Oh yes, wow but why?

Awaam

Mehwish Mushtaq

Some in Pakistan have termed it as historic, few are happy that it has brought some positive attention to the country; some remain indifferent while others have been infuriated. While Oscar winner  Sharmeen Obaid  Chinoy basks in post Oscar glory, her documentary ‘saving face’ that follows the work of Dr. Muhammad Jawad, a British Pakistani surgeon assisting acid attack victims in Pakistan has ignited a heated feminist debate, musings into development pornography, a  delving into the nature of pre-conceived notions the west has about Pakistan and of everything negative  about the country becoming a cause célèbre for the westerners, so much so that attention has been derailed from the actual  contents of the documentary itself. The struggle of acid attack survivors and the highly commendable work of Dr. Jawad, have been left somewhere far behind amidst the impetuous arguments. If a picture is worth a thousand words than definitely a movie is worth even more as has been proven by the current buzz.

Photo: Reuters/File

Water: Going with the flow

The Economist

To fix the country’s long-term problems, action needs to start now

 

 

Arid debates

FOR MILLIONS SUFFERING the misery of the past two years’ floods it must seem the cruellest of jokes, but Pakistan is one of the world’s most arid countries. Average annual rainfall is less than 240mm, and the total availability of water per person has fallen from about 5,000 cubic metres in the 1950s to about 1,100 now, just above the 1,000 cubic-metre-per-head definition of “water-scarce”. A shortage of water is a more serious peril than any of the others mentioned in this report. Combined with continued fast growth in its population, it is the true existential threat to Pakistan.

Sharmeen Obaid wins Oscar for film on acid attack victims

Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy accept the Oscar for the Best Documentary Short Subject for their film “Saving Face” at the 84th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California. – Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani filmmaker and first-time Oscar nominee Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy won an Academy Award on Monday for her documentary about acid attack victims, a first for a Pakistani director.

Violence: Dripping with blood

The Economist

Too many disagreements in Pakistan are fatal

 

ON DECEMBER 29TH Syed Baqir Shah, a police surgeon, was gunned down in Quetta, the capital of the province of Balochistan. A few days later the police said that some 50 suspects had been arrested but there had been no “major breakthrough”. Few were surprised. Among the prime suspects were the police themselves and the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary outfit that in theory reports to the provincial government but takes orders from the army.

Poverty: Always with us

The Economist

Natural catastrophes have shown up the depth of poverty in Pakistan

  After the flood
THREE TIMES IN recent years Pakistan has suffered from cataclysmic disasters. The earthquake that struck Kashmir in October 2005 killed over 70,000 people and made 3m homeless. In 2010 the Indus river spilled over its banks, flooding one-fifth of the country and affecting 20m people. More than 1,700 people lost their lives. The following year unusually heavy rains—one monsoon’s-worth in a day—brought renewed flooding in Sindh and Balochistan. Of the inundated area, 35% had also been flooded the year before. Over 5m people were affected.

A taste of Hunny

The Economist

A small start on the big problem of illiteracy

THE HUNNY SCHOOL, a private institution occupying two cramped buildings in Rawalpindi’s back streets, seems a happy place. The boys and girls packed into its little classrooms look pleased to be there. Some look much older than their classmates. They have a lot of catching up to do. Many were street children whose parents could not afford to send them to school. A future of illiteracy and perhaps crime and drugs beckoned.

The economy: Lights off

The Economist

Shortages of electricity and credit are bad for growth

KAMRAN, A TAILOR in Rawalpindi, is enjoying a little boom. He and his staff—two men perched on a platform above the counter in his tiny shop—have increased production fivefold this year, to five or six suits a day. They charge 300 rupees (about $3.30) each, with the customers supplying the material. The secret of their success is simple. They have access to credit, in the form of a 15,000-rupee loan from Tameer Bank, a microcredit lender, and, thanks to that, to a reliable supply of electricity. They have invested the money in a battery that enables them to keep sewing through the power cuts that bedevil Rawalpindi, and indeed most of Pakistan, for much of the day and night.

Religion: In the shadow of the mosque

The Economist

Religion is becoming less tolerant, and more central to Pakistan

 

Visibly more pious

THE CLEAN-SHAVEN, middle-aged academic in Lahore is under fire from his wife and his bushy-bearded 20-year-old son, a student. Last year he completed the haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim is expected to make at least once. Now, after a lifetime of weekly attendance at the mosque, on Fridays, he is told by his family that he should make the half-hour trip there to say his prayers five times a day. “Pakistan”, he says, “has become very religious-minded and anti-West.”

Politics: Captain’s innings

The Economist

The emergence of Imran Khan reflects disillusionment with both politicians and generals

 

“HE’S THE MAN!” purrs the cosmopolitan young media-studies graduate at Punjab University in Lahore. A group of a dozen or so contemporaries broadly shares her enthusiasm for Imran Khan, the rising star of Pakistani politics. Even an angry sceptic, who sees him as “the new blue-eyed boy of the establishment”, admits that he would vote for him.

Foreign policy: State of vulnerability

The Economist

Threatened by India, betrayed by America, Pakistan casts a lovelorn eye at China

VIEWED FROM ISLAMABAD, the history of relations between America and Pakistan has been a saga of serial American betrayals. In the 1950s the two countries were close friends. Yet when Pakistan went to war with India in 1965, America stayed neutral. Nor was Richard Nixon much help when East Pakistan seceded to become Bangladesh in 1971, despite Pakistan’s role in facilitating his opening to China. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, close co-operation in the 1980s over arming and training the mujahideen fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan soon turned into sanctions against Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

Too close for comfort

The Economist

In the war in Afghanistan it is not always obvious which side Pakistan is on

PAKISTAN REACTS WITH understandable resentment to criticism of its role in Afghanistan. During the long war there it has provided sanctuary to millions of refugees. It has lost far more troops fighting terrorists than has ISAF. After September 11th 2001 it swiftly repudiated the Taliban and threw in its lot with America and its “war on terror”. In 2004 it was named a “major non-NATO ally” by America. Its territory has provided ISAF with vital supply routes and bases for attacks on suspected terrorists by unmanned drone aircraft. Many of its civilians have also died in those and other attacks. It has provided intelligence that has led to the capture of a succession of al-Qaeda leaders. And the “American” war in Afghanistan has fuelled the rise of violent Islamist extremists in Pakistan itself, the “Pakistani Taliban”, bent on overthrowing the government.

Perilous journey

This article is the first one from the series about Pakistan published in The Economist as a Special Report. The series includes the articles about foreign policy, Poverty, Economy, religion and violence in Pakistan. This report on Pakistan points out the unfortunate fact of the leaders neglecting the long term needs of the country thus making it vulnerable to the disasters and downfalls. But along with highlighting these problems it also bring into light the positive points which are the signs of the hope.

The Economist

Pakistan has a lot going for it, but optimism about its future is nevertheless hard to sustain, says Simon Long

 

EARLY LAST YEAR the Pakistan Business Council, a lobby group of local conglomerates and multinationals, drew up a “national economic agenda”, setting out some desperately needed reforms. It took out newspaper advertisements to press its case and made presentations to the four biggest parties in parliament. Rather to everyone’s surprise it achieved a consensus, which was to be announced on a television chat show on May 2nd. But that morning it was revealed that American commandos had killed Osama bin Laden in a town not far from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. Television had other priorities, and the moment passed.