DAWN Editorials - 25th August 2025

[zarnishhayat]

Gaza famine DENIALS and spin cannot alter the ugly fact that Gaza is now in the midst of a manmade famine.

The UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification panel announced this grim ‘milestone’ on Friday, confirming what many had already known, thanks to the harrowing images coming out of the besieged Palestinian territory. But Israel, which is responsible for this crime, and the US, Tel Aviv’s principal foreign backer, refuse to believe this inconvenient truth, despite the fact that there is widespread consensus on who caused the Gaza famine.

The findings say that half a million people face “catastrophic hunger” in Gaza City, while famine conditions are likely to spread to other parts of the Strip. Reacting to UN officials’ statement that the famine is the result of “systemic obstruction” by Israel, the Zionist state’s prime minister has dismissed the findings as an “outright lie”. The US State Department, meanwhile, has also cast doubts over the UN body’s findings, saying that Hamas was promoting a “false narrative” regarding mass starvation in Gaza.

Although many of their elders were murdered and starved by Nazi Germany, Israel’s current rulers seem intent on replicating the repulsive tactics of the Third Reich. After all, Gaza has been transformed into a modern concentration camp, with tens of thousands of Palestinians — including innocent children — murdered by Israeli forces in much the same fashion as Hitler’s troops butchered European Jews.

Moreover, the heart-wrenching images coming out of Gaza, particularly of starving, lifeless youngsters and babies, bear a striking resemblance to the gaunt, ghostly pictures of the victims of the Holocaust. Along with imitating Nazi tactics in the form of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and manufacturing a famine in the occupied territory by severely restricting the entry of food and water, Tel Aviv and its American supporters have also seemingly mastered the Nazis’ dark art of propaganda. Denying that there is a famine when all credible international institutions say Gaza is being purposely starved is a clear example of this.

There is little doubt that genocide and starvation in Gaza are a stain on humanity’s conscience. Many states and institutions have expressed their shock over the UN panel’s findings regarding famine. However, empty rhetoric and ‘thoughts and prayers’ will not ease the Palestinians’ plight. If the international community is serious about ending Israeli crimes in Gaza, then there must be solid action.

Until Tel Aviv declares an unconditional ceasefire and lifts the Gaza siege by allowing in food, water, fuel and medicine, all UN member states should impose a trade and weapons embargo on Israel. The Arab and Muslim states must lead the way. It cannot be business as usual with Israel as long as it starves and slaughters innocent people.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2025

Safety app THE FIA has decided to battle the menace of human smuggling with an AI-based app to reduce human sale and ease immigration. A pilot project of the freshly minted app will be launched at the Islamabad airport. The initiative is a welcome step in modernising the agency. In developed countries, AI tools are considered revolutionary in the context of deterrence as they are crucial to the identification of victims and traffickers, exploitative online content, detecting signs of trafficking as well as helping law enforcement prioritise cases according to risk assessment. For Pakistan, the danger of excessive reliance on the mechanism runs high due to limited training, poor documentation, malpractices, lack of educated police officers and more. A more prudent route to take would be using it to streamline due process through efficient investigation and speedy prosecution. This technology, however, can uncover the secret patterns of trafficking mafias.

Shorter queues cannot alleviate the root causes pushing people out of their homeland. The first goal should be to improve lives. Unemployment, illiteracy, poverty, negligible opportunities and crime force people to risk their lives for greener pastures. Among the primary drivers of illegal migration, aside from uncertainty and dispossession, is the absence of faith in those tasked with keeping them safe. The FIA, for instance, is bound by law to crack down on perpetrators and guard potential victims in human trade hubs. Unfortunately, it often finds itself mired in allegations of collusion. Such accusations, and the fact that human smuggling is a transnational business of immense magnitude and money, often lead to claims that the illegal practice has the patronage of influential quarters and the authorities’ sanction in return for handsome commissions. Corruption in law enforcement hinders progress. What worsens matters is that most countries where human smuggling rings flourish are cursed with the same dilemma.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2025

Citizen defenders DISASTER struck again, this time in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Ghizer Valley. A glacial lake outburst flood devastated villages and farmland, destroying homes, schools and bridges. Over 300 households were affected, but thanks to the quick thinking of a shepherd, Wasiyat Khan, who raised the alarm in time, lives were saved. His heroic intervention, along with the efforts of local volunteers, ensured residents could evacuate before the waters came crashing down. This story also lays bare a sad truth: time and again, it is ordinary citizens — not the state — who shoulder the burden of rescue and survival. Earlier this month, residents of Danyor, GB, paid with their lives while attempting to restore a water pipeline that the government had repeatedly promised to fix. In Karachi too, during the recent heavy rains, stranded citizens had to rely on one another while official rescue efforts appeared woefully absent. In Ghizer, even as the army was called in for helicopter rescues, villagers had already completed the task themselves, proving how communities are forced into self-reliance in moments of peril.

Should citizens, then, lose faith in the state’s ability to protect them? It is a dangerous question, but one the government cannot afford to ignore. Communities in climate-vulnerable regions are showing remarkable resilience, but it is unconscionable that they are left to fend for themselves against forces of nature that grow more destructive by the year. Nowhere is this clearer than in the increasing frequency of GLOFs, which triggered by rapid glacier melt and rising temperatures, are occurring with alarming regularity across GB. Without effective early-warning systems, disaster-resilient infrastructure and pre-planned evacuation mechanisms, each burst becomes a roll of the dice with people’s lives. The state must prioritise investment in real-time monitoring of glaciers, community-based rescue training, reinforced roads and bridges and reliable water and power systems that can withstand floods. These are not luxuries but necessities in a climate-stressed Pakistan. The costs of such preparedness may be high, but the costs of inaction are far greater and already visible. Heroism should not be the only shield citizens have against tragedy. Pakistan cannot continue to outsource disaster management to shepherds, volunteers and grieving families. The state must honour its duty: to protect its citizens through foresight, investment and action. Anything less is abandonment.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2025