DAWN Editorials - 19th May 2025

[zarnishhayat]

Overdue solace

LATE consolation is a norm for Pakistanis. Although welcome, a newly passed bill that demands tough laws and penalties to reduce the scourge of child marriages in Islamabad Capital Territory, and seeks rigorous imprisonment of up to three years for males over 18 who contract child marriages, is long overdue. The pattern is disturbing: for example, successive KP governments have been unable to replace the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, as orthodox elements stalled the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2021, while Punjab’s diffident attempt — the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 2015 — failed to repeal the marriage age in CMRA, 1929. In Sindh, juvenile marriages mount despite pro-women legislation. This dismal picture shows that girls less than 18 are permitted to marry in most of the country.

The self-appointed custodians of belief and convention reject empowerment, making it difficult for political parties to criticise child marriage, forced conversions and other atrocities in their party manifestos and poll campaigns. The deeply patriarchal undercurrents of our sociopolitical setting, too, have kept politicians from stressing on the need to abandon laws that validate child abuse as well as allow adults to coerce young girls into illegal unions. In fact, their attempts at reform are largely self-serving, crafting an anti-people state structure and environment. South Asia carries the highest burden of child marriage in the world — a sign of how activists and legislators have deserted the young.Parties can no longer restrict political narratives to blame games and political point-scoring. They must own their responsibilities and convey the dangers of these primitive practices, and pledge to implement reformist policies and laws. Child marriages deal a lethal blow to the health, security and education of females, and hurt the socioeconomic well-being of the country. Women and girls cannot remain imprisoned behind the bars of primeval social mores.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2025


Erratic policy

THE state needs to make up its mind on the import of used vehicles. According to recent news reports, the FBR may be considering allowing the import of used cars up to five years old ‘in order to promote competition in the auto industry’. Current restrictions do not allow the import of used cars that are more than three years old, or more than five years old in the case of SUVs, and the proposal will standardise the policy to up to five years old for all used vehicles. But why is this needed, and why now? The government has just announced new policies to promote electric vehicles and automobile exports, and this proposal seems to fly in the face of both.

The local automobile industry is often criticised, and rightly so, for failing to provide good quality automobiles at price points that are accessible to the masses. The problem is, again, state-level policy. There have been so many loopholes in the regulations governing the automobile industry that true indigenisation accompanied by a transfer of technology has never really taken place. Automakers have repeatedly found ways to meet the bare minimum requirements for local value addition. As a result, the industry has become uncompetitive internationally. In recent years, the state has been encouraging more manufacturers to set up shop in Pakistan to ‘encourage competition’. Some positive outcomes of this policy include the introduction of several very decent Chinese automobile brands. Unfortunately, most of their cars remain out of reach for ordinary buyers. But allowing used car imports will not fix the real problem. Most imported used cars are write-offs that have been refurbished for resale. They come with no after-sales support or warranty, which often leaves buyers high and dry in case they run into a problem or need a faulty component replaced. The only people who really profit are the importers and the dealers. If the state is truly concerned about making quality automobiles accessible to the masses, it needs to rethink how it regulates the automobile industry. It cannot continue to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. It either needs to pull away all protections by completely deregulating imports, thereby allowing true competition, or it should tighten its regulations to protect consumers’ interests, and not those of the industry.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2025


Famine in waiting

FOOD insecurity across the world has reached unprecedented levels, with conflict, economic shocks, and climate extremes pushing millions to the edge of starvation, according to the Global Report on Food Crises.

The situation is most harrowing in Gaza, where the entire population of 2.1m is facing high levels of acute food insecurity. As of March 2024, more than half the population was classified in IPC Phase 4 Emergency levels, while an alarming 50pc faced Catastrophe conditions (IPC Phase 5), the final stage before famine is officially declared.


This is not just a humanitarian failure but a result of deliberate policy and sustained conflict. Gaza’s economy has collapsed under a 17-year blockade and repeated military escalations. By the end of 2024, 75pc of cropland, 57pc of greenhouses, and 68pc of wells had been destroyed. In north Gaza and Gaza governorates, 70pc of the population was surviving under Catastrophe-level conditions, relying almost entirely on inadequate humanitarian aid. Food prices skyrocketed, with wheat flour prices increasing by 3,000pc between February and April 2025.

Efforts at mitigation remain woefully insufficient. Humanitarian access has been severely restricted, with aid trucks entering Gaza far below pre-conflict levels, and the risk of famine remains persistent throughout 2025. The global community must push for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access.

While Gaza’s plight is the most severe, Pakistan too faces a worrying food security outlook. Although food inflation fell to 0.3pc by December 2024, down from double digits earlier in the year, poverty and unemployment continue to hinder access to food. The 2022 floods left lasting scars, and extreme weather events in 2023 and 2024 further eroded livelihoods, particularly in rural Balochistan, Sindh and KP. These regions also face deteriorating water security, further compounding agricultural losses and pushing subsistence farmers into deeper debt traps.

As of the latest assessments, 11m people in Pakistan remain in IPC Phase 3 Crisis or worse, with 2.2m in Emergency conditions. High levels of acute malnutrition are particularly alarming in Sindh and KP, with a significant number of children born with low birth weight and a large burden of diarrhoea and respiratory infections exacerbating the crisis. Compounding these challenges is the global reduction in humanitarian funding, which has curtailed food assistance programmes.


Immediate policy interventions are needed. The centre and provinces must strengthen social safety nets, ensure nutrition support for mothers and children, and invest in climate-resilient agriculture. Without decisive action, Pakistan risks falling deeper into a chronic cycle of hunger and poverty.

In a world where millions go to bed hungry, and where children’s futures are traded for geopolitical gains, we must ask: how long can humanity endure this?

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2025