Dawn Editorials 25th September 2025

Trumpian tirade

DONALD Trump’s address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday was part comical theatre, part chilling warning to the world that the old international order — which the US itself helped build — is dying.

The American president used the august international platform to recycle conspiracy theories and highlight far-right talking points, along with taking a verbal sledgehammer to the UN itself. He blasted mass migration, saying that the UN was creating problems and “funding an assault on Western countries” by supporting migrants. Mr Trump referred to climate change as the “greatest con job ever” and warned nations to stay away from “this green scam”. As for the UN’s peacemaking role, or lack of it, Mr Trump asked “what is the purpose of the United Nations”, adding that the forum only offered “empty words”. He was also critical of states recognising Palestinian statehood, terming it a “reward” for Hamas.

Refuting each of Mr Trump’s ill-considered assertions at the UNGA requires far more space than is available in these columns. Briefly, it should be shocking that the leader of the world’s foremost economic and military power should turn MAGA talking points critical of the ‘globalist elite’ into key arguments of his address.

However, little is shocking when it comes to Mr Trump. His climate denialism is dangerous, especially for countries like Pakistan, which are lurching from one climate crisis to another. It is also disturbing that he chooses to scapegoat migrants for destroying Western civilisation. He should remember that many Western countries, led by his own, have helped destroy states in the Middle East and Africa through regime change, which has fuelled the migration crisis.

His criticism of the UN for failing to prevent conflict may not be off the mark, but again, the global body is only the sum of its parts. When powerful member states, such as the US, paralyse the UN through the Security Council, is the global institution alone to be blamed for inaction? Moreover, it is the unilateralism of the Western bloc that contributed to the weakening of the UN.

Speaking later with leaders of Muslim states, including Pakistan, Mr Trump suggested that these countries could help end the Gaza war. However, the American leader’s emphasis seemed to be on getting the Israeli hostages back, not on ending the genocide of Palestinians.

While the Arab and Muslim states should be leading an economic and diplomatic boycott of Israel for its crimes in Gaza, arguably, only one state has the key to halting the Zionist aggression: the US. If America, as well as its Western allies, stopped funding Tel Aviv and shipping deadly weapons to it, and refrained from defending Israel at every international forum, the Zionist regime could be forced to rethink its bloody and criminal strategy.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2025

Relief politics

THE Punjab government has announced a generous-sounding flood relief package: Rs1m for a destroyed house, Rs500,000 for one partly damaged, Rs20,000 per acre of submerged land, and Rs500,000 for each cow or buffalo lost. It boasts all this will be paid from its own coffers, sans foreign aid. Yet one crucial detail is missing: the timeline. For families living on embankments under the open sky, a pledge without a deadline is as painful as the losses endured. The mode of delivery has also become politicised. Rather than use existing national channels such as the BISP, which has databases and distribution networks, Punjab has opted to design new ‘relief cards’. Ministers claim this will be more efficient, but the choice appears more political than practical. Opposition leaders have urged the use of proven channels to ensure rapid delivery. Instead of dismissing the suggestion with partisan jibes, the provincial government would do better to focus squarely on transparent and timely aid. Flood survivors cannot afford to wait while politicians spar over ownership of relief. The deployment of 10,000 employees for surveys and 2,213 teams in relief operations underscores the seriousness of the challenge. But unless their work translates swiftly into aid delivery, these numbers will not ease public anguish. Equally troubling are the perceptions of misplaced priorities. Residents in Jalalpur Pirwala complain officials rushed to save a motorway while villages drowned. The catastrophic breaches along the Sutlej embankments have submerged entire settlements. Those forced to wade through waist-deep water to bury their dead do not see much evidence of the “example” of relief that the provincial leadership claims to have set.

Our leaders must realise that the politicisation of relief is as damaging as the floods themselves. Punjab’s rulers want to showcase independence, while opponents tout rival mechanisms. Neither contest feeds hungry families on the roadside. Nor does it restore the livelihoods of farmers whose fields have been washed away. What victims need is speedy, genuine relief. If tools are available, they should be used; if new ones are created, they must work seamlessly. Either way, delivery must trump politics and compassion outweigh point-scoring. Climate change ensures such disasters will recur with greater intensity. Punjab’s ruling party must prove its sincerity not by deriding opponents, but by getting aid into people’s hands — and soon.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2025

The expendables

IT is disheartening to see how inconsequential some lives are to society. This Monday, four Lahore labourers died from inhalation of toxic fumes after entering a manhole for a clean-up job. It took nine hours for rescue workers to retrieve their bodies. Their deaths received barely a few sentences in the press. Two days earlier, in Karachi, three out of four sanitation workers tasked with cleaning a drain lost their lives in similar circumstances. The group had been working well past 1am. “One of the workers lost consciousness while cleaning, [and] two [other] workers entered the manhole to pull him out, but both fell unconscious later,” police said. About a day before that incident, three sanitation workers died of asphyxiation in Faisalabad. A week earlier, two others had been killed by toxic gases in Karachi.

At least a dozen sanitation workers dead in a fortnight, yet not an ounce of outrage in the media. This is how expendable this particular class of labour is for society. It raises the disturbing question of whether they are perhaps seen as less human merely because they do the ‘dirty’ jobs, or because they mostly comprise our most socially vulnerable. Whatever the case may be, we must not expect them to risk life and limb to clean up after us, without even expecting an iota of gratitude in return, let alone protective gear, a pension, health coverage, or job security in any form. They cannot merely be “a body made disposable by the city it serves”, in the words of the chairperson of the National Commission for Human Rights. Given the critical services sanitation workers provide, the state has a duty to guarantee them protective equipment, health cover and secure employment. Citizens, particularly from privileged segments who can get themselves heard, must abandon their indifference and raise their voices. To treat these workers as disposable is to betray our own humanity.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2025