With high-intensity heatwaves occurring sporadically across South Asia, it is evident that countries near the equator are experiencing the worst of global warming. New research regarding the matter has further revealed distressing results. It is predicted that such events will become all the more common in the coming decade even if global warming is limited to the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set in the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, if the global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius, heatwaves will nearly triple in intensity. The future of the region seems rather bleak.
South Asia hosts almost a quarter of the world’s population; and with the region embroiled in deep poverty, the new study highlights the urgency of addressing the issue. The time for evaluations and analyses has passed. Bold actions need to be taken for the safety of millions of people who are currently at the behest of extreme heat. Countries of South Asia need to unite and collectively fight at all international forums. They need to push vigorously to put an international price on carbon since we witnessed that the sudden reduction in carbon emission at the start of the pandemic showed positive signs. Countries contributing the most to global warming need to be restricted and held accountable.
Simultaneously, South Asian governments need to protect their labourers and farmers from the scorching heat like by setting up healthcare camps and installing fans and coolers in affected areas. In this regard, countries need to invest in monitoring centers where environmentalists can compile statistical models of fluctuating temperatures, wind and humidity to predict the next event.
Pakistan has already witnessed the 2015 heatwave tragedy when nearly 2,000 people died from dehydration and heat stroke as temperatures soared to 50 degrees Celsius in parts of the country. Therefore, before another such incident strikes again people need to be made aware of precautionary measures and taught how to react when confronted with an emergency situation. We are at the precipice, and we must act now.
Islamic banking growth
Covid-19 has cast a pall of recessionary gloom over the economy. The jolt of the pandemic forced many traditional businesses to completely rethink how they work and some even emerged as bright spots. The Islamic banking sector in the country has emerged as one of those rare bright spots, posting a sustained increase in assets and deposits as it overcomes its adoption curve. Just over the past year, the sector has posted increases in assets and deposits of 30% and 28% respectively, showing a trust that the public has placed in Islamic banks with their money and the ability of these banks to overcome their very stringent and complex operational mechanisms. As a result, there exists today a complete banking sector that finds itself awash with money with little idea of what they can do with it.
Two consumer sectors have spearheaded growth in Islamic banking over the past decade. Thy include housing and construction sector and car financing sector. For these two sectors, Islamic banking accounts for a 60% and 50% of the market share, respectively. Of course, the central bank has also played a role in making the sector viable, propounding policies as it targets Islamic banking to increase its market share to the quarter mark in the next couple of years. We also see some evidence of that in how the incumbent government has literally borrowed support from Islamic banks, taking Rs700 billion from Shariah-compliant banks. The government also wants to exponentially increase the share of funds it draws from Shariah-compliant banks.
This is the worrying aspect of Islamic banking. If it gets arm-twisted into giving funds to the government in return for favourable access and consultation, it may become yet another slush fund for the government which would severely impact the trust the sector has managed to build in the public. In a conservative and religiously-inclined country, it is quite surprising to see that there has not been a greater uptake of a banking product like Islamic banking. Until there is deep introspection on this end, Islamic banking will remain a novelty.
The question of ownership
Somewhere along our history, the original concept behind having government and leaders became muddied. What might have been intended to solve a problem of in-group coordination and resource allocation instead became an entirely self-serving entity. One should not place the blame entirely on those who make up a government. While many at the helm are absolutely power and wealth hungry — in some ways it is the natural manifestation of our worst impulse — many more who made up governments in history and today perhaps never really understood the consequences.
And so you have situations like the one the Balochistan High Court recently had to settle. The judges involved must definitely be commended for the progressive stance they have taken. Their ruling sets a precedent not just for our own country but also for the issues of the indigenous around the world. The BHC had been listening to a petition filed by a number of local agriculturalists to determine the status of unsettled lands of the province. According to the petitioners, most of the lands throughout the province are unsettled with the land of a few districts completely undocumented to date. The petitioners and members of the indigenous tribes had claimed ownership of these lands.
The provincial government, despite seemingly lagging in documenting these lands, has laid claim to them. This opinion, no doubt, stems from the notion that a government is ‘master of its domain’ rather than a service for citizens. Hence, it is no surprise that the government had disputed the petitioners’ claim. In the landmark judgment, the BHC declared that the unsettled land of the country’s largest province belongs to the indigenous tribes inhabiting those plains and mountains for centuries rather than to the provincial government. “[The government] by not conducting settlement in the area, naturally the landowners concerned will have no documentary proof, for which they cannot be held responsible, hence cannot be deprived of their rights,” it observed.
One hopes that authorities in Balochistan and beyond will pay heed to the BHC judgment. The issue of indigenous settlements is one that plagues almost every country in the world, and is at the root of displeasure among marginalised native communities.
