By Zubeida Mustafa
THE Human Rights Commission of Pakistan is the conscience of the nation. If a human rights transgression occurs, the HRCP reacts promptly. Every year, it publishes a report on the human rights situation in Pakistan, pointing out to both the authorities and the people where they are failing. It has been doing this for 35 years.
By Zubeida Mustafa
WE live in a bizarre country. That is the most appropriate term I find to describe Pakistan. It has some laws and official practices that are not only irrational, but actually absurd when seen in the context of their implementation. They cannot be explained and no sane-minded person would justify them. The elites are the beneficiaries and so they are pro-status quo.
Continue reading Money maniaBy Zubeida Mustafa
I AM puzzled by the role/non-role assigned to Nadra in times of Covid-19. At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, the National Command Operation Centre was set up and linked to Nadra to record all Covid-related data. This helped the authorities plan ‘smart lockdowns’ strategically according to the prevalence of cases in various localities.
By Zubeida Mustafa
ON Dec 9, which is designated as International Anti-Corruption Day by the United Nations, newspapers carried a prominent Sindh government advertisement titled ‘Let’s Eradicate Corruption’. It would have convinced few but it did amuse many. The ad claimed that action was being taken against corruption.
The ad admitted that corruption was against the interest of the nation and that bribery was punishable under the law. However, it made a tall demand by stating, “If you have encountered corruption, report immediately.”
Would one want to do that? I still think of my friend Perween Rahman, the head of the OPP, who was shot dead in March 2013, and how she was facilitating the regularisation of goths on the fringe of the city. In normal times too, ordinary citizens feel unprotected. Till today, we do not know who ordered the killers to pull the trigger to eliminate this dedicated social worker.
It is seemingly a brilliant idea to ask the public to report a crime even if it is as minor as a clerk demanding a bribe to move a file. Will the file actually inch forward when the accused is taken to task? As for big crimes, only a fool would hope for state protection if he dares to report it.
Continue reading Oh, so brazenBY Zubeida Mustafa
HOW the Single National Curriculum is being formulated betrays a gross ignorance of the principles of public policymaking. As I wait for the final document I often think of my friend Javed Hasan Aly who passed away last month of Covid-19, leaving his family and his many friends bereft.
I can imagine him shaking his head sadly and declaring that policymakers in Islamabad were violating public interest blatantly.
Javed was in the government himself (1965-2005), engaged in policymaking. He rose to the influential post of secretary Establishment Division. But he could make no impact. Why? He was so unlike the crowd in Islamabad vying for the boss’s favour. Whenever I teasingly referred to him as a bureaucrat, he would feign annoyance to remind me that he was a ‘civil servant’. “I have always striven to serve the people and that is why my priority has been to learn about the interests of the public”.
Continue reading The people’s man