Daily Times

Going through the newspaper really makes me feel as if everything is going fine when there is nothing about innocent people dying in terrorist attacks; there is only news of politics, of course! But then politics have always been like this: never smooth, at least in my lifetime. So it is a good day when everything in the news is about political parties not getting along or a foreign government requesting to rent our army to fight a war for them rather than people getting killed in terrorist attacks. It always is a good day when this is not part of the news, is it not? But little do we forget that terrorism is not the only problem causing turmoil in Pakistan. Is only security our basic right? Do we only need to be breathing to live and not care about the conditions we are breathing in?
Just about two weeks ago, Pakistan celebrated its Resolution Day. After seven long years it gave every Pakistani the bravado of bragging rights. I could see how proud everyone was, how beautiful it felt to see the might of our army. It was grand and we loved it! However, we realised after some time that this is where our taxes went. Pakistan is a poor country, we are told. It is not a lie, though. Forty percent of the people are living below the poverty line, which is almost half of the population, right? Then would it not have been fair to use our tax money on something we really need like for education, health or the famous slogan of ‘roti, kapra aur makaan’ (food, clothing, shelter); would these have not been more relevant? These are indeed our basic needs and not a show of the hyper-masculinity of our army to the world.
Our ruling parties spend millions of rupees and arrange mega events such as the Sindh Festival of 2014, and go on foreign official tours but admit that they cannot afford to transport vitally needed food supplies to a district. We are well aware of terrorism, inflation, discrimination against minorities, the internally displaced persons’ (IDPs’) situation, disappearances and other such challenges in our daily lives, including famine. Hunger and poverty are certainly not a gift of God but we do not care when someone dies of it, neither does our media. I do not know if it is because news of hunger is not as glamorous as that of a raid on a political party’s headquarters or a drunken leader’s interview on television. There is a deafening silence in the media about the famine the people in our country are facing. I had to scroll back all the way to the articles published in March 2014 to read about the drought in Thar. Why is that? Is it because we have accepted it as a matter of fact that children have been dying in Thar for the past many years? The people of Thar are living on edge. The death toll due to famine rises year after year and we are quiet about it. In March 2014, there was a media circus going on in Thar. Every news channel projected the doom-like situation of Thar: children dying of hunger and people migrating to other parts of Sindh for survival.
To add to the situation, it is not only famine that is taking the lives of the people in Thar; it is also the lack of facilities such as broken roads, clean water reserves and poor conditions of school and hospitals that lack staff and equipment. So, even when leaders who have been appointed shamelessly use the excuse that it is not malnutrition or drought that is taking lives but disease, one comes to think why the affectees of the disease were not provided with sufficient facilities to save their lives. If the disease is the only reason for a higher ratio of death, it certainly needs to be paid serious attention. However, we know that, during election time, it is just the hollow promises of the political leaders who beg these people for votes but, when elected, they forget about them.
The political parties and ‘humanitarians’ are to be largely blamed because drought in a desert is natural but the death of its people is not. These elected leaders are their feudal lords and these are their people but only till the election. This is the tradition of a feudal mindset. If the voices of the poor people reach the media, there might be no one to plead to them for resolution of problems. Thus, bringing media attention to the crisis in Thar will not suit the leaders. This heartless attitude of the leaders towards the situation of the people in Thar makes it seem like the deaths of these poor people do not concern them at all. It seems like they are bothered when they are asked about such ‘petty’ issues.
The media is an extravaganza that revolves around the elites. And why should it not? The children dying in Thar desert are the children of the poor. What is so entertaining about their lives anyway? All this reminds me of is: “I have seen many humans without clothes and also many clothes without humans.”

The writer is a development consultant. She tweets at @GulminaBilal and can be reached at coordinator@individualland.com