ISLAMABAD: Owing to its scenic beauty, Pakistan might be one of the cheapest countries for tourists to visit in the world. The improved law and order situation in the country over the past few years has certainly benefited the tourism industry. However, it has not fully recovered from the damage caused by the terrorist attacks in the tribal regions. Tourism industry is one service sector where huge monetary returns can be generated with the minimum of investment, provided the government ensures the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage sites of Pakistan.

Cultural and lingual diversity combined with tourist attractions in both the metropolises and the country side can reap massive benefits for the economy in the long-term. With more than six of UNESCO’s world heritage sites, Pakistan has enormous potential to compete with other tourist destinations in Asia. The negative image of the country, particularly outside Asia, has prevented tourists from visiting it. As a result, it was ranked at 124^th out of 136 countries on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index released by World Economic Forum, this year.

Considering Pakistan’s passport is still ranked the second worst globally for international travel, just above Syria and Iraq, a lot needs to be done to produce a positive narrative of the country. If the government makes use of soft diplomacy in recreating a renewed image of the country and supports the travel industry, tourism is likely to contribute a major share to the GDP and national income.

Afreen Ilyas 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2017.

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Original Post: Reviving the tourism industry

LAHORE: Despite the progressive change of the mindsets in different sects of the society, women remain the underrepresented segment of the society, often referred to as minority pertaining to varied work sectors and fields. The female literacy rate in Pakistan was 45 per cent as of 2016, which defines the lack of women participation and contribution in economic activity. Looking at different work fields where women potential could make strides, the political realm is dominated by hereditary male politicians coming from families known to have ruled the country for decades.

In the field of science and technology, women enrollment is usually restricted by societal stereotypes of they being a less feminine and male dominated work field. In many cases, women from lower-middle working class are bound to opt for academic discipline like home economics, or diploma courses relevant to basic household chores like sewing or cooking. Along with the wage gap that illustrates the pay disparity between men and women delivering the same tasks, economic activity done from homes mostly goes unreported in official statistics.

Although due to cultural progression more women can be seen engaged in some form of economic or academic activity, the government’s policies are least conducive to women’s progress and empowerment. Further, the policies implemented by previous governments are usually not carried forward due to varying political ideologies of succeeding governments. Budget allocation for education is already minimal and on top of that the least of it is allocated for women education and development. Much more needs to be done to reap the benefits of women participation in the workforce.

Maliha Zubairi 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2017.

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It is easy enough to underestimate the threat posed by deadly online games such as the “Blue Whale Challenge” or “The Choking Game” given the pervasiveness and popularity of gaming among today’s youth. Most of us have come to accept gaming as a bit of harmless fun — highly addictive though it may be. The chances of anything going wrong during such games would perhaps be more than a million to one — at least that’s what the general perception used to be. Until the last few years, the biggest threat to players of online games was the potential to meet dangerous strangers — even as parents voiced fears about the possible exposure to foul language and inappropriate conduct. There was always the risk of dangerous individuals cloaked as they were in the mask of anonymity taking advantage of innocents. However, there are graver threats to gamers these days.

Game designers in the pursuit of more commercial success have started to push the limit by inventing new challenges that can potentially take the lives of players. This week, a college in Punjab’s Jhelum district expelled two young women who bore injuries on their arms while playing the Blue Whale challenge — known as a suicide game that entails 50-odd tasks. At least three other individuals who played the game in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa survived the challenge but were mentally and physically scarred by it.

Since this game isn’t exactly a downloadable or subscribable app or service, it would serve little purpose to ban it. One possible way to stop it from causing harm is getting curators or admins of the game especially those who monitor #curatorfindme, #BlueWhaleChallenge hashtags to establish contact with these players through social media channels and talk them out of it. On a broader level, parents and guardians need to play a more proactive role and engage with troubled youth before they resort to self-harm.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2017.

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The arid lands of Tharparkar and the Thar desert are unlikely places to find women engaged in potentially revolutionary activity. Communities are poor, poorly educated and deeply conservative. Opportunities for employment beyond arid agriculture are few and far between but change is in the air. Beneath the ochre topsoil there is coal, coal which can be fed into Pakistan’s ongoing energy crisis. It may be of poor quality and globally the move is away from fossil fuels to greener energy solutions, but 175 billion tons of coal is there and waiting to be taken from the ground, and it is in the taking out that the women of Tharparkar find themselves having a very unexpected career option. Dumper truck driver.

Big truck driving the world over has always been a man’s job. Even in the emancipated developed nations it is not common for women to be truckers. The work is physically hard, and even with sophisticated modern vehicles that have power steering and other adjuncts to the quality of working life — it’s tough. But a 25 year-old mother of three is today driving a 60 ton dumper truck, earning what by local standards is a substantial wage and she is being joined by a growing number of other women.

The glass ceiling for women in the jobs market is set low. Merely by standing up they may bump their head against it. Now there are 30 women being trained as truck drivers by the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), and they may earn up to Rs40,000 a month. The company currently has 125 trucks working on the vast open-cast pit but says it is going to need 400, and the work extends into a long future. If it can be done in Tharparkar, it can be done elsewhere. Traditional male chauvinist attitudes can be overcome, and women really can challenge stereotypes and break barriers. The women truckers of Tharparkar may be little more than a quirky headline today but they are also harbingers of change. Pakistan? Women truckers? Yes and why not. Step forward and take the wheel, ladies.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2017.

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Pakistan has sat on the cusp of eradicating polio for the last two years. Polio vaccinators continue to be killed as do doctors associated with the programme and now there may be a new villain coming into play — President Donald Trump. Mistrust of America is widespread in Pakistan and not without good reason. Drone strikes — though far fewer of late — and the notorious instance where the CIA set up a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign in 2011 in an attempt to gather evidence of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, feed this mistrust. Then there are the persistent folk-myths usually supported by reports in less-than-responsible print media that the vaccines — manufactured in the west — are contaminated with alcohol or pork products. They are not and never have been but once such a perception is planted in the public mind it is extremely difficult to dislodge.

How President Trump enters the frame is in the concern that he may make good on his more belligerent threats thus further deepening the well of antipathy. Tribal leaders — and some extremist sympathisers in the cities — will seize on any action the Americans may take whether it be sanctions or more direct action and weave it into the polio conspiracy narrative. Pakistan is so close to polio eradication — there were 20 cases in 2016 — that it is truly achievable, yet the last mile is proving the hardest. The disease is eminently preventable as its eradication in all but Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria has shown. There have been no cases of polio in the developed world for decades.

Researchers note that there is a clear correlation between support for Islamist groups and an uptick in those refusing vaccination for their children. Pakistan already had a high latency for the tolerance of extremist views, and it is no stretch to see that such latency could be exploited by those that wished ill to the polio immunisation campaign. There are almost 250,000 polio workers targeting 38 million children. A tiny minority of that number will refuse vaccination and in doing so keep polio alive. The vaccinators have our wholehearted support.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2017.

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Being a developing country and one with an almost exponentially growing population, Pakistan faces all sorts of socio-economic problems. But the underlying cause of these problems is the issue of illiteracy. Our government spends less than 3% on the education sector. Already an insufficient value for catering to the needs of a considerably large population, it is further misappropriated. According to a compilation of the World Literacy Foundation, more than 796 million people in the world cannot read and write, about 67 million children do not have access to primary school education and another 72 million miss out on secondary school education. Pakistan’s situation is even more unfortunate as it is estimated that 26% of the countries that are poorer than Pakistan, send a larger proportion of their children to schools. The main finding of the report further states that putting an economic value on the cost of illiteracy, it is estimated at $1.2 trillion to the global economy. Hence, this problem is not confined to the developing world.

Why is education so crucial to saving our economy? Literacy is the fundamental building block of education and as vaccine is a prevention measure for a disease, literacy works in the same way for preventing the spread of corruption, hunger, poverty, crime, poor health conditions and unemployment among other socio-economic problems. Education is an essential tool for breaking the rigid and harsh social cycles of poverty.

In Pakistan, the quality of education is as big a problem as lack of access to education starting from the primary level. Even if the net enrollment rate of children attending a primary school is 63%, half of them drop out due to several reasons and those who continue are also getting a substandard experience because of inadequate education facilities, lack of trained teachers, and a standard medium of instruction in all regions, outdated curriculum and absence of a standard assessment tool. Another worrisome issue is that textbooks and the way things are taught encourage rote learning and promote ideologies of certain powerful groups of the country instead of stimulating creativity and critical thinking.

Additionally, when we talk about gender inequality and discrimination faced by women at all levels, we are always lead to the question: how does one break through the rigid norms? This is again a problem that stems from the lack of access to education and poor quality education. Firstly, female enrolment is only 43.6% of the total enrollment which is significantly less than the male enrolment. Secondly, gender roles for men and women are enforced through education and the curriculum also promotes patriarchal ideologies to a great extent. Both these factors mutually contribute to the social problems that result from gender discrimination in our society. Hence, it is crucial for the progress of Pakistan as a nation that girls are provided with an equal access to education.

Pakistan needs an extensive educational reform which must begin with a policy reform that tackles the chronic under-investment in the education sector. Adding to that, the government and the private sector must work as partners to provide quality education especially primary education to all the school going citizens. It is a long-term process which requires effort from each one of us as individuals too, to work towards a quality education system along with providing the youth with hope, our undivided attention, and unwavering belief in their potential. Education is not only crucial for mitigating the socio-economic issues, it is important for psychological reasons too as it helps to make you feel worthwhile, gives a boost to morale and builds confidence and perseverance.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2017.

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