Justice for Khadija?

LAST year, a judicial magistrate sentenced law student Shah Husain to prison for seven years for stabbing 21-year-old fellow student Khadija Siddiqui. Stabbed 23 times, she was critically injured in the May 2016 attack. During the trial, both the motorcycle and the knife used were put forth, while the prosecution presented 14 witnesses to what the judge ruled counted as attempted murder “without any shadow of a minor doubt”. It is shocking, therefore, that this week, the Lahore High Court overturned the verdict. Acquitting the assailant, Justice Sardar Ahmed Naeem in a controversial judgement ruled the prosecution had “failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt”. However, many will question whether this judgement provided coherent reasoning for the acquittal. Noting that Khadija stated the assailant had harassed her, it questions why she earlier wrote a letter asking him to marry her. Surely, she had the right to change her mind based on her perceptions. Perhaps the defence should have been asked whether rejecting the assailant had prompted the frenzied attack. The fact that Shah Hussain’s father belongs to the legal fraternity has also caused some to doubt judicial independence.

From the start, Ms Siddiqui has shown strength of character by remaining steadfast in her quest for justice. She now intends to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court. Many have demanded justice for her on social media, expressing their concern at the verdict, and Chief Justice Saqib Nasir has done well to summon records of her case — although some would ask if justice is not served in Pakistan until it is vociferously demanded, and that too through media attention. Sadly, women’s access to justice in this country is already limited and patriarchal perceptions only ensure that far too often justice is not even-handed.

Journalists’ abductions

A DARK cloud has been descending over the local media landscape for some time now. In the early hours between Tuesday and Wednesday came the thunderclap journalists have long been dreading. Gul Bukhari, a columnist for The Nation, was abducted on her way to the Waqt TV station in Lahore. Asad Kharal, anchorperson at Bol TV, was also picked up in Lahore shortly afterwards and physically assaulted. In a small mercy, both were released after several hours, but there is no denying the chilling effect of such intimidatory tactics. Coming at the start of what is expected to be a highly contentious election season, such wanton disregard for the law to coerce the press is a dire indicator of the health of this country’s democracy. Never mind one’s politics or affiliations — Dawn makes no distinction — an attack on any journalist is an attack on us all. All media groups ought to unite behind a call to end the culture of impunity for such crimes.

In both cases, the assailants are unknown; will they ever be exposed and held to account? History tells us otherwise. Behind the black ink of journalism in Pakistan lies a palimpsest of a tale told in red. There is a reason Pakistan is one of the few countries to have featured every year on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Global Impunity Index since it began tracking unsolved murders 10 years ago. Of the scores of journalists and media workers murdered over the years, in only three cases have the killers ever been convicted. Nor has there ever been any serious investigation into the disappearances of several online activists in early 2017. The police must take a more resolute and proactive stance on investigating and prosecuting crimes against the press and private citizens. While it is commendable that the chief justice of Pakistan has ordered an immediate report from the IGP Punjab on the Kharal case, it is hoped that the Bukhari case does not escape his august notice.

Conserving the environment

THIS country’s economy is heavily invested in agriculture. Simultaneously, Pakistan is ranked amongst those nations that are at the very cusp of suffering the most adverse effects of climate change, pollution and the stripping of natural resources.

Given this state of affairs, it is remarkable that with an election coming up that shows all signs of being abrasively fought, environmental degradation, ecological conservation and sustainability aren’t receiving much attention from even the major political parties.

There is a whole range of environmental challenges that they must highlight in their manifestos. Urgent issues include deforestation, rampant pollution and a looming water crisis that could result in drought-like conditions.

Already, one can feel the effects: losses in the agriculture sector, hunger and malnutrition, a growing healthcare burden, and the associated pressure on human — and hence national — productivity.

At the time of the last elections, these matters were already a cause for concern and were addressed in dedicated sections of the parties’ 2013 agendas.

Unfortunately, outcomes have been sketchy.

The PML-N promised to insert the “right to food” as a fundamental constitutional right. It could be faulted for not having spelt out how this might be achieved, but that remains a moot point since the insertion was never made.

Similarly, while a federal Ministry of Climate Change was eventually set up, it remains a largely toothless entity involved in saving face in terms of Pakistan’s international environmental commitments.

In Sindh, meanwhile, the PPP’s good intentions of providing “clean drinking water for everyone” can only be summarily dismissed, while sufficient sewage treatment plants remain a dream: indeed, much of Karachi’s waste flows directly into the sea.

The PPP’s 2013 election manifesto promised to “curb the trafficking of endangered species”, but outcomes have been mixed, while the granting of permission to hunt the endangered houbara bustard remains condemnable.

Matters appear somewhat more encouraging in KP, where the PTI made fair progress towards its “billion-tree tsunami”; yet the ideals of zero waste and mass transit systems that would reduce air pollution, for example, have gone unmet.

At a rally at the end of April, PTI chief Imran Khan included the environment in his 11-point agenda and promised to plant 10m trees across the country, if elected.

He also said that the proper cleaning of rivers and canals would be ensured, while an “agricultural emergency” would be imposed to improve the farm sector.

On its part, the PML-N promises food security and improvements in the yields of staple crops to ensure the availability of essential food items for all, at affordable prices, as well as clean drinking water for each citizen — a goal also laid out in its 2013 manifesto, but which was never met although gains were made. The party also refers to the creation of dams and improving water conservancy.

It is essential, therefore, that environmental issues be given more importance by parties contesting the upcoming elections.

By many accounts, these may well be amongst the biggest challenges (outside the political area) facing Pakistan in the coming years.

Amongst the measures desperately needed are commitments in their manifestos to improving ambient air quality especially in urban areas, and slowing down urbanisation.

Similarly, Pakistan’s forest cover stands at a mere 4pc of the total land mass, as against the global standard of 25pc.

But perhaps the first basic point that must be corrected is of policy: power for environmental management was devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment; that leaves little scope for the centre to lay down a minimum standard related to environmental factors.

This first step of cohesion on a pressing national concern would be a good show of commitment and could be a point in the 2018 manifestos.