Warm wishes for all our readers of HSM CSS Times. We are proudly presenting You with a new Monthly e-Magazine named HSM CSS Times Magazine. This magazine is being made available to aspirants of all forms of competitive examinations. The content developed is wholly in an exam-oriented fashion – Keeping ‘You’ Ahead of ‘Them’. We at HSM CSS Times,...
U.S Coronavirus relief package contains $25 million for gender, democracy programs in Pakistan The US Congress on Tuesday approved USD 25 million civilian aid package for Pakistan to strengthen democracy and promote women's rights in the South Asian country President Trump has urged the United States Congress to amend a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill,...
At 40.32%, Abbottabad’s COVID-19 positivity rate highest in the country On Tuesday, The National Command and Operation Centre notified that the highest positivity rate of COVID-19 cases in the country has been recorded in Abbottabad. According to a statement from the NCOC, Abbottabad's COVID-19 positivity rate currently stands at 40.32%. (NCOC) Pakistan’s Current Account Surplus...
Boosting trade: Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad train to commence operation next year The ITI framework was launched in 2009 and exists as a project under the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). The decision has been taken during the 10th edition of the ECO Transport and Communications Ministers Meeting which was held in Istanbul. (Business Recorder) Restructuring Plan: PIA to...
U.S. can play a "critical role" in India-Pakistan dispute: The United States is perhaps the only country which can persuade India to stop its subversive activities in Pakistan, says the country’s envoy as a US scholar sees merit in Islamabad’s claim that India is supporting separatists in Balochistan. (The Christian Science Monitor) Sindh first province...
Heavily in Debt Pakistan’s foreign debt and liabilities have been increasing rapidly over the last several years. The government is forced to borrow heavily from external sources — including multilateral and bilateral creditors, and commercial lenders — in order to meet its foreign debt repayment obligations, as well as to finance its budget, development and...
UNGA adopts Pakistan’s resolution reaffirming peoples’ right to self-determination: As per details, the resolution was adopted by consensus which was co-sponsored by 71 countries. It calls on countries to immediately cease their foreign military intervention in and occupation of foreign countries and territories, as well as acts of repression, discrimination and maltreatment.(Business Recorder) Pakistani-American Ali...
Provincial Autonomy THE government’s decision to “devise a mechanism to hold provinces accountable” for how they spend money they receive as their share from the federal tax pool under the NFC award is at best illogical and at worst lacks a constitutional basis. It will also be seen as an attempt by the centre to...
United States has provided $128 million in debt relief to Pakistan in 2020: Under the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, the U.S. provided $128 million in debt relief to Pakistan in 2020. Through efforts like this, the U.S. and Pakistan are working together to redirect critical resources to the COVID19 pandemic response. (U.S. Embassy Islamabad)...
Biden’s Victory
MORE than a month after a historic election yielded a change for the United States, the electoral college vote count is in. With this, Joe Biden has officially been affirmed as the winner of the 2020 presidential race after comfortably crossing the threshold of 270 electoral college votes. While this official confirmation of a Biden presidency gave members of the Republican party an opportunity to congratulate the incoming president, there are some — and foremost among them President Donald Trump — who are still in a deep state of denial. From the moment a Biden victory started looking possible, Mr Trump and his supporters threw every toy out of the proverbial pram to halt the vote count with the hope of changing the result. From legal challenges to incessant tweets, Mr Trump has dedicated a remarkable amount of energy and time to creating an ‘alternative reality’ for the consumption of his support base. Chaos has been the ruling theme of Mr Trump’s efforts to discredit the election and the fact that he lost. Mr Trump has still not conceded, as is customary for runners-up in American politics, and the days ahead will see the Republican Party digging its heels in on the electoral fraud claims. On Wednesday, a Wisconsin Republican senator held a hearing to probe the 2020 election by inviting two Trump campaign lawyers who tried to overturn the election results in Nevada and Wisconsin.
While there is little doubt that this voter fraud allegation is nothing but a fishing expedition, it can have serious consequences. Mr Trump will have to accept the truth eventually, but the period before he leaves the White House has seen him promote damaging election conspiracy theories that have largely been debunked. That a US president is disseminating falsehoods is troubling. Fortunately, the incoming president responded to Mr Trump by reiterating his conciliatory message from the early days of his projected victory. “I will be a president for all Americans. I will work just as hard for those of you who didn’t vote for me as I will for those who did.” He also reminded Mr Trump that in America, “politicians don’t take power — the people grant it to them”, and repeated his firm belief in an indestructible democracy. The days ahead promise to be challenging for Mr Biden, who not only has the gargantuan task of running the American government but also carrying an unprecedented burden of a trust deficit among millions of Republican voters.
Unknown Facts about US President-Elect Joe Biden
- He is the second Catholic president in US history. The first was John F Kennedy.
- At 29, Biden was one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate.
- In December 1972, Biden’s wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Amy were killed in a road accident.
- Joe Biden wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act.
Chemical Castration
Chemical castration is no remedy for curbing sexual violence, any more than is public hanging, which an enraged citizenry has been increasingly demanding as punishment for rapists. The procedure does, however, give the impression of being proactive. It could silence those who believe the government is not doing enough to tackle a crime that seems to have assumed alarming proportions.
On Tuesday, President Arif Alvi signed off on the Anti-Rape Ordinance, 2020, that allows for chemical castration of those convicted of rape. Contrary to the earlier draft however, the perpetrator’s consent will not be required for the procedure to be carried out; rather it will be at the discretion of the judge to impose the punishment for a period ranging from six months to life.
This is not to say that the legislation has no redeeming features. For instance, it mandates the setting up of special courts for speedy trials of rape cases, which would spare victims the distress caused by long-drawn-out legal proceedings; and making their identification a punishable offence may encourage more victims to come forward. The ordinance also stipulates that anti-rape crisis cells will ensure medico-legal examination of victims within six hours, which would improve the chances of putting together a prosecutable case. However, the ordinance falls short in several significant respects.
For one, the punishment of chemical castration is impractical in Pakistan’s context and raises serious ethical concerns. Secondly, it demonstrates a lack of understanding about the crime of rape. While studies show that chemical castration can drastically cut recidivism rates, it is no quick fix. The treatment must be continuous to remain effective. Is our criminal justice system so efficient that it can keep track of these individuals and bring them in for their injections at regular intervals? If they are to be imprisoned and also subjected to chemical castration, the latter course is redundant. It compounds the fact that chemical castration is a cruel and unusual punishment. Adopting this path puts us on the wrong side of international law that holds that invasive medical treatments require explicit consent of the individual.
Moreover, rape is a crime of power; to reduce it to a crime of lust disregards the social context with which it is inextricably linked. Pakistan’s patriarchal culture denies women agency over their bodies while outmoded notions cast them as repositories of family ‘honour’. That, coupled with a culture of machismo, means women are always potential ‘prey’. Rape is an instrument with which to demonstrate power, to retaliate against another man, or simply, to put a woman ‘in her place’. Children of course, are the most vulnerable in this hierarchy of power. What is needed is better criminal investigation resulting in higher certainty of punishment, and a sea change in social attitudes. That is the longer but far more certain route to reducing sexual crimes.
Facts
- The ordinance prohibits revealing the identity of victims and making it a punishable offense. A record will be prepared at the national level with the help of National Database and Registration Authority to register the perpetrators of sexual abuse.
- The Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Ordinance, 2020 and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 introduce the concept of chemical castration mainly as a “form of rehabilitation”.
- “The two state of the art pieces of legislation are in line with the Constitutional guarantees of Pakistan, as also the International treaties.”
- Pakistan ranks 130th on the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index and 151st, or third-last, on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index.