In Faislabad, the police are busy raiding homes of Ahmadi citizens to ensure that they do not make the mistake of celebrating Eid or even of exchanging common Muslim greetings.
There us a serious need for the SNC architects to reconsider some names it has added to the list of heroes or role-models for our children. With recent growing intolerance and incidents of violence, inclusion of persons whose roles have been controversial is the last thing we need our children to be exposed to. A little mindfulness and sensitivity would have been appreciated in undoing the damage already done to our nation’s children and youth.
It is not a “western agenda” when the people of Pakistan call for a local solution to inspire more solidarity with our persecuted fellow citizens. The least that Pakistan could do here was make the age of the girl-child uniform across all the boards and implement existing laws against “forced marriages” more realistically. At present, a girl aged 16 is legally treated as an adult whereas a boy under 18 is still a child. The parallel Shariah law further complicates the matter where it states that a girl becomes of marriageable age as soon as she hits her puberty.
The Ehsas School Stipends scheme announced in September seems promising, but fundamental policy questions remain unanswered. Will this intervention be able to utilize its allocated resources without the risk of the funds remaining underspent? While the resources on education …