The Express Tribune Editorial 26 February 2021

Hamza Shehbaz’s release

 

With corruption charges yet unproven, PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz has been released from the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on bail in the wake of the orders of the Lahore High court issued on Wednesday. Despite detaining Hamza for quite a long time — 20 months and 13 days to be exact — the accountability watchdog failed to bring evidence to convince the court that the accused was involved in money laundering and holding assets beyond his known sources of income. The case however continues.
Hamza, the opposition leader in the Punjab assembly, joins a pretty long list of PML-N leaders who have gone through the same cycle of arrest, long detention and release on bail. Such leaders include Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Khwaja Salman Rafiq, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Ahsan Iqbal, apart from Fawad Hasan Fawad and Ahad Cheema, the two bureaucrats who held top administrative positions in the PML-N government. Party president Shehaz Sharif and senior leader Khwaja Asif — in NAB custody over corruption allegations since September and December of last year respectively — have, however, yet to make it to the growing list.
Hamza had been denied bail twice earlier — first by the Lahore High Court on February 11, 2020 and then by the Supreme Court in January 2021. But this time around, the court accepted the bail application which was moved mainly on the grounds of inordinate delay in the case — something that raises serious questions as to the NAB’s prosecution capabilities.
And, while Hamza’s release is a welcome development for the PML-N — a political victory scored against the PTI government — it also threatens to reignite the battle of political narratives within the PML-N. Remember the Shehbaz Sharif camp believes in the politics of reconciliation with the powers-that-be as against the Nawaz Sharif camp that has moved far ahead over its politics of confrontation.

 

 

NCOC decision

 

In a big step towards bringing official, commercial and entertainment activities to pre-Covid normal, mass gatherings are being allowed in the country from March 15. Under a decision taken by the NCOC on Wednesday, there will be no restrictions on holding wedding ceremonies indoors from the mentioned date, with SOPs followed; restaurants will also be allowed to offer indoor dining; cinemas and shrines will be reopened; there will be no time-limit on amusement parks and commercial activities; offices will be allowed to work at full-strength and work-from-home restriction on 50% staff will stand abandoned; and the Election Commission of Pakistan will be free to conduct local bodies and cantonment board elections by the end of May or early June.
The lifting of restriction on mass gatherings will also apply to PSL matches which will now be held with spectators allowed to occupy half the seats in stadiums during round games and to pack them to capacity during play-offs. And with a tweet from Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood — announcing the that all schools across the country will go back to regular five-day classes from March 1 — coinciding with the NCOC decision, it means that the country is all set to get back to regular business from March 15, 2021 onwards.
The decision to lower the guard in the country appears to have been guided by an announcement from the WHO last week that the weekly worldwide tally of reported Covid-19 cases had hit the lowest since October 26, 2020. Reports say that the worldwide cases continued to fall for the sixth consecutive week, with 2.4 million new infections being reported globally which was an 11% decline compared to the previous week.
Strangely though, this big ease in restrictions in the country is happening at a time when the Covid vaccination process in the country has just begun with only the most at-risk population being catered to. Besides, the latest statistics — 1,196 new cases of the infection and 50 new deaths over the last 24 hours, taking the tallies to 574,580 confirmed cases and 12,708 deaths — are still worrying. Hope we are not in a rush to declare victory. All relevant authorities, therefore, needs to remain vigilant lest a spike in the infection should recur, and be ready to bring back the curbs, if need be.

 

 

Child labour and pandemic

 

Opinions may differ on various aspects of child labour, but the entire humanity agrees that it is an undesirable thing and should be eliminated. Of the 215 million child labourers worldwide, 12.5 million are in Pakistan, and it is among countries where this scourge is more prevalent, though globally the number of child labourers has declined from 200 million in 2000 to 168 million in 2014. The International Labour Organisation fears that the coronavirus pandemic could push more children into the labour market because of rising poverty in consequence of increasing unemployment. This is because of the fact that child labour goes hand in hand with poverty. Pakistan too is witnessing a rise in the population of child labourers in the wake of the pandemic. Boys comprise 61% of the child labour force in the country and 88% of them are from rural areas.
Like adults, children too are forced to migrate to cities and towns in search of employment. They come with dreams that living in cities would someday bring prosperity to their otherwise drab lives. But their dreams are soon shattered after coming in contact with harsh realities of the daily struggle for survival. In cities, they mostly work at auto repair workshops and tea shops, sell flowers, face masks, toys and trinkets. Coming from poor families as they do, they work to help their families fulfil their needs. This explains why the poor prefer to have many children. In order to feed many mouths, they also need a proportionate number of hands to work and add to the family income, though outsiders attribute this to grossness and ignorance. It is said that one half of the world does not know how the other half lives; and it is this that accounts for the mistaken belief of the well-to-do classes.
In Pakistan, there are laws that prohibit employing children under 14 years. It is easy to make laws, but their implementation is probably difficult.

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