Dream of a Digital Pakistan shattered

By Shujauddin Qureshi

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A tweet by Prime Minister Imran’s Special Assistant for Digital Pakistan Ms. Tania Aidrus on July 29, 2020, sharing her resignation, apparently being heartbroken by severe criticism of her citizenship status has shattered the dream of Digital Pakistan forever.

Pakistan government shared the list of Advisors and Special Assistants to the Prime Minister (SAPMs) who had huge properties and dual nationalities. Ms Aidrus was revealed as a citizen of Canada with a residentship of Singapore.

This resignation news has nothing to do with the so-called ban on the digital game PUBG by the federal government or a proposed ban on YouTube by the courts. Ms. Aidrus had opposed the ban on YouTube. She wrote in a thread of tweets: “Banning a platform like YouTube is not a solution. The 3 years when YouTube was banned in Pakistan it held back our content creator ecosystem which has just started to flourish now, creating employment opportunities for thousands. Our focus should be on ensuring better curation of content through policy and dialogue. Brute force measures like banning will not serve any purpose and will hold us back from achieving the vision of #DigitalPakistan.” Please click on this link

Pakistan has been striving hard to be included in the digital map of the world. Still, many powerful forces inside Pakistan have always hindered any such attempt at a higher level.

With joining of Ms. Aidrus as SAPM had raised hope for quick implementation of the state policies and infrastructures for a Digital Pakistan, but she faced a series of controversies from the start of her joining the DP programme.

First, the former Information Technology (IT) Minister Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui (belonging to the coalition party Muttahida Quomi Movement) resigned apparently for the rights of Karachi, but he was reportedly unhappy with the inclusion of Ms. Aidrus in her ministry.

Moreover, she also faced another controversy when a news item was published in the daily Dawn on June 26, 2020, revealing a controversy on social media, questioning the involvement of Tania Andrus, who is also a member of the board of directors of a company owned by Imran Khan’s aide and now the main accused in sugar scandal.

Only last year on December 5, 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the Digital Pakistan programme and nominated Ms Aidrus, a Google executive at that time who quit her position, to lead the initiative.

The inclusion of Ms Aidrus on the board of directors of a not-for-profit company the Digital Pakistan Foundation (PDF) had raised concerns, particularly one leading to a conflict of interest because of the lack of transparency around the foundation’s funding and operations.

Although someone else will replace Ms. Aidrus in the DP programme, there is no hope for Pakistan being digitalized in near future.

I am sorry for Sir Zeeshan Usmani, an IT expert and a visionary Pakistani living abroad as he had submitted very fruitful recommendations to Ms. Aidrus in a personal meeting with her at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad, which he had explained in his following YouTube video.

facebook.com/zusmani78/(opens in a new tab)

I am happy that we will soon see a revolution in the IT sector in Pakistan. But all this is devastating.

Had those recommendations been implemented Pakistan would be become digitalized very quickly. But the powerful mafia in the government was not ready to accept such changes and want to keep the country in the dark ages.

Heavy rains expose Sindh, City governments' inefficiency

Karachi city has been experiencing the worst-ever breakdown of civic utilities as the city received heavy Monsoon downpours in different areas on two consecutive days (Sunday and Monday). At least five people lost their lives due to electrocution in Karachi on Sunday.

Many areas in Malir, district East received heavy rains on Sunday as the met office recorded maximum rainfall of 86.2 millimetres (mm), or 3.3 inches, in the Gulshan-i-Hadeed area. Other areas, which received heavy included University Road,/Gulistan-i-Jauhar (80.8 mm), North Karachi (61.9 mm), Keamari (50.8 mm), Jinnah Terminal (58 mm), Saddar (51 mm), Pahalwan Goth (49.6 mm), PAF Base Faisal (49.2 mm), Nazimabad (28 mm), PAF Base Masroor and Landhi (23 mm).

With the first drop of the rain, power in many areas was shut down, which was restored after many hours.

On Monday the worst affected areas by the rain were in districts Central and West. Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal in district East also received heavy downpours on Monday.

This video was shared on social media (WhatsApp) by a journalist

Many areas in Orangi Town area were badly affected as water entered into homes due to rain as well as overflowing of the rain drains.

Residents have shared videos of North Karachi where gushing rainwater was even pushing vehicles and many cars and motorcycles can be seen floating on the water.

In Orangi area volunteers rescued dozens of students from a Madressah, where water from a Nallah (rain drain) had overflowed and entered into the premises of the religious school.

Reports of submerging of low-lying areas in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulistan-e-Jauhar caused agony for the residents.

No government authorities were seen on roads to rescue people. For example in Orangi, volunteers of a religious charity organisation rescued children from the Madressah. The city government of Karachi had failed to maintain a drainage system in the city. The floodwater drains were not cleaned on the time and the provincial Sindh government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation or City government were seen at the loggers’ heads to blame each other for their failure to maintain the sewerage system. The City Mayor, whose tenure is about to end on August 2, 2020, remained off the scene during the two days’ devastating rains.

Another stoning of a Sindhi woman

The social media was filled with posts of the stoning of a married woman in Jamshoro district last week and a postmortem of the lady has revealed a high degree of torture and molestation of the victim. Police have already arrested a husband and some relatives of the woman.

This was the second case of stoning in recent history as a few months back a case of the stoning of a girl was reported in Johi, Dadu district, which was hushed by the Police under a high degree of pressure from influential Rind tribe chieftains who were also supported by a media magnate belonging to the same tribe. An HRCP (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan) fact-finding mission also tried to cover up the stoning incident.

Initially, the Johi police had arrested the father, mother and a prayer leader in the case of stoning to 10-year old Gul Sama, but they were later freed under the pressure from local influential people.

A reporter from a media house based in Karachi had also faced outrage from the Rind tribe people as their chieftain managed to hold several protest demonstrations against the said reporter in different cities including in Dadu and Karachi. The reporter and his family members received threats from the local landlords and his supporters.

The new incident of stoning is feared to face the same fate as the tribal influential people and some sections in the establishment do not want a spread of the news about the centuries-old tribal custom of stoning in the media.

A recent statement by Women Action Forum has demanded the provincial Sindh government to send the case to the Anti-Terrorism court.

The women's rights group WAF has expressed serious concern over a post-mortem report of the woman, Wazeeran Chhachhar. The WAF said that this case had exposed the incompetence of all institutions supposed to enforce the law and society`s indifferent attitude towards women. It said that the victim`s body had clear marks of violence all over and according to the woman who gave a funerary bath to the victim, there were torture marks on her body also.

It said that according to a post-mortem report, Waseeran had also offered resistance and her nails were also filled with dust.

The cold-blooded murder of a lady was first reported on social media, and then local and foreign press took it. On this, the Chairperson of the Sindh Commission on Status of Women Ms. Nuzhat Shireen also visited the place near Sann.

Although police have registered a case against the woman’s husband, his brother and another relative. Father the victim woman is the complainant in the case. Police have also arrested the husband and his brother who confessed to torturing her.

According to a report published in Arab News it was a case of a family dispute of “Watta Satta”, which literally means “to give and take (relationship)”.

But it is not simply a family feud as the woman was brutally tortured and the post-mortem report has confirmed it. The WAF has feared that the case might be spoiled due to a lack of interest from the police.

Herd Immunity

“Someone was saying that everyone will have the Coronavirus at least once due to the pandemic,” said my wife, Shazia. “Is it correct?” she asked me.

“I don’t think so, because those who take precautions will be spared, ” was my reply.

But they say those who wear masks etc. will even have to undergo the disease, she again asked. No, it is not correct, I replied emphatically adding that it is propaganda like some people were saying that there is no such disease or others were declaring it a conspiracy. Even many were saying the government is receiving Dollars for each patient.

“Why are you listening to them seriously?” I asked. These people are creating fear unintentionally and your subconscious mind is quite sensitive so if you think along these lines you may receive it. Therefore, just ignore such comments, I said to her. But I senses she was not convinced by my arguments.

My wife is not alone who was facing such a situation these days when the entire media is full of news about the spread of the pandemic COVID-19 in the country and every day the numbers are increasing. Daily thousands of people are reported to test positive and around 100 people lose their lives each day.

The government policies towards controlling the pandemic seem they are silently going towards herd immunity, which means the government is not able to do anything, so whoever is contracted the disease should fight himself/herself and if he/she survives that is good as he/she may have developed immunity, otherwise, whoever is dying should die.

The ineffective testing services, inadequate quarantine and medical facilities in government hospitals have made Pakistanis vulnerable to contract the pandemic diseases easily. The private hospitals in urban centres are minting money by providing costly testing and isolation facilities.

The state’s health facilities are inadequate and insufficient and cannot cater to the needs of every citizen. People also have no confidence in the government’s health facilities. The majority of infected or suspected patients prefer to stay at their homes in quarantine instead of going to government facilities for isolation.

A lot of my friends and colleagues who have been infected with the virus have opted to stay at their homes in isolation instead of going to hospitals for receiving medical treatment. A journalist friend of mine who opted for going to the hospital said that he was kept in a hospital room along with other three patients (which means they were a total of four in the room). Because he was a journalist, therefore, he received good attention and better treatment facilities in a government hospital, but he said that other journalists who were also admitted to the same government hospital had left the hospital saying there were poor healthcare facilities and they preferred to go to private hospitals.

Oxygen cylinders, some drugs which are said to be helpful in the treatment of Coronavirus have vanished from the medical stores in the markets. People are buying masks, sanitisers and hand gloves at exorbitant rates. Even Chinese-made cheaper digital oximeters are being sold at much higher rates because they are in high demand.

I received a message (SMS) from a prominent drugs selling company that it was selling oximeters (which is used on a finger) at the rate of Rs. 4000 per piece. You might have seen advertisements on social media where people are selling these gadgets at higher prices.

Even though the government has not officially declared its policy on herd immunity, there is strong evidence that it may opt. This is also evident from the government’s callous attitude towards the pandemic. The Supreme Court of Pakistan also played a key role when it allowed Eid shopping during the last week of Ramazan. People thronged to the shopping centres without taking preventive measures or following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set by the government for shopping centres. The number of COVID-19-positive patients has increased rapidly since the Eidul Fitre and the total number has even crossed 220,000 patients now and over 4000 deaths.

The Sindh provincial government, which took appreciable measures at the start of the pandemic early in March, has also stopped its vigorous efforts and is following the federal government’s policy of indifference.

In recent days, government figures indicate that number of tests has reduced, which ultimately has reported fewer patients per day. But the situation on the ground is miserable as many deaths due to the pandemic are not reported.