Express Tribune Editorials 2nd August 2026

Unsung urban heroes

The recent protest by over 300 sanitation workers in Rawalpindi is a damning indictment of how Pakistan treats the men and women whose blood, sweat and tears keep cities clean. The protesting workers marched to demand an unpaid Eid honorarium promised by the Punjab chief minister and the regularisation of contract employees to reward them with some job security. Amazingly, their demands do not even scratch the surface of the challenges they are facing.

Sanitation workers are universally underpaid - few people realise their importance to society. The public health impact alone pays for any additional costs. Yet, sanitation workers still struggle to get the most basic workplace protections. Between April and July, at least 16 sanitation workers died on the job for reasons that were completely avoidable if they had been given even the most basic safety equipment for their jobs. Even more have died due to the stress of not being paid on time, unfair pay deductions, or other violations of workers' rights.

The long-running practice of reserving sanitation jobs for religious minorities is also problematic, not just because it can act to strengthen stereotyping of minorities, but also because giving these 'dirty' jobs to minorities helps governments meet quotas and ignore minority applicants for other government jobs. Giving 95% of dead-end sanitation jobs to minorities is an easy way to deny them promotion-eligible office posts, thus complying with the letter of the law while holding its spirit in contempt.

All of these issues can be addressed through even the mildest forms of good governance. Unfortunately, because the victims are at the bottom of the societal food chain, the government can confidently continue the practice of denying them job security, or even access to affordable healthcare. It should not be more dangerous to be a sanitation worker than a policeman or a soldier.

Mortality-cooling trap

The idea that there are people dying in Pakistan because they lack access to air-conditioning seems like a convoluted, tone-deaf take by a climate-denier - but it is a reality that we will soon be forced to face. According to a recent study by the Climate Impact Lab, Pakistan is among 18 identified countries who are part of a 'mortality-cooling trap'. This means that the effects of climate change are further intensified for these countries due to their widespread fiscal inequality.

Like all natural disasters, climate change also has a tendency to discriminate. It is racist, it is sexist and it disproportionately impacts the poor. When the condition of the world is so devastated that a normal, healthy lifestyle can only be afforded through special equipment, in special neighbourhoods and with special perks, the majority of people are excluded from the luxury of an ordinary life. When air-conditioning becomes a necessity rather than a luxury to handle summer temperatures, people die disproportionately - over 150,000 people a year by 2050 to be specific.

The global picture is equally bleak. Climate-driven warming could push extra deaths worldwide to roughly 430,000 a year by 2050. But Pakistan is one of the starkest cases of this 'mortality-cooling trap'. Nearly 89 per cent of the country's population could end up living in regions affected by this trap. Nine of Pakistan's largest cities are expected to struggle with heat adaptation strategies that mostly rely on electricity infrastructure that most cannot afford.

Therefore, it is true that this story is about air-conditioning, just not in a world where an AC is a luxury. It is also a story about reliable electricity, disposable income, affordable housing that can support the load and a state willing to treat cooling as a right rather than a reward for wealth.

An orphaned generation

The number of children orphaned by the Israeli onslaught has crossed 60,000, and there is no sign that the Zionist government can be shamed into stopping that number from increasing. Of the 60,737 children who have lost at least one parent since Israel's military campaign began in October 2023, at least 2,713 have lost both parents. Given the already impoverished state of the territory, these children have lost any chance to access the basic family and societal structures that might have helped them grow up safe and healthy. Yet, some families have suffered even more violence than these orphans. At least 2,276 entire families - accounting for 8,858 people - have been completely wiped out, as the total death toll in Gaza has crossed 73,000.

We must reiterate that no matter what lies the Israelis and their allies try to sell, none of the death and suffering these children face is a tragic case of 'collateral damage' in war. It is the direct consequence of deliberate policy. A United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded in June that "Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes." The commission found that approximately 30% of those killed in Gaza were children, and that the killing and maiming of Palestinian children "was part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group". The protection owed to children under international law has been entirely disregarded. The cruelty is the point.

The international community is powerless to stop this violence. At the UNSC, the guarantee of a US veto makes it impossible to penalise Israel - or the US and Germany, which supply 90% of Israel's arms. Several Muslim countries have also chosen to prioritise their relationship with the US over the plight of the Palestinians. The few countries that have actually taken principled stands can't change things on their own. But at least the citizens of these countries can safely say that their taxes are not supporting genocide.