Greek tragedy: Pakistan mourns

Hundreds of confirmed deaths of young Pakistani men on the fishing trawler off the Greek coast made headlines on June 14. Some reports say up to almost 300 Pakistanis alone have died. Many are still unaccounted for.

Pictures of the boat show an overcrowded boat, filled, we know now, with asylum seekers and migrants from Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Pakistan. Syria is gripped in a civil war and Palestine is under a timeless, oppressive occupation and therefore young people in these places leave to save their and their children’s lives.

Egypt and Pakistan, however, have questions to ask themselves. Let’s look at Pakistan. There is no civil war, no foreign occupation and on the surface a functioning, though struggling, economy. There are democratic, governance and administrative institutions in place, which may require strengthening but, on the face of it, exist. There are laws and policies on education, employment and health, and provincial autonomy to ensure implementation.

Pakistani authorities are always sensitive to the image Pakistan portrays to the world, so we are taught to look at the positive: look at youth achievement in sports and the arts, including Oscar wins and Grammy awards. Pakistan is unlike Somalia, for example, where governance institutions are virtually non-existent after years of civil war. Or Afghanistan, that was propped up on US dollars, collapsing after Western troop withdrawal and Taliban takeover.

Why then are there hundreds of young, angry Pakistani men seeking to leave the country under life threatening conditions? Why have they lost hope in the system? Why are they willing to risk their lives and face a journey filled with hunger and disease, crammed in a boat with refugees, who flee bombs, drones and famine? If one listens to Syrian refugees, one learns that their choices are limited to either staying in their country, with a high risk of death and hunger or taking the risk of the precarious journey in the hope of surviving. They choose the most natural human instinct – that of wanting to live. It comes down to choosing life over death.

So, when there is no war or occupation and there is to an extent, a functioning society, why is the promise of reaching Western shores so great that Pakistani men are willing to take the obvious risk of dying for it? Risks that even people smugglers, greedy to make profit off people’s desperation, warned some of these young men of. Or have we got it wrong all along – that the economy nor society are functioning for the majority of people? Has the state failed young, poor Pakistanis?

Pakistan declared a day of mourning and was quick to act against the people smugglers, with pictures of those arrested circulating widely on social media. The prime minister has also directed an inquiry into the matter. But who, within the murky corridors of power, the ruling elite and all the parts that make up the state, will ask the difficult questions that underpin this whole disaster?

Who will identify and translate into policy the need to address structural inequality in a country that seems to have created, through economic policies and social norms, an invisible demarcation of two Pakistans – one that many reading this piece inhabit, and the other, which the majority of Pakistanis live in. The demarcation means we either cannot, or choose not to, empathize with and see the have nots. Or perhaps we can see them, but don’t want to and hence neither envision nor implement policies or legislation to address the inequality gap; and we can hear them but choose not to listen, and as a result have no comprehension of the needs of youth citizens.

As a result, there are young, unemployed, poor and desperate men who make up the majority in the country, ignored and marginalised. Angry men who have lost hope because they see no future for themselves or their families. Violent men that lynch and kill, in mobs, alleged wrongdoers. And destructive men that beat and murder wives and, in the process, destroy their own families.

Who will admit that economic policies are not inclusive? Let’s be clear: the need to wait for the IMF programme to kick-start the economy is not an economic policy. It is a cop out and only benefits a certain segment of society. There seems to be no ability, nor political will, to take the country off the IMF loan cycle. Primary and higher education policies, both in terms of curriculum and retention are not robust enough and youth policies are not in touch with the current needs of young Pakistanis. And this is not to mention the fact that all these programmes and policies are severely underfunded too.

The term ‘elite capture’ has never been more accurate than today to describe Pakistan. Successive governments, and all others that have held power, are busy with political infighting and it seems the closest thing we see to democracy in action. Social media is awash with the same debates as we see on TV channels. Amongst all the cacophony, there seems little room for actual democracy – that of real representation and improving the lives of citizens.

This form of democracy, the actual purpose of it, is completely overlooked. There is little emphasis, and in the media little appetite, on the betterment of people’s lives, giving them a voice and the chance to improve their future, addressing gaps in economic policy, in educational attainment and in skills based and employment opportunities. There is little desire to learn from best practices within the region, where evidence of success is visible. There is also no discussion in federal or provincial parliaments on the embarrassingly low budgetary allocation towards youth, education and health policies.

Arresting people smugglers is not the solution to avoid such tragedies. Because what drives these criminals to stay in business is the demand from young people in despair, who have lost all hope in the system they currently find themselves in and choose, if we can call it a choice, to place themselves in dangerous situations to improve their lives.

Do Pakistani officials comprehend that there were no other South Asian nationals on this fishing trawler? Pakistanis were the only nationality from South Asia on this particular journey, dying – literally – to leave the country. Driving this point home to policymakers should be taken as both a criticism and a point of reflection; a moment where perhaps the status quo requires questioning and the underlying and structural socio-economic isolation of ordinary, young Pakistanis needs immediate re-assessment. If these are not addressed, we should inevitably wait for more headlines like this one.

Like the refugees fleeing war, death and destruction, young Pakistani men are telling us, through this tragedy, that for them it is also a question of their future and their survival – life, even if the risks are overwhelmingly obvious, over hopelessness and despair.

The writer is a lawyer and consultant. She tweets @BenazirJatoi