Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Retired judges’ activism
Pakistan’s superior judiciary, since 1955, led by CJ Munir has a tarnished history, invoking Doctrine of Necessity, suppressing constitutional freedoms, regularizing supra constitutional takeovers, even involved in a controversial judicial miscarriage of justice, which has been dubbed internationally as a judicial murder of an elected PM, and authorising a military ruler to amend the constitution. The SCP, HC etc. itself has no power to amend the constitution or rewrite it, except its interpretation, and adjudicate based on laws.
There have been few exceptions like Justice Cornelius, Rustam Kayani etc, yet by and large citizens of Pakistan are disappointed. As Muslims it is our belief that it was by Divine right that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was Sadiq and Ameen, yet this clause inserted into constitution by a controversial military ruler, was reinvigorated to favour an individual and please establishment. Judges must speak through judgments based on laws, and not on populism and name calling of individuals elected by people of Pakistan.
This is their sole constitutional role. Nobody should be above the law, not even elected politicians, or for that matter, those within the paid establishment for transgressions of law and violations of constitution. There is hardly any suo motu notice taken by our judiciary in the recent past, solely in public interest, to protect law-abiding citizens who invested their lifelong savings in various Real Estate projects launched by powerful Land Mafia of this country.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been duped by this mafia, and forcible occupation of land belonging to poor farmers or state and forestlands. Even these grave illegalities and irregularities were regularized. Judges must never be seen as beneficiaries of irregularities, such as allotment of multiple plots, because of clear conflicts of interest, nor involved in populist ventures such as Dam Fund collection.
ALI MALIK TARIQ
Lahore
Retired bank employees
Courts decide cases of retired employee’s pensions and as a result Peshawar High Court on 22 January 2015 decided in favour of Allied Bank retired employees. On 17 January 2020, the Supreme Court of Pakistan rejected the appeal filed by ABL and upheld the decision of the Peshawar High Court.
In February 2018, the Chief Justice of Pakistan decided to pay a minimum pension of Rs. 8000/- yet till today, the bank administration is not implementing the decision and is bothering retired senior employees of the bank and their families by unnecessarily delaying court decision. Currently, pensioners across Pakistan are suffering from extreme problems due to record-breaking inflation and rapid increase in prices of life saving medicines.
No government has done practically anything to solve problems of pensioners. While pensioners live only on this limited pension. In such a tense situation, senior citizens and senior pensioners should appeal to whom? Whose door should they knock? Where should one go when decisions of higher courts are not implemented? There is dire need for High Courts of the country to take suo motu and implement them. Various pensioners individually or collectively have filed cases in the courts for their legitimate rights which have been pending for a long time. It is strongly request that, the rights of the elderly, citizens, injustice and this abuse should be redressed immediately.
JAVED ULLAH RAJA
Islamabad
China’s rapid progress in AI
The prevailing century witnesses unprecedented changes in international politics in the sphere of economy and security. Artificial Intelligence AI is quite a distinctive innovation of the 21st century which will alter the complexion of international politics. AI is believed to have been integrated into our lives exponentially. From computer screens to highways, self-driving or autonomous vehicles have emerged as an interesting application of AI.
The tech tycoon Elon Musk says that “AI is a fundamental risk for human civilization“. Presently, there is competition among developed states where the US and China are on top. Both states utilize the apologetic or the zero-sum game of hurting each other as well as violating each other’s sovereignty. Therefore, both superpowers are trying to retain their influence on AI programs.
The Chinese governmental plan issued in 2017 is aimed at developing next-generation AI and according to the report, this will enable China as a leading country in AI innovation by 2030. According to the report by Harvard Business Review China has made rapid progress to catch up to the top position.
From the research perspective, China has become the world’s top country in AI publications and patents. However, the US and Europe are trying to compete with China. For the US it is riskier how to maintain their persuasion on AI development than diplomatic strategies. China in the field of AI competition is surpassing the US and its allies. AI by 2030 is likely to contribute 15 trillion dollars to the world’s economy and China alone will contribute 7 trillion dollars.
China produces more engineering students than the US which is contributing massively to the growth of AI. Being an International Relations IR student, I can forecast that whoever dominates the AI sector will dominate the world. In the near future, there will be fierce competition between the US and China in AI.
ROSHAN KHAN BARRECH
Queeta
Box letter
Importance of education
Education is the basic right of every human being. If we go through history of developed nations, we find that they used education as their basic tool for achieving prosperity. Unfortunately, there are many flaws in our education system. There are many reasons behind that. Firstly, poverty is the basic reason for poor literacy rate in our country. Most of the people are living below poverty line, so they cannot afford basic needs of life. Low educational budget and corruption are also contributing factors and so is gender discrimination that is common reason behind our educational problems because people in rural areas do not like to send their girls to schools. Worldly and religious education is necessary for development and prosperity of our country. So every government must realise this important responsibility and should dedicatedly eliminate problems hampering the attractive slogan, ‘education for all’.
ALVIA ABDULLAH
Karachi
