?Shahran Asim

I miss PTV Awards of yesteryears. See the video clip below and following it I’ll build my case on why do I miss PTV awards.

Few days ago I was switching through channels as nothing interesting was on. News channels were full of NRO discussion , same guests were giving same talks and same point scoring statements were coming from both the opposition and the government. I switched off my TV and started thinking about the days when PTV used to be the only channel and the quality of the shows was superb – even in the days of Martial law. Now that we have so much more freedom our TV has somehow lost the touch. As I started recalling the days, one PTV awards ceremony which was held in 1985 stood out. PTV awards in 1980s were to Pakistanis what Oscars are to US viewers.

Adil Najam

We at ATP like books. Over the last many months we have featured and discussed a number of books that relate to Pakistan in various ways.

I must confess that I had always hoped that we would talk more about books than we have. I hope we will be able to do so in the future. As a step towards that goal, we would like to invite our readers to share with us your suggestions of books on Pakistan that are worth reading.

Adil Najam

The murder of 12-year old child Shazia, working as a housemaid in the house of one Chaudhry Naeem (a former president of the Lahore Bar Association) has been widely reported and strongly condemned by all (including Chief Minister Punjab and the President of Pakistan). It is, indeed, something that we must all condemn.

But it is also something that should shame all of us. I certainly stand shamed today.

Certainly, the brutality of this murder and the inhumanity of the treatment that this child had reportedly received is NOT something common. The circumstances here were “cruel” as well as “unusual.” However, the mistreatment of domestic help, including little children and the elderly is not at all unusual; even if the cruelty is.

What happened here is indeed an aberration, but the circumstances that led to it – i.e., children working as domestic servants, the mistreatment of domestic help, and the total lack of rights for such help – is not just common but sanctioned by all of us. In some cases directly; in others by consent through silence and by toleration. No one in Pakistan can claim to be ‘surprised’ by the fact that domestic help, especially the most vulnerable amongst them, are subjected to mistreatment. In this case the abuse was physical and ultimately fatal. In other cases – maybe too many – it is sexual. Often it is verbal. But even if those cases it can be demeaning and destructive to the humanity of those being abused.

This incident deserves condemnation. But it also deserves introspection.