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DAWN EDITORIAL: 01 March 2025
THE bombing of Darul Uloom Haqqania in KP’s Nowshera district on Friday marks a departure from the recent trend of militants targeting mostly security personnel and government officials.
A number of victims lost their lives in the tragedy, including Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, head of the institution, who appeared to be the religious heir of his murdered father, Maulana Samiul Haq. The latter, along with his involvement in Pakistani politics, was known as the ‘Father of the Taliban’; he had earned the moniker because numerous high-ranking Afghan Taliban leaders had attended his madressah. Media reports have quoted police officials as saying that it was a suicide blast, and that Hamid Haqqani was the apparent target.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack, the Afghan Taliban have insinuated that the self-styled Islamic Statemay be involved. An Afghan interior ministry official, while condemning the attack, pinned the blame on “enemies of religion”, an apparent reference to IS. Those familiar with the militancy dynamics of the region also concur that there is a strong possibility that this is IS-K’s handiwork, as the latter had been openly critical of the Haqqania seminary.
There is, of course, no love lost between the Afghan Taliban and IS, but from Pakistan’s point of view, if the attack were indeed traced to IS, it would signal a fresh security challenge in KP. Already the province, as well as parts of Balochistan, are witnessing frequent terrorist activity believed to be carried out by the banned TTP and affiliated groups. IS is an equally — if not more — ferocious entity, with global pretensions and a mediaeval, sectarian outlook.
What adds further credence to the belief that IS may be involved is that the group, and those adhering to its ideological narrative, view clerics who endorse democracy in any form with disdain. The late Haqqania head, as well as his father, were active in politics, along with their religious activities.
It is also a possibility that the Haqqanis’ strong links with the Afghan Taliban could have made them prime targets for rival militants. Only a thorough probe can establish the facts, while fresh IS activity in the country should be cause for considerable concern.
Nevertheless, the attack also offers an opportunity for Islamabad and Kabul to work together against a common, and highly dangerous foe.
Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025
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Nighat Dad // DAWN: March 1, 2025
“SEXUAL harassment is not about sex. It is about power.” This opening statement in the recent Supreme Court decision in the ‘Muhammad Din vs Dr Sidra Zafar’ case, authored by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, sets the tone for a significant legal precedent on workplace harassment.
The case involved a woman doctor who had registered a harassment complaint with the ombudsperson against a driver under the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, leading to consequences for the driver. The petitioner had engaged in persistent misconduct, including verbal abuse, spreading false allegations, and unlawfully recording a medical procedure.
Despite several warnings and a transfer order, he refused to comply with the latter. Following an inquiry, which substantiated the allegations against him, the ombudsperson imposed compulsory retirement as a punishment. His appeals before the Punjab governor and the Lahore High Court were dismissed, leading to the Supreme Court petition. The apex court, too, dismissed the appeal.
The judgement does not simply set a legal precedent; it also highlights the structural challenges that women in Pakistan face routinely in professional environments. Despite the hierarchical reversal in this case, power still operates along gendered lines, reinforcing societal norms that police, subjugate, and erase women’s authority. The judgement underscores that harassment is rarely about desire; in fact, it is a mechanism of control, which has been designed to delegitimise the presence of women in traditionally male-dominated spaces, as Dr Zafar’s ordeal exemplifies.
This was not an isolated case of transgression but part of a broader cultural pattern that sanctions the surveillance and moral policing of women in authority in the country.
The petitioner’s defiance of a formal transfer order and obstruction of essential resources illustrate how even those with seemingly lower institutional power can weaponise gendered structures to resist women’s professional autonomy. The case shows how women’s authority is often perceived as negotiable, precarious, and undeserving of respect.
The judgement also references amendments to the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act in 2022. These amendments, championed by the then human rights minister Shireen Mazari in response to demands from the #MeToo movement, extended legal protections to informal sector workers, freelancers, and domestic employees. The definition of ‘workplace’ was also broadened to include educational institutions, spaces of concerts, performance venues, courts, highways, sports facilities, and gyms.
A notable case from the movement involved a victim (a celebrity in fact) whose complaint was rejected by the ombudsperson on ‘technical grounds’, stating that there was no employer-employee relationship between the complainant and the respondent. The 2022 amendments directly addressed this loophole, ensuring broader legal coverage for victims of workplace harassment.
Furthermore, the amendments recognise what feminists have argued for long — that harassment goes beyond overt sexual advances and includes acts that exert power and control, as well as gender-based discrimination that creates hostile workplaces for women. The introduction of legal clarity on hostile work environments acknowledges that character defamation, reputational sabotage, and professional isolation are insidious forms of gendered violence.
Sadly, while legal frameworks have expanded, the enforcement of laws remains weak. The judgement in question acknowledges that women who report harassment face institutional indifference, retaliatory backlash, and social ostracisation. True, the ruling in favour of Dr Zafar is a step forward, but systemic change will require a cultural shift in workplace environments that continue to tolerate, excuse, or downplay harassment.
Our justice system must also confront its past role in perpetuating gendered hierarchies. Legal procedures do not always act as avenues for redress; often they function as instruments of attrition against survivors. The fact that this case had to navigate multiple legal layers over several years underlines the scepticism towards women’s testimonies.
Many harassment cases never even see the light of day. Pakistan’s first #MeToo case, filed in 2018, remains entangled in the court system. Dr Zafar, too, had to defend her position in front of multiple judicial bodies since 2019.
For decades, women’s rights activists have called for shifting the burden of scrutiny from victims to perpetrators and the institutions that enable them. Legal redress should not be reactive; is should be proactive. It should not have to take years of litigation and perseverance for a woman to establish that she will not compromise on her professional dignity.
The ruling should not be seen as a transformative shift; if anything, it is an exception in a landscape where workplace harassment remains rampant and without consequences for the perpetrators. If we have to transition from isolated legal victories to systemic accountability, the government and its institutions will have to enforce the law — rigorously. Amendments alone cannot change workplace cultures unless independent and robust inquiry committees — free from the power dynamics that shield perpetrators — are created.
Moreover, a societal reframing of women’s leadership is needed — one that does not treat women’s authority as contingent upon male validation. Institutions must move beyond performative compliance and integrate gender-sensitive training across workplaces.
The ruling in ‘Muhammad Din vs Dr Sidra Zafar’ is both a legal milestone and a sobering reminder of the struggle against workplace harassment. It underscores the urgency of dismantling the structures that normalise, indeed facilitate, gender-based harassment in the workplace. Legal frameworks, no matter how well-intentioned, will not be effective without cultural transformation that affirms women’s right to work with dignity and without fear.
Women’s safety in professional spaces should not hinge on sporadic judicial interventions. It must be a fundamental, non-negotiable standard. Entrenched patriarchal structures that sustain workplace harassment will have to be dismantled to allow women to navigate professional spaces without the threat of personal and professional annihilation constantly dangling over them.
The question is: how many more cases like the one under discussion must emerge before society acknowledges that workplace harassment is not an anomaly but an institutionalised mechanism of control?
The writer is a lawyer and the executive director of the Digital Rights Foundation.
X: @NighatDad
Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025
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DAWN EDITORIAL: 01 March 2025
WHAT an exceptional legislature we have for these extraordinary times. At least that is the impression one gets from the one-year performance report of the 16th National Assembly compiled by Pildat, a think tank which conducts periodic analyses of legislative activities.
According to its findings, the 16th National Assembly managed to pass more laws in its first year despite convening for fewer days and hours than the preceding Assembly. In fact, the 47 laws it passed far surpassed almost all previous assemblies’ first-year output, and were almost “seven times the average number of bills passed during the first year by the four previous assemblies,” according to the Pildat president.
However, the Assembly’s increased output should not be mistaken for enhanced efficiency or improved conduct. The Pildat president regrets that “Most of the laws were hurriedly passed without any meaningful debate in the standing committees or within the full House amid strong protests […]”.
A cursory look at some of the laws is enough to bolster the impression that parliament has been acting merely as a rubber stamp for self-serving laws. For example, the 16th National Assembly enacted three amendments to the Elections Act of 2017, of which at least two are publicly perceived to have been aimed at, firstly, denying opposition candidates a fair chance at challenging their defeat in the general election, and, secondly, to prevent reserved seats from being given to the main opposition party.
Other ‘accomplishments’ included amendments to Peca, which the media fraternity, lawyers, and civil society are still protesting, as well as the decidedly anti-democratic Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, which has rendered all public meetings and political rallies in Islamabad subject to the local administration’s whims and wishes.
Then, of course, there’s the 26th Amendment, through which the judiciary has been brought to heel, and the Members of Parliament (Salaries and Allowances) (Amendment) Act, which has increased parliamentarians’ salary from Rs188,000 to Rs519,000 per month. Despite all these ‘landmark achievements’, the government is still not done improving its own lot at the country’s expense.
On the eve of the Assembly’s first anniversary, it more than doubled the size of the federal cabinet. As to why this was necessary, there is no polite answer.
Considering that the prime minister managed to achieve ‘so much’ in his first year with just 21 ministers, why did he need 24 more in his cabinet? The state must now find the resources to pay for their salaries, perks and privileges despite the dire state of the country’s finances.
It is quite disappointing that both the government and the Assembly remained completely unbothered by public perceptions in their first year. Their disdain damaged the image of parliament and reduced its standing in the eyes of the people.
Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025
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Abdul Rehman DAWN: March 1, 2025
PAKISTAN — where the sun shines nearly 3,000 hours a year — is experiencing a solar revolution like never before. With 22 GW of solar panels imported in the last 18 months, Pakistan’s energy landscape is being transformed rapidly. Yet, this unprecedented ‘solar rush’ poses a paradox: while the sun gives hope of energy independence, it also threatens to plunge the national grid into financial darkness. How can the power sector embrace this solar rush without falling into a death spiral?
For decades, Pakistanis faced power shortages and high tariffs, with electricity prices rising 155 per cent in the last three years. The national grid, unable to offer reliability or affordability, slowly pushed households, industries, and even agricultural consumers toward alternatives.
Once seen as a secondary power source, solar energy has become the primary escape route from skyrocketing bills. As a result, national grid electricity sales declined by 10pc in FY2023. In the last five years, there has been a significant change in demand within the residential sector. The percentage of consumers utilising over 400 kWh fell from 10pc in 2020 to only 1pc in 2024, whereas the share of those using less than 200 kWh increased from 57pc to 89pc during this time frame. This indicates that high-energy users are shifting from grid electricity to solar energy.
While consumers shift to solar, inefficiencies in grid operations continue to rise. Due to high solar generation in the afternoon, the demand for grid electricity remains low. However, a sudden ramp-down of solar generation in the evening prompts households to shift back to the grid, resulting in a peak in demand. The national grid operates a few power plants at partial load to accommodate this sudden surge, leading to high Part Load Adjustment Charges. The Central Power Purchasing Agency paid Rs1.89 billion in November 2024 due to PLAC, with annual costs escalating from Rs18.7bn in FY20 to Rs55.7bn in FY24. This trend highlights the inefficiency of operating thermal plants at part load due to declining grid demand, further straining the financial viability of the Discos.
The sector must explore opportunities for optimisation to save Discos from this ‘death spiral’, in which declining demand leads to higher tariffs and further consumer attrition.
The law of supply and demand states: if the supply of a product increases, prices tend to decrease. However, Nepra, the power regulator, follows a slab-wise tariff system in which the cost of electricity increases in tandem with its consumption.
This is problematic, especially considering excessive generation capacity, which sits idle most of the year. Under slab-wise tariff, high-consumption users are shifting to solar power, further reducing Discos’ revenue. One possible solution to retain consumers and increase sales could be to transition from slab-based to Time-of-Use (TOU) tariff for all consumers while providing relief to protected consumers by targeted subsidies.
Another option would be introducing schemes such as the ‘winter demand initiative’, which offers incremental electricity consumption at a marginal price of Rs26.07/kWh. Historically, similar initiatives have successfully stimulated demand growth. For instance, the ‘use more, pay less’ package, implemented from Nov 19 to Feb 20, led to a cumulative growth of 16pc. In December 2024, the first month of the winter programme, industrial electricity demand saw a 7pc rise.
To mitigate PLAC, it is essential to improve demand forecasting and smooth fluctuations. A possible solution is revising TOU tariff, implementing daytime schemes with peak-shaving strategies to reduce in-efficiencies.
The same applies to consumers of well-per-forming Discos. Consumers of efficient Discos are penalised, and loss-makers are rewarded. In 2023, four Discos paid Rs125 mil-lion in surcharges to cover losses from the inefficiencies in other Discos. The nationwide uniform tariff should be abolished, and a cost-reflective tariff should be implemented to enhance efficiency and foster competition between Discos.
The power sector can no longer treat strategic reforms as optional — they have become crucial for survival. The way forward demands swift action: restructuring tariffs to win back consumers to the grid, establishing competitive rates for industry, and dismantling the uniform tariff policy to reward efficiency.
Finally, the solution lies in the operationalisation of the Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market. Under CTBCM, bulk consumers can negotiate bilateral contracts with power producers. CTBCM would foster competition, attract private sector investment, and accelerate renewable energy integration, leading to reductions in electricity prices and overall sector improvement.
The writer is an energy expert working at the think tank Renewables First.
Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025
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Israel-Hamas war
DAWN: 01 March 2025
JERUSALEM: The first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas will end on Saturday without any certainty over the planned second phase, which is hoped to bring a more permanent end to the Gaza conflict.
The first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire agreement, which began on Jan 19, stipulated a pause in fighting and the release of 33 Israeli prisoners in exchange for approximately 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Analysts say that phase is likely to be extended because it is the preferred scenario for Israel, which has the upper hand in the conflict’s aftermath.
What will happen on March 1?
“One thing we can expect is that phase two won’t start tomorrow, but I think the ceasefire probably won’t collapse also,” Max Rodenbeck, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, said on Friday.
Egypt, which along with Qatar and the United States has been mediating peace efforts in Gaza, will host a new round of talks with the hopes of determining the future of the ceasefire. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday dispatched a delegation to Cairo, “to take forward negotiations to get our hostages home”, government spokesman David Mencer said.
“The preferred Israeli scenario is to free more hostages under an extension of the ceasefire’s first phase, rather than a second phase”, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.
Of the 251 prisoners taken during Hamas’s Oct 7 raid, 58 prisoners remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Amit Segal, an Israeli commentator close to Netanyahu in an interview this week said it was likely Israel would favour “prolonging the deal for yet another week”.
Hamas has on several occasions reiterated its “readiness to engage in negotiations for its second phase”.
On Friday, the group said it was not willing to extend the first phase. A senior Hamas official said that the Palestinian group was prepared to release all remaining prisoners.
Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025
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DAWN EDITORIAL: 01 March 2025
FREQUENT news stories about bone-chilling murders show that the face of crime is changing — there is a marked rise in gory, sociopathic methods to kill. Mustafa Amir’s brutal murder should be seen as a flashpoint for Karachi’s concerns about crime. According to the police, the 23-year-old was kidnapped and killed at a house in DHA allegedly by prime suspects, Armaghan Qureshi and Sheraz Bukhari; his body was set alight in Balochistan’s Hub area. A reminder of the Noor Mukadam, Sara Inam and Shahzeb Khan murders, the incident has stoked mass outrage and, as per police claims, blown the cover off an influential narcotics ring with international connections. Indeed, the tragedy presents a multidimensional test for the authorities. Beyond ensuring a robust investigation and prosecution built on solid evidence, and impartial legal proceedings, they must also be able to convey a political commitment towards crushing drugs and violence.
Modern crime is complicated, and often turns lethal when perpetrated in a drug-induced haze. Although the city police chief has formed a special investigation team to look into ‘criminal activities’ and network of those involved in this murder, it is more than clear and crucial that significant steps to thwart the trade of illegal substances have been absent for too long. Our youth cannot go up in smoke. And to prevent such a fate, the authorities need to expand their drug crackdown beyond DHA’s rarefied boundaries to cut off supply channels in the city and weed out enablers within law enforcement. The drastic escalation in the use of smuggled synthetic narcotics, particularly ice, which triggers psychotic episodes, has been reported for a while. In 2023, the Sindh Task Force on Demand Reduction of Drugs and Harmful Substance Control revealed that drug abuse afflicted every fourth household in Karachi. Pakistan’s youth and its potential cannot be consumed by the curse of heady hit jobs.
Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025
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