The Express Tribune Editorial 24 September 2019

50 days and continuing

US President Donald Trump participates in the “Howdy Modi” event with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston, Texas, US. PHOTO: REUTERS
US President Donald Trump participates in the “Howdy Modi” event with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston, Texas, US. PHOTO: REUTERS

US President Donald Trump participates in the “Howdy Modi” event with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston, Texas, US. PHOTO: REUTERS
The curfew in Kashmir turned 50 days yesterday. The brutal siege laid on occupied Kashmir by hundreds of thousands of Indian troops that are armed to the teeth has rather galvanised the determined Kashmiris. Such is the resistance that New Delhi is still scared of lifting the restrictions it had imposed on August 5 while revoking the special status accorded to the occupied state. Even despite the oppressive curbs, there have been a total of 722 protests by Kashmiri men, women and children since the illegal annexation of the occupied state 50 days back — and that means nearly 15 protests a day. Media reports say that nearly 200 civilians and 415 security force members have been hurt in these protests. As many as 95 civilians have been injured only in the last two weeks, showing a spike in the resistance. More than 4,100 people, including 170 local political leaders, have been detained across the valley.

There was a likelihood of Prime Minister Narendra Modi easing the curbs, if not undoing them completely, before his ongoing US visit, but he could not dare do that, anticipating a likely eruption from the never-say-die Kashmiris. The wrath of the Kashmiris though chased down Modi in the US too. As the Indian prime minister shared the stage with President Donald Trump at a ‘Howdy, Modi!’ rally in Houston held on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly session, protesters gathered outside to raise their voice for residents of occupied Kashmir. Hundreds of people belonging to various ethnicities held an ‘anti-Modi demonstration’, inviting the world’s attention to the ‘racist Modi regime’ and its ongoing human- rights violations in the occupied territory.

Pakistan’s delegation in the US, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, has so far done a good job drawing the world’s attention to Modi’s fascism in Kashmir at the various sideline events held so far. Prime Minister Imran’s address to the General Assembly on coming Friday will be the most important in the context. All eyes thus on the September 27 address.

Egypt protests

A weekend of protests in Egypt has led to the arrest of over 365 people as security forces in some cities beat protesters and used tear gas, rubber bullets, and even live ammunition, according to some reports. Those arrested included noted human rights activists and even people who were only filming the protests. The protesters have a singular demand — the ouster of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who seized power in a military coup in 2013. Sisi, incidentally, is out of the country to attend the UN General Assembly moot in New York.

The protests were apparently instigated by online videos by Mohamed Ali, who The New York Times describes as a “45-year-old construction contractor and part-time actor who says he got rich building projects for the Egyptian military and then left for Spain to live in self-imposed exile.” Unusual for a protest leader, Ali does not paint himself as a saint. He admits one of his major grievances is that the government owes him millions of dollars for construction work. He also accuses Sisi of wasting government funds on vanity projects like multimillion-dollar presidential palaces.

In a country where, by the government’s own admission, one in three people live in poverty, that is enough of a rallying cry. It doesn’t help that for many Egyptians burned by Sisi’s austerity measures, the only shade in sight is under those presidential palaces. It also doesn’t help that Sisi has legitimised Ali’s claims by not only failing to refute them but doubling down instead. “Yes, I have built presidential palaces, and will build more,” he said recently. “I will continue to do more and more, but not for me. Nothing is in my name. It is in Egypt’s name.”

Given Sisi’s record of political crackdowns to silence critics and jailing thousands — while making his country one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — there are legitimate fears that if protests continue, the security forces, already accused of widespread enforced disappearances and torture, will up the ante.

Preventing heart diseases

In a candid admission, heart specialists have said the present healthcare system in the country can hardly provide medical facilities to even a third of the patients. Around 50 heart patients die every hour in Pakistan, experts said while speaking at a conference at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Karachi on Sept 21 to mark World Heart Day.

The conference focused mainly on the preventive side of heart diseases. The experts expressed concern that heart diseases among the youth was increasing at an alarming rate. The contributing factors include lack of exercise, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Fifty per cent of Pakistanis are afflicted with hypertension, with most of them being unaware of the affliction. Twenty-six per cent suffer from diabetes. The experts said cigarette smoking and the use of tobacco in other forms is a major cause of the rising incidence of heart diseases. They said one way to reduce heart diseases was to discourage smoking and the use of other tobacco products. The price of cigarettes and of other tobacco products should be increased so much as to make them beyond the reach of most people. This is necessary because tobacco causes not only heart diseases but various types of cancers and lung diseases.

Officials and experts at the NICVD said they, in collaboration with other organisations and pharma firms, would soon launch a campaign to increase awareness about heart diseases. A specialist said heart diseases could be reduced by 30 per cent by discouraging tobacco consumption. Another expert emphasised the need for setting up preventive cardiology units in major hospitals. He said in a country where most patients cannot afford medications even for a month after suffering from a heart attack, so focus needs to be increased on preventing cardiac diseases. The experts also called for controlling obesity which is resulting in diabetes and heart diseases. Obesity is mostly caused by gluttony. After all, gluttony is not a secret vice.