The Express Tribune Editorial 12 April 2021

Victory for PML-N

 

The much-anticipated Daska re-election has culminated in the PML-N’s victory with a considerable margin of 16,642 votes. PML-N’s Nosheen Iftikhar won the Saturday’s contest for NA-75, bagging 110,075 votes as against 93,433 votes secured by her closest rival, Ali Asjad Malhi of the PTI. The second runner-up, Khalil Sandhu of the TLP, was polled 8,268 votes – just 7.5 per cent and 8.8 per cent of the votes polled for the winner and the runner-up respectively – which shows the continued trust of voters in Daska tehsil of Punjab’s Sialkot district in mainstream political parties.
Daska’s victory does not only mean another National Assembly seat for the opposition PML-N. It’s much more than that. It means that the PML-N’s magic in Punjab, at least in its central parts, has not faded despite a sustained political campaign against its leadership, especially the Sharifs, from PTI leaders, including its chairman, Prime Minister Imran Khan. It also means vindication of its stance that the ruling party had rigged the February 19 by-election and that a re-election should be held in the constituency.
For the PTI, the defeat must be an eye-opener. It’s the ruling party’s seventh by-election defeat in recent times, also including one in Nowshera, the hometown of former chief minister Pervez Khattak. The party needs to go into some serious introspection. In fact, the Prime Minister should seriously concentrate on how he can provide some financial relief to at least the poor and low-income segments of society.
And while the polling was largely free, fair and transparent, the losing candidate failed to muster the moral courage to accept his defeat whole-heartedly. His congratulatory message to the winner was laced with ifs and buts, and even carried an allegation on the Election Commission of Pakistan. Even the reaction from CM Punjab’s Special Assistant Firdous Ashiq Awan implied a nexus between the PML-N and the election commission’s returning officer posted in the constituency.
The keen contest and an active participation of the people – reflected in a high turnout of 43.3 per cent – demonstrate people’s belief in democracy being the only way forward for the country.

 

 

Wholesale and retail climate degradation

the writer is a political analyst email imran jan gmail com twitter imran jan
The writer is a political analyst. Email: imran.jan@gmail.com. Twitter @Imran_Jan
As a writer, it always saddens me to write this one phrase over and over again; that the main cause of environmental degradation is the consumption of fossil fuel. Climate change is caused by the activities of human beings. We live in the Anthropocene Epoch. For the umpteenth time, for as long as fossil fuels are being burnt and more oil is being drilled for, there would be a relentless march toward our extinction resulting directly from climate change. No amount of tree growing and artificially grown meat would do the magic, if fossil fuel continues to be consumed.
Major oil corporations have known about the impact of fossil fuel burning on the environment as early as the 1970s. Yet, they remained quiet and even funded heavily the research that always arrived at the conclusion that fossil fuel burning does not affect the environment.
Usually, in any culture, parents teach their kids about the various aspects of their lifestyles — how to eat, which food items children should develop their taste buds for, what to wear, and so forth. When it comes to climate change, it seems the younger lot knows more about the impact on climate change from our daily activities such as running the AC, driving the gas guzzlers, eating beef, having more children, and so forth. The young can teach their older peers a lot more about climate change than the other way around.
Today, environmental groups and climate activists remind us of the less-noticed daily activities that contribute toward the environmental destruction. We are being asked to alter those habits to save the planet. While I respect that, the truth of the matter is that our activities could be categorised as retail climate change activities. The main criminals of climate change are the mega fossil fuel corporations that are directly responsible for causing climate change and also responsible for the misconceptions about this topic. More importantly, even at this moment, they are busy drilling for more oil in different parts of the world. They collectively own crude oil reserves underground, the market value of which is estimated to be close to $3 trillion. They are not going to give up on that wealth.
Yet, we are being asked to have less children and eat less beef. Just as our contribution in the degradation of the environment represents a fraction, our lifestyle changes would also amount to little good, given how any positive effects would be undone by the massive carbon emissions resulting from fossil fuel burning. This wholesale climate change-causing behemoth must be tackled otherwise any amount of lifestyle changes would be too little too late to solve the problem of climate change.
While the profit of the environmental degradation was privatised, since it ended up in the hands of a few, the cost of climate change is now being socialised, since everybody is paying the price and everybody is being asked to do something about it. Don’t get me wrong; I truly believe everyone should be concerned and make their contribution toward saving this only planet we have. However, these nice sounding slogans can do more harm than good, in my humble view. Because such moves change the topic from the real culprits and moves it to where the responsibility is thrown at everyone on the planet, including unborn children. And in the meantime, the real culprits are working toward undoing any positive impact we might bring by changing our lifestyles.
Half the American population has negative net worth. Neoliberalism achieved that feat in the richest country of the world, almost undetected. It is neoliberalism that has caused climate change in the first place. The destroyers of the climate are now talking about renewable energy as if that is who they are. Who knows what destruction they would have wrought under their new cover identities?

 

 

Amnesty’s HR report

 

The latest Amnesty International report entitled ‘The State of the World’s Human Rights’ has sounded the warning that it is from democracy that megalomaniac dictators emerge. Based on a close scrutiny of the rights situation in 149 countries, the report depicts a depressing picture of human rights in around half of these states, as most of these countries used the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to curtail fundamental rights of their peoples with the aim of making their grip on power unassailable. Such states have overtly flouted the boundaries marked under the doctrine of separation of powers.
These observations are corroborated by court judgments, reports of civil liberties organisations and investigative media stories of these countries. The US and India have come under scathing criticism from Amnesty. The US witnessed serious rights violations during the rule of president Trump. During this period, the police killed more than 1,000 persons, most from the disadvantaged African-American community. The report has roundly criticised the Modi-led government in India for its suppression of human rights and the continued clampdown on information in Occupied Kashmir after New Delhi ended the special status of the state.
It was established beyond doubt that both Modi and Trump possess a strong streak of authoritarianism when during his visit to India in February 2020 President Trump conferred on Modi the title of ‘Father of the Nation’ in Delhi at a time when an anti-Muslim pogrom was underway there. Modi’s India has become a hell for minorities and libertarians. Many Muslims have been arrested under the National Security Act for cow slaughter. Courts have released a majority of the accused. As many as 16 judges of the Allahabad High Court ruled the detentions unlawful and said the NSA was used without application of mind. The language used in most of the FIRs was found identical. Sedition laws are being used so indiscriminately to silence the regime’s critics that it is being said that now anti-state people far outnumber patriots.

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