by Zubeida Mustafa
HATS off to all special children and their parents. I hold them in great admiration, the first for their patience in facing their challenges uncomplainingly, and the second for giving unconditional love and care to their special offspring, seeking absolutely nothing in return.
Continue reading Special childrenBy Zubeida Mustafa
THE deluge in Pakistan has devastated Sindh, Balochistan and parts of Punjab. The accounts that have been pouring in are overwhelming. It is beyond my imagination to even visualise the magnitude of the tragedy.
Continue reading Flood aftermathBy Zubeida Mustafa
WE live in a bizarre country. That is the most appropriate term I find to describe Pakistan. It has some laws and official practices that are not only irrational, but actually absurd when seen in the context of their implementation. They cannot be explained and no sane-minded person would justify them. The elites are the beneficiaries and so they are pro-status quo.
Continue reading Money maniaBy Zubeida Mustafa
AS Pakistan goes through turbulent times on the political and economic fronts, women sink deeper and deeper into poverty. No one seems to care, least of all those leaders who are responsible for the public chaos, the economic uncertainty and insecurity they have created by their casual stance on serious issues.
Continue reading Women in povertyBy Zubeida Mustafa
I AM puzzled by the role/non-role assigned to Nadra in times of Covid-19. At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, the National Command Operation Centre was set up and linked to Nadra to record all Covid-related data. This helped the authorities plan ‘smart lockdowns’ strategically according to the prevalence of cases in various localities.
By Zuneida Mustafa
WITH new Covid cases in Pakistan having fallen to below 1,000 per day, some semblance of normality seems to be returning. But the normality appears to be a bit surreal because of the masks and the required social distancing. These are not always observed.
Continue reading Living with CovidBy Zubeida Mustafa
THE world could not have been more unequal in contemporary history than what it is today. It has always been unequal but the present trend set in when the Cold War ended with the fall of the USSR giving neoliberal forces a free rein. With the countervailing force of the socialist bloc withdrawn and respectability granted to elitism and the exercise of unabashed corporate power, inequality became rampant. Not that inequities did not exist before. But today, inequality and its discontents are unparalleled.
Continue reading Unequal and illBy Zubeida Mustafa
WHEN schools in many parts of the world have resumed education in varying degrees, why are our schools still shuttered? The irony is that this is the fate of institutions that cater to the needs of the poor who are already deprived. I feel the matter has not been given serious thought. Even in pre-Covid times public-sector education in Pakistan was rotting. Now it is about to hit rock-bottom.
Continue reading To open or not?By Zubeida Mustafa
GRATITUDE. Pride. Appreciation. These three words sum up the sentiments of the patients I talked to on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Donor’s Clinic at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT).
Abida Zahid had given a gift of life to her younger sister four years ago when her sibling had end-stage renal failure. Farman Raza was another donor who gifted a kidney to his brother in 2012 when he fell critically ill.
Continue reading Gift for donorsBy Zubeida Mustafa
THE underlying cause of what is currently termed as ‘confusion’ in our political discourse is a deficit of trust. Simply put, it is the paranoia that has subsumed people from all walks of life, causing them to distrust others. Can you blame them when they have been deceived so often?
Take the case of the pandemic. On June 19, a very eminent infectious diseases specialist, Dr Naseem Salahuddin, wrote an excellent article in this paper explaining the pandemic, the emergence of the novel coronavirus, Covid-19 and the need for a lockdown. According to her, we have already crossed the Rubicon. She attributes the failure to win the full cooperation of the masses on SOPs to “poverty, illiteracy and dense populations” as well as “ingrained habits”. Hence she appeals for specialists to be given the opportunity to explain what the pandemic really is.
Continue reading To trust or not