Express Tribune Editorials 26th Feb 2025

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Deadly strings

Despite a province-wide ban on kite flying, Punjab's skies continue to turn into death traps, with the latest victim being a four-year-old girl in Rawalpindi who suffered serious wounds from a stray kite string while riding a motorcycle with her father. Unfortunately, kite flying continues unabated, especially in garrison cities, revealing serious lapses in enforcement and public compliance.

The problem is not the absence of laws but the absence of consistent enforcement. The Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying (Amendment) Act, 2024, was meant to put an end to this hazard, imposing heavy penalties - up to seven years in prison and multi-million-rupee fines for violators, including manufacturers and suppliers. But the reality on the ground tells a different story. The law is being flouted with impunity, and the authorities' sporadic crackdowns are little more than cosmetic exercises. Kites still dot the skyline, and the sharp strings that have already killed and injured many remain a looming threat over Punjab's streets. Authorities must take a more aggressive stance. Authorities must adopt a zero-tolerance policy and ensure strict enforcement of the ban. Routine inspections in high-risk areas, coupled with continuous crackdowns on illegal kite production and sales, are essential to curbing this menace. Furthermore, imposing severe penalties - including substantial fines and legal consequences for repeat offenders - will serve as a strong deterrent.

Strict monitoring should also be implemented at the manufacturing and supply level to cut off the availability of hazardous materials used in kite strings. Additionally, law enforcement agencies should conduct periodic surprise inspections, collaborate with local communities to report violations. Without decisive and sustained action, the cycle of preventable tragedies will continue, putting countless lives at risk. The injury suffered by little Manahil should not be dismissed as an unfortunate accident.


Ballot box representation

Barely a quarter of all directly elected members of the National Assembly won more than 50% of the total votes cast in their constituencies, raising new questions about the mandates of our parliamentarians. Without delving into any rigging allegations, the data not only reflects the deep political divisions in society, but the unrepresentative nature of our current first-past-the-post (FPTP) election system, where a politician can, in theory, win with even less than 10% of the vote. Should such a victory constitute a legitimate mandate?


Data from Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) underscores the need to take a long hard look at major election reforms to ensure that the winning candidate is at least generally popular in their own constituency. One change suggested in several FPTP systems is a runoff system, where low vote-getters are eliminated and fresh polls held until somebody reaches a certain threshold, usually 50% of the vote. However, runoffs can be prohibitively expensive as they can require several stages of polling. This makes ranked choice voting - which lets people vote for several candidates while attaching a weightage to each name - more doable. This leads to an instant runoff, ensuring that the winner has at least some support from an outright majority of voters. It can also ensure that a generally unlikeable candidate with a strong base cannot win a split-vote election, and makes 'seat adjustment' between parties unnecessary.

Some countries also have proportional representation, where votes are cast for parties, not candidates, and seats are allocated based on parties' own priority lists. But while this leads to strong governments, it opens the door for undemocratic parties to take regressive measures, making it a hard pass for Pakistan, where most major political parties lack internal democracy, and some have authoritarian leadership.

Whatever the solution to better elections, it certainly is not FPTP in its current form.


Deadly strings

Despite a province-wide ban on kite flying, Punjab's skies continue to turn into death traps, with the latest victim being a four-year-old girl in Rawalpindi who suffered serious wounds from a stray kite string while riding a motorcycle with her father. Unfortunately, kite flying continues unabated, especially in garrison cities, revealing serious lapses in enforcement and public compliance.

The problem is not the absence of laws but the absence of consistent enforcement. The Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying (Amendment) Act, 2024, was meant to put an end to this hazard, imposing heavy penalties - up to seven years in prison and multi-million-rupee fines for violators, including manufacturers and suppliers. But the reality on the ground tells a different story. The law is being flouted with impunity, and the authorities' sporadic crackdowns are little more than cosmetic exercises. Kites still dot the skyline, and the sharp strings that have already killed and injured many remain a looming threat over Punjab's streets. Authorities must take a more aggressive stance. Authorities must adopt a zero-tolerance policy and ensure strict enforcement of the ban. Routine inspections in high-risk areas, coupled with continuous crackdowns on illegal kite production and sales, are essential to curbing this menace. Furthermore, imposing severe penalties - including substantial fines and legal consequences for repeat offenders - will serve as a strong deterrent.

Strict monitoring should also be implemented at the manufacturing and supply level to cut off the availability of hazardous materials used in kite strings. Additionally, law enforcement agencies should conduct periodic surprise inspections, collaborate with local communities to report violations. Without decisive and sustained action, the cycle of preventable tragedies will continue, putting countless lives at risk. The injury suffered by little Manahil should not be dismissed as an unfortunate accident