Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021
Hello, friends.
A new report in the US has claimed that Pakistan is not a free country anymore.
It is no more a completely free country. It is "partly free".
What does this report mean?
Is it the truth or an international conspiracy to ruin Pakistan's image?
Let's delve into it.
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
After hearing this, you might be wondering about the Freedom of Pakistan in 1947
how is it that Pakistan is not free anymore?
A country, friends, any country is made of its citizens.
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| citizens. |
Only when the people living in a country are free, the country is termed to be "free".
The freedom that Pakistan got from the British is technically termed "sovereignty".
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
It means that only Pakistan can govern Pakistan.
No foreign government is ruling Pakistan.
But we are not talking about Sovereignty here.
We're talking about Freedom.
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
Freedom is not a black and white concept.
It's not that you either have freedom or don't.
It needs to be evaluated continuously
on the values of constitutional liberty and equality
and the extent of the practical application of these on the citizens of the country.
Do citizens have real freedom in every aspect of life?
Many organizations all over the world evaluate this freedom based on various indicators.
One such organization is the US-based NGO Freedom House
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
that published this recent report.
I'll tell you about the background of this NGO first.
Freedom House was set up in New York in 1941
by influential American leaders from different fields.
Journalism, Politics, Business.
The initial purpose of setting up this NGO was
to increase the role of the USA in WWII
and to fight against Fascism.
The first Honorary Co-Chairs of this NGO were both very famous.
The Republican Presidential candidate who lost the 1940 US Presidential Election
Wendell Willkie.
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| Wendell Willkie. |
And the then First Lady of the US, Mrs. Roosevelt.
Wife of President Roosevelt.
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| Mrs. Roosevelt. |
She was also the first chairperson of the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Under her chairmanship,
the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was drafted.
Initially, Freedom House worked for two main causes in the USA.
First, fighting for racial equality.
The 'Blacks' and 'Whites' did not have equal rights in the US during the 1940s.
The second struggle was against McCarthyism.
Nowadays, in our country, students
and even farmers
are termed anti-nationals and urban Naxals.
You'd be surprised that in the 1940s and 1950s
US Senator McCarthy was doing the same in the US.
Terming the people in his opposition as communist elements,
traitors, and sympathizers of the Soviet Union.
Many people were arrested then simply on the suspicion of being communist.
Where it was later revealed that they had nothing to do with Communism.
This is now known as McCarthyism.
Freedom House leads the struggle against this form of fear-mongering.
In 1973 they started publishing their report 'Freedom in the World'
which assesses the countries all around the globe based on Freedom
and gives a score.
The 2021 Freedom in the World report graded Pakistan as Partly Free.
The question, then, arises based on the judgment of this report.
Let's see the methodology of this report.
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
Every country in this report is scored out of 100.
Similar to a school exam.
There are two subjects in this exam.
First, Political Rights for 40 marks and
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| Political Rights |
second, Civil Liberties of 60 marks.
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| Civil Liberties |
The Political Rights part deals with Democracy.
To what extent is the democracy "Of the People and By the People"?
Are the people free to launch their political parties and contest elections?
Is the Government conducting free and fair elections?
Or is it paying the media or other politicians to suppress the opposition?
Is there transparency in the functioning of the Government?
Are the elections conducted in a free and fair manner?
The Civil Liberties part assesses the freedom of expression and belief;
Are the trade unions, NGOs, and other organizations fully free to function?
Is the Judiciary of the country independent?
Do the people have personal autonomy in matters like
marriage, education, employment, property, and business.
A total of 25 such questions are asked each of 4 marks.
So a total of 25 x 4, 100 marks.
If this is a school exam every country takes,
who conducts the exam and who assesses the papers?
If we look at the funding of this NGO, 86% of it is from the US Government.
However, this specific report was not funded by any Government.
Companies like Google funded this report according to the NGO.
The 2021 edition of this report was prepared by more than 125 analysts
and nearly 40 advisers.
Let's talk about the grades of this question paper.
It is similar to the 'pass' and 'fail' from our school.
This paper is graded on Free, Partly Free, and Not Free.
Three Grades.
Coming to the grade scored by Pakistan,
In Political Rights, Pakistan scored 15 out of 40.
In the subject of Civil Liberties, Pakistan's scored 22 out of 60 marks
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
After the publication of this report,
one argument from a specific set of people was very prevalent;
that this report is an international conspiracy to malign Pakistan's image
and we must not pay attention to any such NGOs who are trying to defame Pakistan.
You'd remember that in the fallacy article I told you that
attacking the character of the source is Ad Hominem's logical fallacy.
Oftentimes when people cannot logically answer in a debate,
they start attacking the character of the source.
Similarly, some people argued that Freedom House has depicted
the wrong map of Pakistan and so its report should not be heeded.
In my opinion, it is attacking the character again.
Now I don't know why they showed the wrong map of Pakistan
But one of the possible reasons might be that
it is because they assessed Pakistan Kashmir separately.
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
While Pakistan scored 37 out of 100, Pakistan Kashmir scored only 28,
They believe that part of Pakistan falls under the category of Not Free.
Fortunately, our governments did not reply that this is a conspiracy.
Instead, they published a proper statement,
refuting the claims of the NGO
and said that All is Well.
All citizens are treated equally as per the constitution.
Human Rights are protected.
Central Government has issued an advisory for the safety of the journalists.
The International NGOs were stopped only according to the law.
The internet shutdowns and sedition cases were enforced to preserve law and order.
These were the main arguments in the reply by the Government.
This exam was topped by Sweden, Finland, and Norway,
which scored 100 out of 100.
New Zealand scored 99out of 100.
And Canada 98 out of 100.
The citizens of these countries have full freedom on all these criteria.
When compared with the neighbors of Pakistan,
Indias 67 scores. but It is no more a completely free country. It is "partly free".
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| Is Pakistan a Partly Free Country now? | Analysis by Sohail khan |2021 |
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