The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2023-24 places Pakistan in the ‘low’ human development category with a Human Development Index value of 0.540 and a global ranking of 164 out of 193 countries. In the previous edition of the report, Pakistan’s HDI value had been 0.544 with a ranking of 161 out of 191 countries. According to Samuel Rizk, the UNDP’s resident representative in Pakistan, there has been a notable 33% decline in inequality-adjusted HDI, bringing its score to 0.360. In the Gender Inequality Index, Pakistan’s rank remains the same at 135 out of 166 countries. The Multidimensional Poverty Index score stays unchanged at 0.198, indicating persistent challenges. These numbers are shocking and people should be asking the government to fix the system in order to improve the ratings.
Interestingly, one of the areas of action outlined by the UNDP report is “fostering digital global public goods for fair technology access.” Yet, X has been blocked in Pakistan since February 17. Over a month later, no one knows why it has been blocked. One can speculate, but the real issue is that the government is not even ready to acknowledge that X has been blocked. Last week, the federal information minister, Ataullah Tarar, denied that X has been blocked, saying that people were regularly posting on it. Everyone, including Tarar, knows that people are using VPN to post on X. Now, even some VPNs are being targeted. Amnesty International and over two dozen civil society organisations signed a joint statement calling for the immediate restoration of X. Amnesty International added that the reported throttling of VPNs further impedes people’s access to information and infringes on their right to privacy. While the UNDP is asking governments to give people fair access to technology, people in Pakistan are being denied access to a social media platform without even an acknowledgement from the government of the same. Instead, every official
is pretending as if everything is normal.
On another note, we celebrated International Women’s Day in March. But do we celebrate women in reality or just pay lip service to them on March 8 every year? We say we want more women in leadership roles and decision-making positions but when this happens, our reaction is not what one would expect. We have the first woman chief minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz. She is also the first female chief minister of any province in the country. However, the way she is criticised and the hate that she gets is far from comprehensible. In an interview in 2019, Nawaz had said: “My party is historically, traditionally and intrinsically male-dominated… I have had to sacrifice a lot to prove my mettle, I had to work harder than an average man... I have had to struggle in my party to make space for myself.” In the same interview, she spoke about women in the public eye facing harsher criticism than their male counterparts and being condemned for being ‘ambitious’ — the word has negative connotations for women — owing to misogyny.
As a society, we want women to break down. We do not expect to see them stand up to bullies, or be courageous, opinionated or independent — such women invite hatred in many forms. These are some of the reasons why society attacks women who stand up for themselves and do not break down. Last month, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker, Sobia Shahid, was physically assaulted with shoes, lotas and cigarette packets, among other things, by members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf when she walked around the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly floor displaying a watch, which was seen as a dig at the PTI founder, Imran Khan. Vile and abusive slogans were chanted against her by hundreds of men in the assembly and rape threats were also issued. While some PTI leaders justified the attack on her by saying that she ‘provoked’ people, others were dismissive.
These are some instances that reveal why Pakistan ranks 142 out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023. This is why I say that we celebrate women in name only. When women are in leadership roles, we just attack them.
Mehmal Sarfraz is a journalist based in Lahore; mehmal.s@gmail.com
