A SHARP decline in the mind of Pakistanis caused by a failure to find rational and efficient answers to the multidimensional crisis of the state is becoming evident with the passage of each day.

The zeal and vehemence with which the government has campaigned for the revival of military courts were worthy of a nobler cause. It is difficult to recall the government having pursued any public cause with such fervour. Issues such as poverty, hunger and disease have not received even a fraction of the attention given to the creation of a parallel system of justice.

At the same time, many learned persons have been piling up arguments to prove what should have been accepted as a self-evident truth — military courts offer no answer to the difficulties the state has been facing in its efforts to counter terrorism. The whole debate has underscored the Pakistani politicians’ inability to dispose of matters with as little effort as possible.

Earlier, the ballyhoo over the success in holding the PSL in Lahore had betrayed a serious loss of equilibrium. It was good that the match was held in Pakistan, that a large number of people were able to watch a game of cricket at the Qaddafi Stadium, and that the security staff had enhanced their reputation for efficiency. But there was no need to play down the embarrassment caused by the spot-fixing scandal nor for claiming that the event had defeated all attempts by the country’s enemies to isolate it or that the path to economic progress had been cleared.

Issues such as poverty have not received even a fraction of the attention given to the revival of military courts.

Then for many days the people were treated to a bizarre battle of words between Imran Khan’s detractors and his loyalists over his assault on the foreign players who had participated in the PSL, as if this were the most important issue in the crisis-torn country.

While the former cricket captain was perhaps careless in his choice of words, his comment was not entirely invalid. There is no doubt that many a retired or discarded player has found PSL-like events to be money-making ventures.

Besides, tournaments such as IPL and PSL have thrown up a new breed of mercenary sportsmen who owe their loyalty neither to a team nor to any country; they play for themselves. They do provide entertainment to a large number of people, and that means a lot for communities deprived of joy by terrorism, but it is doubtful if they contribute to any refinement of the game.

These points, however, did not figure in the controversy. Instead, the principal issue in contention was the demand of patriotism.

Now civil society organisations are calling upon leaders of political parties to solicit their support for the early passage of the bill aimed at the creation of a national commission for the protection of the rights of children. This is a child-majority country where child labour is still quite widespread, girls are still sold in marriage by their parents, or given in marriage to men old enough to be their grandfathers to settle disputes, and teenaged maids are tortured by their heartless employers. There can be no two opinions on the urgency of establishing a national watchdog organisation and the need to persuade political parties to back the idea.

However, civil society has good reason to fear that the relevant bill that took a long time to get through the National Assembly may be delayed in the Senate. Our politicians are not known for appreciating the rights of children. Many of them still believe the demand for the abolition of child labour is a Western conspiracy to undermine the national economy and create hardships for the poor widows who depend wholly on their small children’s earnings. The tactics used to block the bill for the abolition of corporal punishment are no secret.

At one of its meetings, the Senate Standing Committee dealing with the bill observed that while it supported the noble idea behind the proposed measure it could not ignore parents’ traditional rights over their children. Who knows what objections the traditional defenders of parents’ rights will raise to the bill on the commission on child rights.

Civil society organisations are hopeful that the government, that has been promising UN bodies the creation of a child rights commission for quite a few years, does realise the need to redeem its pledge before the forthcoming Universal Periodic Review (due in October). These organisations had better conserve their energies for the effort they might be expected to make after the bill becomes the law, in order to ensure that its implementation is not obstructed in the way that the National Commission on the Status of Women and the National Commission on Human Rights were.

The latest issue of public concern seems to be the abuse of the social media. Some immature and irresponsible persons have provided the censorship-loving authority a justification for curtailing cyberspace. They have also made defence of the right to freedom of expression difficult. While the authorities may succeed in suppressing dissent they might be playing into the hands of extremists who have decided to silence the upholders of people’s rights by concocting charges of blasphemy against them.

The campaign against Asma Jahangir is so vicious and virulent that the threat not only to her liberty but directly to her life cannot be dismissed. In one of the messages that the faithful have been requested to disseminate as widely as possible — and the instructions have indeed been followed — she has been painted as the most incorrigible sinner since 30 years.

Considering the government’s poor record in dealing firmly with anyone who drapes himself in holy robes, one seriously doubts its capacity to check the exploitation of common citizens’ religious sentiments to gain political advantage. But unless the menace of intolerance and witch-hunts is effectively curbed there is danger of unofficial courts of inquisition springing up.

The poverty of the mind is most manifest in the manner in which critical matters are kept out of debate. One hears little about how sustainable development goals are to be achieved, for instance. The reasons for celebrating Pakistan Day — the adoption of the Lahore resolution and the coming into force of the first indigenous constitution — have been denuded of their meanings because of the rulers’ indulgence in their whims and fads.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2017