EDITORIAL: The binding United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution under Article 25 of the UN Charter has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas during Ramazan leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire with 14 members voting in favour and one (United States) abstention. The next day, however, the US State Department spokesperson maintained that the resolution was non-binding – a statement that is inaccurate with respect to the UN Charter but which certainly reflected on ground realities as Israeli armed forces claimed their jets struck more than 60 targets in Gaza on Tuesday with the Gaza health ministry claiming 70 fatalities.
Be that as it may, the US abstention is viewed as reflective of the US political leadership’s growing exasperation at Israeli intransigence for not taking any measures to minimise civilian deaths and sustained refusal to allow food into the territory. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an initiative of more than a dozen UN agencies, regional bodies and aid groups, has assessed the number of people facing catastrophic hunger at 1.1 million (at the beginning of 2023, the population of the impoverished coastal enclave surpassed 2.3 million people).
Sceptics, however, maintain that with elections scheduled later this year the US abstention at the UNSC could well be to cater to domestic voters increasingly critical of the administration’s continued supply of sophisticated weapons to Israel. For the first time the Israeli narrative of self-defence no longer has any traction as horrendous pictures of the use of overwhelming force by the Israeli armed forces are being uploaded on the social media by the hapless Palestinians.
While acknowledging that the world over, including Pakistan, social media spreads fake news, carries out destructive campaigns against individuals/institutions and maligns without giving the accused the option of a defence or response, yet this is a genie that is out of the bottle now; and nations considerably more advanced in technology than we are have yet to come up with a technology that can put this genie back into the bottle. Banning a social media outlet will not quell the flow of venom against individuals/institutions as even the banning of X, formerly twitter, has prompted several members of the administration to use a VPN (virtual private network) to bypass the ban. While virulent verbal attacks have been hurled at major stakeholders in the country yet pervasive surveillance or a complete ban of any social media network has not succeeded as the number and maliciousness of the attacks has not abated.
This should be a source of serious concern to all stakeholders as the country is grappling with multifarious issues, ranging from a pervasive economic impasse to an uptick in terrorist attacks. That the need for learning some valuable lessons from past mishandling of issues cannot be overemphasised is a fact. There is overwhelming evidence that any attempt to privatise any company, especially one where powerful unions operate, invariably lands in court. A few months ago, the then caretaker government declared public energy sector companies as essential services, prohibiting strike action. It could be an attempt aimed at squashing union resistance to their proposed privatisation. In response, the affected unions of companies have requested International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) intervention for alleged violation of trade union rights and while the outcome of this remains unclear yet the stakeholders must ensure that the process of privatisation be fully transparent with little prospect of litigation as happened with Pakistan Steel Mills. People Unity of PIA employees submitted a petition last month in the Sindh High Court against the proposed privatisation. And the recent decisions in the cases of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as well as Justice Shaukat Siddiqui show that however delayed justice may have been it was nonetheless rendered.
Social media has rendered any attempt to squash resistance or debate on any issue redundant and, even more disturbingly, raised the prospect of it actually backfiring as the result of the recent elections clearly reveal. Muzzling mainstream media has not succeeded for the simple reason that it is now taking a back seat to information on social media. One would therefore argue that it would be far more productive to harness social media than to muzzle it or take punitive measures against its users many of whom are not even resident in this country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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