If leaders around the world were less ignorant, perhaps we would be living in a better place. Sadly, this is not the case. In the US, which claims to be the best democracy in the world and prides itself as a highly developed country, we have a gentleman responsible for health who believes that children should not be vaccinated and attributes the US's biggest health problems to issues such as food dyes and the ingredients of other foods.
It is hardly surprising that this man was appointed by a president who, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, suggested a range of potentially harmful cures, such as bleaches, to tackle the condition, which at that time had no treatment and no means of prevention.
Similar ignorance can be found across the world. It certainly exists in our country. Apart from the opportunity for photographs taken to highlight what work they have been doing, leaders seem extraordinarily ignorant of real life and real facts. For example, it is unclear how the building of the Kalabagh Dam on the Indus River could have stopped the floods in the Punjab, which stemmed from the Ravi, the Chenab, and to some degree, the Sutlej, but not from the Indus.
The building of the Kalabagh Dam would effectively have closed off waters to Sindh. This would not have helped anyone at all. Indeed, if the construction of dams could cut off water, India would have used dams to stop water from flowing to Pakistan.
It simply cannot do so, just as Pakistan cannot build dams on the elevated areas of India from which the five rivers making up the Panjnad flow. A lack of knowledge about facts and a reluctance to explore science and scientific information, which is also readily available to many experts in Pakistan, has caused significant harm to our country.
For example, there is absolutely no reason why a plan should have been put in place to build settlements on the riverbed and banks of the Ravi, benefiting giant land developers, but hurting people who may have invested in these commercial plots, high-rises, or other structures.
It is also ignorance which prevents those attempting to draw tourists into areas such as Swat from building hotels on the banks of rivers, and thereby effectively threatening lives during the monsoon season.
It is also a known fact that the land on which parts of Karachi have been built is unsafe and could be in danger in the case of a flood or other traumatic natural event in that city. This is also true of other cities in the country. We need to do more to develop an understanding and respect for scientific knowledge.
We can do this by promoting the idea of learning in schools and in colleges so that students of all kinds are acquainted with the facts that, at the moment, this does not happen, as various historians and researchers have proved time and time again, the books taught to children include facts that are not true. Some facts, including those surrounding the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, are either disguised or barely mentioned.
The ignorance runs into other areas. People fail to see that air pollution exists not only when major cities in Punjab are blanketed in something that looks like a murky brown or grey fog, but also at other times of the year. Many do not realise that food which comes in packets, and includes snacks, dished out to children, does them no good and should ideally be avoided except in the most limited form. This is something we need to think about to create a more enlightened nation.
Some questions may stem from ignorance or a desire for self-promotion at an extraordinary level. The project of the Bhasha Dam, which was proposed for crowdfunding in 2018 and was not completed until the fund was returned to the federation in 2024, could have helped Pakistan meet its water needs. But the failure to build sufficient consensus and go about the task in a more organised manner hurt us all. There are many other matters which also cause damage.
The lack of realisation in many areas, even in urban centres, of the desperate need for children to be vaccinated against polio makes Pakistan one of the last two remaining countries in the world which still have cases of polio emerge each year. The other country is neighbouring Afghanistan. Yet even in cities like Karachi and Lahore, polio teams face resistance in attempts to vaccinate children, with parents insisting they do not want the potentially life-saving vaccine to be given. They do not appear to realise their children could be crippled as a result of this refusal. The same matter extends to other vaccines and has been aggravated since the use of a health worker to help identify the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
There are a great many other examples. Leaders say things which can only raise questions, and we sometimes see raised eyebrows from teams of reporters or experts during their briefing. Of course, there are exceptions to this and Pakistan's teams on climate change have performed well before global audiences.
We need to ensure this is also true in other matters. We need teams of experts who can conduct background research and brief leaders on what they need to say to the audience before they deliver their speeches. It is unforgivable for persons at the level of chief ministers and even prime ministers to be making rudimentary mistakes. These mistakes happen even more regularly in schools and other places. A quest needs to be made to ensure people are given proper knowledge and facts backed by the best possible evidence in all cases, so that what they know is true and not like the faked videos put out for unknown reasons so often on social media.
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyathotmail.com