.
The cases against top-notch opposition leaders are at a critical stage and their parties cannot afford to just sit and watch the proceedings passively. Ms Nawaz and other opposition politicians have linked the intensification of the government’s ‘biased’ accountability swoop on forthcoming elections for the Gilgit-Baltistan assembly. The Senate polls due next March would certainly be a much bigger reason for the further heating up of the political scene. However, the genuineness of causes and the change in the mood of any opposition politician with howsoever big a following cannot guarantee strength to the push against the government. Most crucially here, the target has to be selected carefully, what with so much talk about there being a hybrid regime in place.
UNDETERRED by the outrage over his earlier callous remarks, CCPO Lahore Umar Sheikh once again exposed his sexist views on how women should behave when he appeared before a Senate panel this week.
Mr Sheikh was briefing the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights about progress on the case of a woman who was gang-raped in front of her children near the Lahore motorway, when he decided to indulge in the same victim-blaming exercise he was earlier vehemently — and correctly — criticised for. The CCPO claimed the woman set out for home at 1:30am ‘as she had gone to Lahore without seeking permission from her husband and was returning home out of fear of him’.
PPP Senator Krishna Kumari Kohli rebuked Mr Sheikh over his comment, saying he should not make such assumptions. When asked whether the victim had told him she was travelling without her husband’s permission, the CCPO shockingly said he was guessing it was so. That a top police official who blatantly and repeatedly fuels rape culture is tasked with solving this case is unacceptable.
What makes things worse is that despite being a repeat offender when it comes to dishing out unsolicited, victim-blaming ‘advice’, he enjoys the patronage and protection in the higher echelons of the Punjab government’s. Why does Mr Sheikh — an officer who has failed to nab the second suspect and has on multiple public occasions shown how incapable he is of understanding the fundamentals of a crime like rape — still have his job?
The women of this country are furious, frightened and simply fed up with the way the conversation about their safety is framed. In any civilised society, would the victim of a terror attack or shooting be blamed for leaving their home or for venturing out without permission? Why then are victims of rape, already uniquely vulnerable, blamed for their assault?
The CCPO must be sacked if the government wants to inspire any public confidence about solving this case. Citizens ought to have the assurance that a responsible, sensitised official is in charge of their safety. There is a dire need to sensitise the police force when it comes to violence against women, as they are often the first responders at crime scenes. Among other things, they must refrain at all costs from blaming the victim, trivialising the incident, passing judgement on a woman’s appearance or, like Mr Sheikh, ‘teaching’ women how to avoid getting raped.
Looming wheat crisis
PAKISTAN could face a major wheat crisis by the end of December. The warning has come from the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce, which also pointed out that serious mismanagement in planning of wheat imports had caused shortages of the commodity, leading to a big hike in flour prices. The government had allowed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan and the private sector to import wheat towards the end of July in the wake of its countrywide shortages, and later waived all taxes and duties to make imports economically viable and release the upward pressure on its prices. Yet the imports remain slow.
Although the private sector has imported over 300,000 tonnes of wheat and booked orders for another million tonnes or so, the TCP is yet to place its first order. A top TCP official told the committee that the corporation, which is supposed to purchase 1.5m tonnes of cereal from the international market to fill the supply gap, had to cancel the tenders floated earlier this month because of the high rates quoted by suppliers. The new bids received for 300,000 tonnes of wheat are to be opened on Oct 5, which means the first TCP wheat shipment will not reach here before the end of October even if everything goes according to plan. Until then, prices are expected to stay up despite private imports. The consumers, especially low-income households, are forced to pay a higher price for their staple food because of delays in imports on account of the government failing to predict the market despite less than targeted crop output last spring. Even when it was clear the country was facing a shortfall of 1.5m tonnes for the current market year and prices had begun surging sharply, it did not push the TCP to speed up the import process. The TCP authorities will have to do exactly that if the government wants to prevent the present shortages from morphing into a major crisis in winter.
