DAWN Editorials - 16th August 2025

[zarnishhayat]

Thin ice THE Independence Day festivities have stirred something long thought to have been dormant within our political class.

Addressing the main event held to mark Independence Day, which, for some undisclosed reason, was organised on the eve of Aug 14, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif invited “all” political parties to become part of the Misaq-i-Istehkam-i-Pakistan, or the compact for Pakistan’s stability.

The latest in a series of ‘compacts’ sought by the political class, this agreement, according to the prime minister, would let the world know that “[political] differences have their own place but we are all one for the sake of our beloved Pakistan”. The prime minister wished for the country to move on from political divisions, leave aside personal interests and reject empty slogans to “adopt collective thinking for Pakistan”. These were noble thoughts, befitting an auspicious occasion.

If only the prime minister had not followed up with a thinly veiled diatribe against “fitnas” who “riot and vandalise” to “defame and curse and rebel against the state”. It seemed that the prime minister made an attempt to muster up magnanimity, but failed.

Two days earlier, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq set a much better example. In an attempt to mollify the opposition, which had been prepared to boycott another sitting of the National Assembly, the Speaker offered to facilitate talks between the government and the opposition.

To demonstrate good faith, he even nominated Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry and PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar to the government team that would engage with the opposition. Stressing that dialogue was the only way to resolve political differences and bridge the divide between the two camps, he urged the opposition to continue engaging with the government on issues that mattered. To his credit, the law minister, too, echoed the Speaker’s words.

Meanwhile, the PTI had a rethink about its plans to turn Aug 14 into another day of protest. The party chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, announced on Tuesday that the PTI would eschew its planned agitation in favour of celebrating the day of independence.

Though the announcement got lost somewhere in the noise, it marked a significant shift in the party’s narrative. The question naturally arises: why did the PTI forego a good occasion to make some fuss and decide to de-escalate instead?

There have been some rumblings about the impatience of influential quarters to see a political compromise being worked out. One can only hope the political class has realised it has been skating on thin ice. Civilians are, after all, civilians — quickly swept aside once they have served their purpose. It would be prudent, in such circumstances, for them to band together. Perhaps they should make a greater effort to come to a mutual understanding.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025

Silent threat PAKISTAN’S struggle with diabetes, predominantly the type 2 variety, has reached alarming levels. Experts warn that over 3.4m people here live with diabetic foot — a condition that can lead to severe ulcers or amputations — while millions more face the disease’s far-reaching consequences: heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness and disability. The International Diabetes Federation reports that even after adjusting for age differences across countries, Pakistani adults face the highest diabetes rates in the world. This makes it nothing short of a national emergency. The opening of a multidisciplinary facility at Karachi’s Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology offers a glimpse of what comprehensive care should look like: cardiac, neurology, nephrology and ophthalmology clinics working in sync to treat both the disease and its complications. Such centres, however, remain rare in a country where many patients struggle to access even basic screening.

Diabetes may be relentless, but it is not inevitable. Prevention is key and must begin at home and in our daily routines: choosing balanced meals over sugary indulgences, making space for physical activity and refusing to ignore early symptoms. Small, consistent habits can delay or even prevent the onset of the disease. Beyond our homes, healthier living must be encouraged in schools, workplaces and public spaces. Children should grow up seeing playgrounds in use, not locked up; office culture should make room for movement; and shop shelves should carry clear, honest food labelling. Countries that normalise wellness make it harder for disease to gain ground. Of course, no grassroots effort can succeed without the state’s steadying hand. Pakistan needs a national diabetes control plan that funds preventive screening, trains healthcare providers to catch the disease early and reins in the sugar industry through taxation and labelling laws. Unchecked, diabetes will continue to claim lives and drain resources. Confronted head-on, it can be managed — and many of its worst consequences prevented. The choice is ours.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025
Israeli rapacity IN the midst of the Gaza genocide, Israel has announced plans to build more illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that would effectively seal the fate of the already moribund two-state solution.

The Zionist state’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich — one of the most extreme anti-Palestine voices in the ruling set-up — announced on Thursday that the Israeli regime planned to go ahead with the so-called E1 scheme in the West Bank. He added that the plan would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”, observing that it was “Zionism at its best”.

Perhaps it is because many of Israel’s Western friends have, in reaction to the Gaza holocaust, said they would recognise a Palestinian state, that Tel Aviv has taken the extreme move. A UN official has termed the settlement plan a potential war crime. But at least Mr Smotrich should be ‘credited’ with dropping the pretence and describing Tel Aviv’s actual plans: the full occupation of Palestinian land, and obliteration of the Palestinian identity.

It is moves like these that have fuelled Palestinian resistance over the past several decades. Hamas’ Oct 7 operation — though the targeting of non-combatants is unacceptable — was, in fact, a Palestinian ghetto uprising against the chokehold of Zionist rule. It is wrong to assume that the people of Palestine are fighting their occupiers due to some inbuilt hatred of Jews; the fact is that Jews had been living in the holy land for centuries with Muslims.

The Palestinians resist because since the Nakba, they have watched their land devoured by foreign settlers, their children slaughtered, their men and women humiliated. Plans such as the two-state solution have failed as there has been no real desire on the Israeli side to create a viable Palestinian state. Tel Aviv has always sought to maintain its colonial rule over the Palestinians, while giving them minimal powers and moth-eaten territory. Gaza is already burning; the West Bank may explode in rebellion next if the settlement plan goes ahead. Little can be expected of the international community, which has shamefully watched mass murder and starvation unfold in Gaza. Mr Smotrich said that his sinister scheme has the backing of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. This is the crux of the problem, as Israel’s crimes cannot be stopped as long as Tel Aviv has America’s blessings to wreak havoc.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025