By: Ramesh Raja

Human history has always been shaped by the tools people create to make their lives easier. But sometimes a new technology does much more than improve production. It changes society itself. The Industrial Revolution was one such moment. Artificial intelligence may be another. Between these two revolutions lies a story of factories, workers, wealth, inequality, trade unions, political revolutions, welfare states, globalization and now intelligent machines. At the heart of that story is an old question that has never really disappeared: who controls the means of production, and who benefits from the wealth they create?

From the Factory Floor to Class Struggle

When the Industrial Revolution began transforming Europe, production moved from small workshops and homes into large factories. Machines dramatically increased productivity, but they also changed the life of the ordinary worker. A person who had once possessed a craft and some control over his work increasingly became a wage-dependent factory worker. The factory owner owned the building, machinery and capital; the worker owned little more than his ability to work. Long hours, low wages, unsafe workplaces and widespread child labor became painful features of early industrial capitalism.

It was this new social reality that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels tried to understand. They saw capitalism not merely as an economic system but as a relationship between people who owned capital and people who had to sell their labor. Their concept of class struggle gave a name to a conflict that was becoming increasingly visible: the interests of capital and labor were often different, particularly over wages, working hours, working conditions and the distribution of wealth.

Yet history did not follow one single path. The Paris Commune of 1871 briefly demonstrated the possibility of workers exercising political power, while the Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the idea of proletarian revolution into a governing project. The Chinese Revolution of 1949 later adapted Marxism to a largely agricultural society. These revolutions showed that the question of economic ownership could become much larger than the factory itself. It could become a question about who should control the state and the direction of society.

Workers Organize and Capitalism Changes

But revolution was not the only response to industrial inequality. Workers discovered another powerful instrument: organization. Trade unions brought individual workers together and gave them a collective voice. Over time, struggles that once seemed impossible helped establish the eight-hour working day, collective bargaining, workplace safety, social insurance and other labor protections.

Capitalism itself also changed. Governments gradually understood that an economy could not remain stable if large sections of society lived in insecurity. The welfare state emerged, providing education, healthcare, pensions and social protection. In countries such as the Nordic states, social democracy combined private enterprise and markets with strong welfare systems. Germany developed its social market model, while many other countries adopted mixed economies in which private businesses operated alongside state enterprises, public infrastructure and government regulation.

The great ideological battle of the 20th century was therefore not simply capitalism versus socialism. Different societies experimented with different balances between markets, state ownership, taxation, welfare and regulation. Even countries that remained strongly capitalist accepted that workers needed protection and that economic growth had to provide wider social benefits.

Globalization Changes the Worker Again

Then came globalization. Capital became increasingly mobile. Companies could design products in one country, manufacture components in another, assemble them somewhere else and sell them across the world. Technology made this possible, while cheaper labor and global supply chains reshaped entire industries.

The factory did not disappear, but its meaning changed. Automation began taking over repetitive physical tasks. Computers entered offices and transformed clerical work. The modern worker increasingly depended not only on the factory owner but also on corporations, software, digital platforms and global markets.

This created a new kind of economic power. Ownership was no longer concentrated only in factories, mines and machines. It increasingly rested in finance, technology, intellectual property, networks and information.

From Machines to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence takes this transformation one step further because it does not only replace physical effort. It can perform tasks that once appeared uniquely human: analyzing information, generating text and images, writing software, translating languages, recognizing patterns and assisting in complex decisions.

The means of production are therefore changing again. Data, algorithms, semiconductor chips, cloud infrastructure, data centers and AI models are becoming economic assets of enormous importance. A company with access to vast amounts of data and computing power may possess an advantage comparable, in the digital age, to the factory owner of the Industrial Revolution.

This brings us to a remarkably simple question. During Marx’s time, people asked: Who owns the factory? Today, we increasingly have to ask: Who owns the data, algorithms, AI systems and computing power that will produce the wealth of the future?

The New Battle between Capital and Labor

The danger is not that every human worker will suddenly be replaced by a machine. The more immediate transformation may be that many jobs will be redesigned. Some tasks will disappear, others will become more productive, and entirely new occupations will emerge. The worker who knows how to use AI may become considerably more valuable than the worker who refuses or is unable to adapt.

But there is another side to the story. If the ownership of AI becomes concentrated in a relatively small number of corporations and investors, the productivity gains created by intelligent machines could also become highly concentrated. A machine that replaces ten workers does not automatically mean that society becomes poorer. It could mean society becomes enormously richer. The real question is who receives that additional wealth.

This is where the old debate between capital and labor returns in a new form. The central conflict may no longer be simply between the factory owner and the factory worker. It may increasingly be between those who own technological capital and those whose labor is being transformed by it.

The answer will depend on choices made by governments, businesses and societies. Education will have to change. Workers will need opportunities to continuously learn new skills. Labor laws will have to respond to platform work, automation and AI. Tax systems may need to evolve as the sources of wealth change. Most importantly, the enormous productivity created by AI will have to be connected with broader human prosperity.

The Industrial Revolution gave humanity machines that multiplied physical power. The AI Revolution is giving machines a growing capacity to perform intellectual work. The first revolution changed the factory. The second may change the very meaning of work.

The battle between capital and labor is therefore not over. It has simply moved to a new battlefield. Yesterday, the struggle was over the factory. Today, it is increasingly about technology. Tomorrow, it may be about who controls intelligence itself.

And perhaps the most important economic question of the 21st century will be neither capitalism nor socialism, but something much more fundamental: when machines produce an increasing share of society’s wealth, how will that wealth be shared among human beings?

Read: New Proletariat in the Age of AI

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The author of this article, Engr. Ramesh Raja, is a Civil Engineer, visionary planner, PMP certified and literary enthusiast with a passion for art and recreation. He can be reached at engineer.raja@gmail.com  

The post Changing Battle between Capital and Labor first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Ali K. Lashari

District autonomy, a revived civil service, and the transformation of local assets into regional economic opportunities are the key to a successful outcome.

Governments, institutions, and political parties all seem to be at odds amid Pakistan’s current political turmoil. Everywhere you look, people are talking about elections, coalitions, constitutional conflicts, and political confrontation.

But there’s a more fundamental issue at play here: The Pakistani state is overly bureaucratic, cuts out the middlemen, and fails to deliver on its promises to the people.

The question of who should have ultimate authority remains open. Why is there so little real power accessible at the bottom? That may be a more pressing concern.

Another convoluted political experiment is not always necessary to solve Pakistan’s problem. Because of this, we need to reconsider the role of the state.

Empowering the districts, professionalizing and adequately compensating the public sector, and building local industries around local resources are three changes that might serve as a practical foundation.

Reduce the Federal Government to a District Level

Pakistanis have long discussed the possibility of establishing additional federal entities and provinces. There is a more expedited change that can bring the government closer to the people without necessitating a total reorganization of the federation, while these discussions may have their own constitutional and political virtues.

Make the districts stronger

Dividing provinces into more manageable districts is a good idea when the population, topography, and administrative needs support it. However, just making virtual districts is insufficient.

To be able to make decisions on its own development, a district needs legitimate administrative power, sufficient funding, and the ability to establish itself.

Planning and implementation of a wide range of services—including healthcare, education, agriculture, municipal services, local infrastructure, and economic development—should be carried out as near to citizens as is practically feasible.

You can see the reasoning behind it

Decreased direct responsibility is a natural consequence of decision-makers’ increasing distance from the public. It becomes more difficult to disregard local issues when the decision-maker is physically close.

Administrative restructuring should not be the only definition of decentralization. Responsibility, resources, and accountability should all be transferred simultaneously.

An officer in charge of a district should be able to take charge when things go wrong and own up when things don’t work.

For the average citizen, this is how the state manifests itself.

Reforming the Civil Service via Penalties Alone Is Ineffective

The second issue, the state of Pakistan’s public service, is just as critical.

Officers of the state are expected to decide matters pertaining to public treasury, property, development initiatives, taxes, regulations, and basic services. Public employees under a lot of pressure, have a lot of duties, and are expected to perform to a high level; nevertheless, their pay does not always reflect this.

Embezzlement of funds is not justified by this.

Cronyism, misuse of power, or embezzlement of public funds are never acceptable justifications for a salary.

Institutional incentives are important, but we must grasp this if we are to construct a professional state.

Considerations such as salary, opportunities for advancement, working conditions, respect from peers, and job security are only natural when a bright young professional weighs the pros and cons of a career in the public sector vs the private sector.

Read: Governance Crisis in Pakistan — Causes, Consequences, and the Way Forward

When top talent leaves the public sector due to a lack of professional opportunities, the state suffers.

Consequently, Pakistan’s public sector remuneration system requires a thorough evaluation.

Government workers ought to get competitive pay that is tied to their level of responsibility and how well they perform. Suitable benefits, including healthcare, training, and career paths, should be available to them.

Yet an analogous principle is required:

Accountability must increase in tandem with salary.

An officer’s level of honesty and productivity should be significantly higher if they are well paid for their work.

A professional bargain should be established by the state:

Your professional dignity will be respected, and we will offer you a career path in addition to reasonable compensation. In exchange, we anticipate honesty, proficiency, and quantifiable results.

The public sector can reclaim its former glory in this way.

These days, the public has a tendency to equate the term “government employee” with corruption, incompetence, and delays.

That view needs to shift.

Any well-qualified public servant deserves the utmost respect from their peers.

Refrain from Shipping Raw Materials Out of Low-Income Areas

Economic issues are addressed by the third reform.

The districts of Pakistan are a treasure trove of human, cultural, agricultural, mineral, and environmental capital. However, the communities that provide these resources often see little to no economic benefit from them.

Think about the fundamental economic chain.

An agricultural good is made in a certain area. For further processing, packaging, and marketing, the raw material is sent to a different location. Much of the better employment opportunities and higher-value economic activity takes place in other parts of the world.

Mineral resources and building supplies are not an exception to this rule.

This model has to be revised.

The resource’s location should serve as the starting point for the value chain, taking into account both economic and environmental considerations.

The food processing, cold storage, packaging, and export sectors should be developed by agricultural districts.

As an alternative to being solely dependent on raw material extraction and transportation, mineral-producing districts should foster enterprises that responsibly process and add value.

There ought to be suitable local processing and manufacturing capabilities in regions abundant in building materials and stone.

Responsible heritage tourism, museums, conservation businesses, research institutes, and local hospitality economies should flourish in districts rich in cultural and archaeological artefacts.

Extra extraction is not the only goal.

Making better use of what we already have is the goal.

An Economic Plan Has to Be in Place for Every District.

All of Pakistan’s districts might benefit from an Economic Development Plan.

A basic question should be asked at the outset of every plan:

In what areas does this district excel?

The answer might lie in renewable energy, agriculture, minerals, fisheries, tourism, heritage, heritage, manufacturing, or a mix of these and other fields.

After that, you need to ask:

The economy relies on raw materials; how can we transform them into something of more value?

Following that:

To achieve that goal, what resources (financial, human, and others) will be needed?

The current method of development planning would be drastically altered by this.

Each area may compete for investment based on its own economic capabilities rather than waiting for a development plan to be crafted in the provincial capital.

An agricultural processing center could emerge in one area.

Still another could focus on minerals only.

One more could turn into a historical and touristic site.

Still another option would be to establish dairy and cattle industries.

One more might turn into a manufacturing or logistical hub.

Instead of attempting to standardize the entire country, the government would focus on strengthening each region based on its unique strengths.

Invest in Your Community by Using Local Resources

The link between local resources and development needs to be strengthened as well.

Communities should get a fair amount of the advantages when a district makes a substantial contribution to the national economy through resources such as agriculture, mining, tourism, or anything else.

Education, healthcare, water, roads, environmental protection, and skill development are just a few local concerns that could benefit from a District Resource and Development Fund that is created with care.

An effective social compact might be forged using this process as well.

When citizens witness the positive effects of responsible economic development firsthand, they are more inclined to back it.

Shifting from Hierarchy in Government to Financial Decentralization

Having too many political conversations might not be Pakistan’s biggest problem.

Maybe there isn’t enough good leadership in the areas where people actually reside.

We have centralized political and administrative authority and then pondered the question of why the general public does not feel involved with their government.

Increasing the number of government agencies is not always the solution.

The goal is to streamline and improve current institutions so that they are more efficient, effective, strong, and accountable.

A more robust district system, a more professional civil service, and economic development with roots in the community can all support one another.

Investment can be facilitated by a competent district administration.

Jobs can be created by local industries.

Work opportunities can mitigate migration.

Local markets can benefit from higher wages.

More efficient regulation of these activities can be achieved through a professional public service.

The tax base can be expanded as a result of thriving local economies.

There is no easy solution. However, this path toward systemic change is feasible.

Developing Pakistan from the Ground Up Is Necessary

Whoever controls the center is the central question in Pakistani political discourse.

We need to start with a new inquiry:

How can we equitably bring more resources, including money and power, to the people?

At that point, change can start to take place.

It is unnecessary for Pakistan to have all its decisions made in Islamabad or any of its provincial capitals.

Wherever the issues are, decisions must be made.

It is unnecessary to have a larger civil service.

A competent, well-compensated, technically savvy, and unwaveringly accountable civil service is essential.

Additionally, it is unnecessary to continue extracting raw materials.

It should make better use of the resources it currently has.

Even though the political turmoil is all anyone can talk about today, the fate of Pakistan will be decided by changes to its governance.

We can start creating a state that people can see, access, and trust if we give authority back to the districts, make public service respectable again, and turn local resources into local businesses and labour.

Pakistan’s future cannot be constructed solely by those in positions of power.

Building it from the ground up is the best approach.

Read: Rewire Your Brain, Transform Your Life

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Ali K. Lashari is an Archaeologist & Cultural Heritage Advocate 

The post The Crisis of Governance in Pakistan first appeared on Sindh Courier.

• On paper, Pakistan possesses a remarkably clear administrative history of protective employment measures. But where is the quota?
• If a 5% minority quota exists, every recruiting authority should be able to answer simple questions: How many vacancies were advertised? How many were reserved for minorities? How many minority candidates applied? How many were selected? How many reserved posts remained vacant? How many were carried forward? And how many minority employees are presently serving in each category of government employment?

By: Kalavanti Raja

Pakistan was created with the promise of a society in which citizenship, rather than religion, would determine the rights and dignity of an individual. In his historic address to the Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah spoke of religious freedom, protection of life and property, and a state in which citizens would be able to live according to their faith. The National Assembly itself continues to describe that address as laying the foundation for religious freedom, equality, tolerance and the rule of law.

Yet Pakistan’s subsequent history presents a complicated picture. While the principle of equal citizenship was proclaimed at the birth of the country, the State simultaneously recognized that some historically disadvantaged communities could not achieve genuine equality merely through a declaration of equal rights. This was the reasoning behind affirmative measures for Scheduled Castes and, decades later, for religious minorities.

Ignored 6% quota and Scheduled Castes

The roots of the Scheduled Castes classification go back to British India. Under the Government of India Act, 1935, the colonial constitutional system formally provided for identification of communities requiring special safeguards, followed by the Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1936. The underlying purpose was to identify communities that had suffered generations of social exclusion and discrimination under the caste system.

After the creation of Pakistan, the new state did not simply discard this inherited protective principle. On 19 October 1948, the Establishment Division issued O.M. No. 56/2/48-Ests.(ME), reserving 6% of vacancies in direct recruitment to the All-Pakistan Superior Services and Central Services, Classes I, II and III, for Scheduled Castes. The policy therefore became part of Pakistan’s own post-Independence administrative framework.

The decision was not merely symbolic. By 1957, the government had recognized that the reserved vacancies were not being adequately utilized because qualified candidates were often unavailable. Instead of simply abandoning the arrangement, the Establishment Division issued further instructions on 30 October 1957 requiring greater publicity of federal vacancies in areas where Scheduled Caste communities lived. This is a revealing historical fact: the government recognized that historical deprivation itself could prevent a community from benefiting from a formal quota.

The 6% reservation therefore represented an early form of affirmative action. It acknowledged that formal equality and substantive equality are not always the same thing.

There is no reliable evidence in the surviving published order to establish that the figure of 6% was calculated precisely from the population share of Scheduled Castes. It is therefore better not to repeat that claim without documentary evidence. What is clear is that the Government deliberately selected 6% as the employment reservation for Scheduled Castes in 1948. The arrangement survived for nearly five decades. Then came a decisive change.

On 24 September 1996, the Establishment Division issued O.M. No. F.4/15/94-R.II, withdrawing with immediate effect the separate Scheduled Castes quota created through the 1948 order. The official formulation was that Scheduled Caste candidates would thereafter compete alongside other candidates of their own province.

The published withdrawal order, however, does not provide a detailed explanation of why the government decided to abolish the separate quota. That omission matters. It would be historically and legally unsafe to claim a particular reason unless the underlying government record or Cabinet decision is produced.

From Scheduled Castes to minorities

The next major development came not in 1991, as is sometimes stated, but in 2009. On 20 May 2009, the Federal Cabinet decided to introduce a 5% employment quota for minorities. This was followed by Establishment Division O.M. No. 4/15/94-R-2 dated 26 May 2009, reserving 5% of posts across the Federal Government for Minorities (Non-Muslims) in direct recruitment, including CSS, in addition to their right to compete on open merit.

The 2009 notification was broader than the old Scheduled Castes arrangement. It defined minorities through Article 260(3)(b) of the Constitution, thereby covering the non-Muslim communities specified in that constitutional provision, including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Ahmadis, Bahais and Scheduled Castes.

The notification also contained an important safeguard: where qualified minority candidates were unavailable for reserved vacancies, those vacancies were to be carried forward and filled by minority candidates in future. The order was also extended to attached departments, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, corporations, public corporations and companies administratively controlled by the Federal Government.

On paper, therefore, Pakistan possesses a remarkably clear administrative history of protective employment measures. But where is the quota? This is where the real question begins. What happened to these provisions when they left the government file and entered the workplace?

The central concern is not whether Pakistan has issued notifications. It has. The concern is whether ministries, departments, public bodies and government-controlled institutions have actually maintained transparent data showing recruitment against the reserved quota.

If a 5% minority quota exists, every recruiting authority should be able to answer simple questions: How many vacancies were advertised? How many were reserved for minorities? How many minority candidates applied? How many were selected? How many reserved posts remained vacant? How many were carried forward? And how many minority employees are presently serving in each category of government employment?

These questions should not be difficult for a modern state to answer. Yet the absence of easily accessible, consolidated and department-wise data creates a serious credibility problem. A quota without transparent monitoring risks becoming a provision that exists beautifully in official notifications but weakly in actual implementation.

This issue deserves particular attention because today’s minority population includes highly educated professionals, engineers, doctors, lawyers, academics, scientists, administrators and other qualified citizens. Their problem is not necessarily the absence of talent. The more fundamental question is whether the State is providing them the fair institutional opportunity that its own policies promise.

A call to Parliament

This is therefore an issue that should rise above political party lines. The present Parliament, including minority parliamentarians and members of the relevant standing committees, should ask every Federal Government ministry, division, attached department, autonomous body, corporation and public-sector organization to produce verifiable recruitment data relating to the minority quota from 2009 to the present.

The exercise should not be limited to asking whether the quota exists. It should establish whether it has been implemented.

Every department should disclose the number of sanctioned posts, vacancies advertised, minority quota vacancies, appointments made against those vacancies, unfilled vacancies and carried-forward positions. The same information should be placed before Parliament and made publicly accessible.

Pakistan cannot simultaneously proclaim equal citizenship, create affirmative safeguards for disadvantaged citizens and then remain silent about whether those safeguards are functioning.

The history is clear: in 1948, the State recognized the need for a 6% Scheduled Castes employment reservation; in 1996, that separate quota was withdrawn; and in 2009, a 5% quota for minorities was formally introduced across Federal Government direct recruitment.

The question before Pakistan today is therefore not whether minorities have been given promises. They have. The question is whether those promises have ever been converted into measurable representation.

Read: Deepa Mehta – Voice of Courage

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Kalavanti Raja is a social and political activist from Gambat, Khairpur Mirs, with 30 years of work on women’s rights, minorities, and social justice. She has served in Sindhiyani Tahreek and participated in national and international forums across Asia, Europe, and America.. She can be reached at kalavanti.raja@gmail.com

The post Political Silence Stalls Minority Quotas first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Mohammad Ehsan Leghari

By the afternoon of 2 September, the water had receded from Raja Bazaar. The dewatering pumps went back into storage. A public holiday was declared. Official statements described “record rain” and “unprecedented” monsoon intensity, and the country waited for the next disaster to write itself.

But the rain was not the story.

On the morning of 1 September, Pakistan Meteorological Department gauges recorded 201 millimeters at Shamsabad, 191 at Chaklala, 157 at Golra, and about 150 in a short spell in Sector E-11. Serious rainfall, but nothing close to 23 July 2001, when 620 millimeters fell on Islamabad in ten hours and killed seventy-four people. This time, the sky delivered roughly one-third of that storm — and produced a Nullah Lai gauge reading at Kattarian of about seventy percent of the 2001 peak.

That ratio is the whole diagnosis. The Lai basin now produces near-record floods at moderate rainfall. Something has broken. Something has been broken.

The Nullah That Went Missing

If you want to understand why Islamabad flooded on 1 September, look at a satellite image of Sector E-11.

The natural piedmont stream that carries stormwater from D-12 and E-12 once had an unconstrained width of more than seventy feet. It was, in the most literal sense, the city’s flood insurance policy — a wide, rough, vegetated channel that could absorb whatever the Margallas sent down. Beginning around 2007, that channel was quietly renegotiated. The Pakistan Medical Cooperative Housing Society and adjacent schemes reduced it to fifteen to eighteen feet. A roadway was built over the covered section. Both banks were subdivided into plots and sold. The Capital Development Authority itself signed off on the covering.

The nullah that used to enter E-11 from D-12 was forty feet wide in 2012. By 2026 it was eighteen. A sharp bend was engineered into the reduced channel because a straighter line would have cost a row of plots.

In July 2021, when a localized storm hit these narrowed sectors, the water did what water does when denied its channel. It broke through basement walls. A mother and her child drowned. The CDA claimed it had cancelled the society’s layout plan years earlier. Property sales continued anyway. Statutory easements were not enforced.

In September 2026, the same basements filled again. The city sent teams to demolish encroaching commercial shops in the aftermath — five years too late, as one publication drily noted. The nullah was still eighteen feet wide.

This is not a story about climate change. This is a story about geometry. When you narrow a hundred-foot channel to eighteen feet, the water that used to pass through the channel appears somewhere else. That is not a meteorological event. It is arithmetic.

The Lake That Never Got Built

Constantinos Doxiadis, the Greek architect who designed Islamabad in 1959–60, understood the Potohar plateau in a way his successors have refused to. He laid the city not on a blank sheet but on top of an ecological grid — ravines, seasonal streams, low-lying detention sites, forest belts. Almost half the metropolitan area was reserved for green space or agriculture. Around each 2,100-yard sector, natural drainage was to be preserved. A forest belt was to wrap the Margallas. And in one particular low-lying reach south of the city — a place called Lohi Bher — Doxiadis proposed a lake. He picked the site because the land was already, in effect, a natural detention basin. All the city had to do was formalize what water was already doing.

The CDA never acquired the land.

Two private housing schemes now occupy the site of what should have been Islamabad’s flood-storage reservoir. When the September 2026 monsoon hit, the water that Lohi Bher was supposed to hold had nowhere to go. It flowed downstream into Rawalpindi. Every year, at every gauge reading on Nullah Lai, Rawalpindi pays the price for a lake that was never built.

Multiply that story across the basin. Doxiadis wanted a forest belt on the Margallas; parts of it now hold housing societies. He wanted the ravines within each sector preserved as drainage swales; most have been paved. He wanted Zone 4 kept as a green belt for agro-forestry and water catchment; in a series of amendments culminating in 2010, roughly two hundred square kilometers of it were opened to private housing schemes. The Doxiadis plan itself recommended a comprehensive review every twenty years. Sixty-five years on, no comprehensive revision has been completed. Instead, at least fifty-one piecemeal amendments have chipped away at the ecological grid, each one legalizing a specific development, each one taking a specific bite out of the drainage system, none of them guided by a hydrological model of the basin as a whole.

The plan was not wrong. The plan was right, and it was taken apart. The flood is what the plan looks like after the plan is dismantled.

One Basin, Two Cities

The most important physical fact about the Islamabad–Rawalpindi conurbation is that it is a single hydrological unit. The Lai Nullah basin covers about 235 square kilometers. Roughly 69 percent of the catchment lies within Islamabad and the Margalla Hills National Park. The remaining 31 percent lies within Rawalpindi and its cantonments. Six major tributaries feed the trunk stream. Rain that falls on Islamabad’s paved sectors arrives in Rawalpindi’s mohallahs within hours.

Under any land cover, this asymmetry means Rawalpindi is the receiving end. Under the current land cover, it means Rawalpindi is the sacrifice zone. A composite Flood Vulnerability Index computed for the twin cities over 2000–2023 places Rawalpindi at 0.47 and Islamabad at 0.24; nearly double. That gap has nothing to do with the rain preferring one city over the other. It has to do with the fact that Islamabad has been permitted to raise its runoff coefficient; the fraction of rainfall that becomes surface flow, from roughly 0.15–0.30 under scrub and terraced soil to 0.75–0.90 under concrete and asphalt. In plain language: a landscape that used to absorb seven out of every ten drops now sheds eight out of every ten. The extra water has to go somewhere. It goes to Gawalmandi.

And yet the institutional map does not recognize this basin. The Capital Development Authority governs the federal territory. The Rawalpindi Development Authority, WASA Rawalpindi, the Municipal Corporation, the district administration, two cantonment boards, and Punjab’s urban machinery govern the lower city. Rawal Dam is operated as an Islamabad water-supply asset; which is why activists in Rawalpindi asked pointed questions on 1 September about whether the dam’s spillways were opened in the afternoon in a way that backed water into the Soan and made Lai’s crest worse. There is no single authority with the power to refuse a housing scheme in Islamabad on the grounds that it would raise the peak stage at Kattarian. There is no basin regulator. There is no rule that binds a dam release to the receiving city’s hydrograph.

The two cities are joined by gravity. They are separated by law. Water does not read jurisdictional maps.

The Climate Change Alibi

None of this is to deny that the climate is changing. It is. Attribution science for the 2022 floods in Sindh and Balochistan found five-day rainfall roughly 75 percent more intense than it would have been without about 1.2°C of warming. Short-duration urban storms are expected to intensify further. Any serious flood policy must therefore raise design standards, restore storage, and stop building in harm’s way.

But climate change does not squeeze a hundred-foot nullah to eighteen feet. It does not dump concrete slabs on a Ghauri Town drain. It does not amend Zone 4. It does not leave Lohi Bher unacquired. It does not permit basements below the design flood elevation. It does not fail to desilt Lai between monsoons.

There is a specific rhetorical function to “unprecedented rainfall” and “climate anomaly” as the opening lines of the post-disaster press briefing. The framing converts a foreseeable outcome of institutional decisions into an unforeseeable event beyond decision. It absolves the approving authority, the elected representative, and the developer alike. It sets the terms of every follow-up conversation so that questions about pumping capacity and check dams crowd out questions about layout approvals and nullah covers. It is not incompetent. It is efficient. It works.

Consider what a 1990–2024 remote-sensing study of Islamabad actually found. Continued built-up expansion at recent rates is projected to drive a 41 percent increase in high-risk flood zones by 2030; larger than the 35 percent increase attributable to climate-intensified precipitation. In the twin-city basin, land-use change is a bigger driver of future flood risk than climate change. That fact will not appear in any post-monsoon press briefing. It cuts too close.

The Powerful Do Not Get Wet

The most quietly corrosive feature of Pakistani floodplain governance is not the absence of law. It is the class-differential application of law. Enforcement against katchi abadis and small traders is swift. Enforcement against housing societies, commercial plazas, cantonments and public-sector compounds is slow, contested, and often abandoned.

Two cases capture the pattern. On the shores of Rawal Lake; a protected reservoir within Zone 3, the Pakistan Navy constructed a commercial sailing club without building permits, environmental clearances, or CDA land allotments. In 2020 and 2022, the Islamabad High Court declared the construction illegal and ruled that armed forces entities have no constitutional mandate for real-estate ventures. Demolition was ordered. In September 2026, an IHC division bench set aside the demolition order on procedural grounds. Meanwhile, extensive commercial restaurants like the Monal, La Montana, Gloria Jean’s, operated for years atop Pir Sohawa ridge, inside the Margalla Hills National Park, under contested CDA leases and military land claims. It took a 2024 Supreme Court judgement under Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, invoking Article 9’s right to life and a healthy environment, to shut them down.

Both cases involved public-sector actors. Both required years of litigation. Both would have been closed in a week if an informal settlement had built the same structures on the same land.

A senior Rawalpindi official told a national newspaper in 2026 that action against encroachments had been “difficult because of political pressure.” That sentence is the planning system in miniature. Of approximately 250 housing schemes in Islamabad, only 53 have approved layout plans, and only 28 hold formal No Objection Certificates. Approved schemes represent 6.8 percent of the federal territory. The remaining 93 percent operates in varying degrees of non-compliance, unapproved expansion, and master plan violation. The Auditor General has said as much. Nothing changes.

Flood resilience requires the opposite of what this system produces. It requires enforcement that binds the powerful more tightly than the powerless, not less. A resilience policy that cannot say no to a well-connected society cannot protect a working-class mohallah on Lai.

The Water Pockets We Build

Not every flood is caused by an encroached nullah. Some are caused by the roads themselves.

Modern arterial highways in the twin cities — Srinagar Highway, Islamabad Expressway, I.J.P. Road, Murree Road — are frequently built on raised embankments that run perpendicular to the natural slope. They act as linear dams. Transverse culverts are often engineered for two- to five-year storms rather than fifty- or hundred-year events, and are frequently misaligned with the natural routes of Potohar streams. When rain arrives, the water cannot pass through. It piles up on the upstream side of the road. Adjacent neighbourhoods flood. Underpasses become linear reservoirs. Committee Chowk drowns. Stretches of Murree Road disappear under two feet of water. And on at least one reported occasion, water was diverted into adjoining drains to keep Old Airport Road passable for VVIP movement. Development-induced flooding, with a protocol.

Add to this Rawalpindi’s sewerage geometry, in which roughly 35–40 percent of the city has proper sewerage and the rest uses the storm drains as an open sewer. When the monsoon comes, the same undersized, garbage-choked channels must carry both sewage and stormwater. What enters homes is not rainwater. It is contaminated floodwater. Add uncovered manholes — still counted in the hundreds — and you have a landscape in which three feet of standing water can hide a two-metre vertical drop. People do not only lose their belongings. They lose their lives to infrastructure that was designed for someone else’s city.

What Must Change

The technical answers have been on file since the 2003–04 JICA study commissioned after the 2001 disaster. They were restated by the UN-Habitat/NDMA Multi-Hazard Vulnerability and Risk Assessment in 2025. They appear in academic papers, in newspaper editorials, in Supreme Court judgements, and in every Institute of Architects statement. There is no shortage of knowledge. There is a shortage of will.

Five instruments, adopted in sequence, would change the trajectory.

First, constitute a single Lai–Soan Basin Authority with statutory power over CDA, RDA, WASA, cantonments, and dam operators for all matters of stormwater, floodplain, and dam-release timing. One basin, one veto. No approval anywhere in the basin without hydrological sign-off from the basin authority.

Second, complete within twelve months a binding basin hydrological survey — current channel cross-sections, two-dimensional inundation maps for the 100-year storm on 2040 land cover, property-scale hazard overlays — and make the model a public legal instrument. No layout plan, road widening, or underpass is approvable unless the model shows no increase in downstream peak or duration of inundation. Design for the 100-year event, not the 25-year event.

Third, restore rights-of-way. Reconstruct the E-11 and D-12 feeders to the width required by the 100-year hydrograph. Remove slabs on Ghauri Town’s drains. Freeze Lai’s banks by legal notification. Compensation where title is lawful. No delay where title is not.

Fourth, treat green cover as flood infrastructure, not decoration. Statutory canopy and permeable-surface ratios for every sector and society. Ban conversion of notified greens and depressions. Acquire what remains of natural detention sites. Require on-site storage from every new development.

Fifth, rewrite the story that gets told after every monsoon. Official statements should lead with which waterway was blocked, which approval was given, which society remains unregularized, and which design storm the drains were built for — not with a rainfall total offered as an alibi. Publish a standing basin flood-risk register updated after every event. Make the file readable by every citizen who has ever waded home through their own street.

Planning as the Test of the State

Islamabad was sold to the world as a planned city of the future. Rawalpindi was the older city that would be sheltered by that planning. Sixty-five years later, the planned city floods its own sectors because it permitted the destruction of the ecological grid on which the plan stood, and it floods the unplanned city below because water still obeys gravity.

The September 2026 event did not reveal a new problem. It measured, in millimeters and in feet on a gauge, how far land-use practice has travelled from land-use promise. Every one of the pathologies this piece has walked through — the covered nullah, the unacquired lake site, the amended zone, the underpass without an outlet, the sewer masquerading as a stormwater drain, the housing society that cannot be enforced against — was licensed by a decision, taken by a named institution, under a rule that could have refused it.

None of these were inflicted on the twin cities by weather. All of these were installed by planning. The rain, in the strict sense, is not the flood. Planning is the flood. Rain is what reveals it.

The wager of every serious flood policy from here forward should be that Pakistan already knows what to do, has known since 2001, and has refused. What is required is not new knowledge. It is the political authority to apply the knowledge that already exists — and to apply it, for once, against the powerful as well as the poor.

Whether that authority can be constituted before the next monsoon is the question this country’s cities are asking, in two to five feet of standing water, once a year, every year, on schedule.

The rain has been patient. It will not be patient forever.

Read: Motherland Sindh Cannot Be Divided

___________________

The author is Member (Water), Planning and Development Board, Sindh. He draws on the Doxiadis Master Plan documents, the JICA Comprehensive Flood Mitigation Plan (2003–04), the UN-Habitat/NDMA Multi-Hazard Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (2025), multi-decadal land-use change analyses of the twin cities, Islamabad High Court and Supreme Court judgements on Rawal Lake and Margalla Hills encroachments, and contemporaneous reporting on the 1–2 September 2026 event by Dawn, The News, Express Tribune, Geo, and Arab News.

The post Planning, Not Rain, Drowned the Twin Cities first appeared on Sindh Courier.

A cage flung open on a scrap of page.

Dildora Khojyozova

Dildora Khojyozova, born in 2005 in the Khorezm Region, Uzbekistan, is a geography student at the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at Urgench State University. Actively engaged in both academic research and literary writing, her works focus on the ecosystems of the lower Amudarya basin and ecotourism development, alongside poetry and essays published in international literary journals and platforms.

Echoes of the Cage

In my hands it lingers like a final breath,

A cage flung open on a scrap of page.

Has the world grown this suffocating narrow,

Leaving no room left to learn the trade of breath?

I search for myself in unfamiliar eyes,

Drifting lost among the tracks left behind.

Could a single drop of words born from the heart

Wash away the dust from forgotten faces?

This boundless sky no longer fits my chest,

All my suspicions linger without an answer.

Every street sinks deep into a heavy silence,

While only the restless shadows stay awake all night.

The stars shed their secret tears in the dark,

And the roads of truth feel endlessly steep.

To whom can I even pour out this pain at last,

Now that my words have turned to destiny?

The final candle of memory flickers low,

Leaving a silent sob at the bottom of the soul.

I search for you everywhere, yet find you nowhere—

Just how eternal is this parting after all?   

***

Inner Echo

​Tell the winds to gather my words,

Let them leave the sand-hidden footsteps in peace.

Every night is a page torn from a life,

Who else could untie the knot in my heart?

​The sky is quiet, the stars wide awake,

While I still cannot quite reach myself.

Someone leaves without a single backward glance,

Someone stays, holding a thousand questions.

​Only paper remains in black ink,

Only the night knows the pain in the soul.

The world hurries, everyone on their own path,

And I am still searching for that steadfast soul…

_________________ 

Read: Love – A Poem from Uzbekistan

The post Poem: Echoes of the Cage first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Tasneem Hossain | Bangladesh

‘Your greatness is not what you have, it’s what you give.’

Most of us have given in one way or another: either by helping a friend, giving donations, spending time volunteering, or helping someone in some way. Giving back is an act of kindness which evokes a feeling of satisfaction which cannot be compared with any other feeling.

‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others’- Gandhi

When we help others who need it, it’s charity given with the full intention to help with generosity. It’s love, love of humanity.

When you see a child starving on the streets, a beggar with sunken eyes lying on the streets-how do you feel? I believe we all feel compassion for them. But how much do we do to help them?

Do you know around 3 billion people of earth’s population live in poverty which consists of nearly one billion children?  About 22,000 of these children die each day. Hunger is one of the leading causes of death among the poor.

The governments may not always be fully equipped to help the needy. So charity organizations are set up to provide resources to help the neediest and the most vulnerable. Kind and generous people often help people in society by donating to these organizations.

These donations play a crucial role in benefitting those living in extreme poverty and most vulnerable with the basic necessities like food, shelter and clothing to attain a better standard of living.

Giving charity can always help. Though it’s not possible to help everyone, if each of us did our part then the world would become a better place for many.

You can also donate to Charity organizations and collectively work to provide dedicated resources to help. Your donation will help charities to work towards creating a society that benefits everyone.

When we think of charity, one name comes first in our minds: Mother Teresa.

Her charitable work truly began in 1948, when she adopted Indian citizenship and dedicated herself to the cause of helping the poorest people in the country. She opened several hospices and instituted leper houses and orphanages and even established a congregation which helped to grow into many charitable organizations around the globe. Sadly, she passed away in 1997.

She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 ‘for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace.’

Her life has been a source of inspiration for many people to this day. She is remembered as a woman of great faith and selfless devotion for charitable purposes. In fact, she left such a legacy that in 2011, the Hungarian Parliament chose to honor her death anniversary by declaring it a national holiday. In 2012, the UN General Assembly of the United Nations, in its resolution, designated 5th of September (death anniversary of Mother Teresa) as the International Day of Charity.

The International Day of Charity was established with the objective to highlight the power of charity in alleviating humanitarian crises and human suffering within and among nations; and to raise awareness and mobilize people, NGOs, and stakeholders all around the world to help others through volunteering and philanthropic activities.

Each year, both the UN and independent charities hold events to honor this special day.

You can also join hands to celebrate this day with simple acts of charity to alleviate human sufferings. Other than donating money, there are many ways to get involved like volunteering to teach children, planting trees, visiting a hospice, old home or a homeless shelter; helping in a soup kitchen, or a place in your community that serves the underprivileged; donating clothes or providing food.

Many organizations host charity events for fundraising where all or some of the proceeds are donated to a specific cause. Attend one of these events.  Create awareness about the day with your family and friends; sponsor a child living in poverty.

No matter how you choose to give charity, you’ll be making a difference.

Do you know that nearly two thirds of Cancer Research’s income comes from donations alone?

When you give to charity, you are helping to fund important research projects into fighting diseases and life enhancing programs. Even a small donation can go a very long way. It can help to change a life of an individual and lead to vital improvements to your community.

Millions around the globe give to charity regularly to support causes they believe in. Each of us can choose to donate depending on the causes we prefer, our income, lifestyle, and financial situation.

Donating to the causes you care about can be highly rewarding for you. Giving charity is self-gratifying and life-changing for everyone.

Your decision to donate can make an impact on the lives of those who need it. When a person is in great need of basic necessities and can’t find it, it may sometimes lead that person to steal or turn to violence. The consequences could be harsh. Your donation helps individuals. At the same time the Charity organizations teach job skills to the needy, which equip them to survive the harsher realities of life and become independent earners. Your act of charity is a great social service to the community.

Of course it’s your personal choice how to give charity or where to give.  But there are always many reasons for you to make a donation.

Children deserve to have a safe and carefree childhood. Sponsoring a child or donating to good children’s charities like ‘Save the Children’, ‘World Vision Bangladesh’ or UNICEF can help them have a safe childhood.

Those suffering due to war or conflict can be helped by donating to organizations like the ‘The Red Cross’ or ‘Red Crescent Society’.

Giving charity builds and strengthens our community and country as a whole. By donating to those in need, it will give you a sense of belonging as you become an active part of the society.

Your actions can also inspire and set example for others. There’s power in numbers: the more people come forward the more people can be benefitted. Talk to your friends, family, colleagues and neighbors. Let them know you are giving charity. It may motivate them to get involved too. Moreover, many of your family members might already be giving to charity and by working together it could have greater positive impact.

Children are by nature compassionate. Sharing your experience of donating with your children will reinforce this generosity in them to grow into kind human beings.

Giving to charity is one of the best ways to show gratitude for all blessings you have been given. Remember that your generosity will not only make a difference in the lives of others but will also enrich your own life in innumerable ways. One of the most important things, apart from benefitting the needy, is that it makes you feel good about yourself. Giving to charity is a major mood-enhancer. The feeling of helping others is highly empowering and fulfilling. Research shows that acts of giving and kindness create positive feelings and can help improve mental wellbeing.  It also strengthens personal values; gives a feeling of purpose and self-worth in life.

“The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.’ -Hellen Keller

When you donate to a charity, you send a strong message of hope, support and compassion for them – that there are people in this world who care about them. It demonstrates your concern for others and commitment to create a more caring and compassionate society which helps contribute to bring a positive change in the world.

By Charitable contributions you are helping to make progress toward solving global problems such as poverty, hunger, disease, health care, education, housing, climate change and child safety. It also promotes the rights of the marginalized and underprivileged and spreads the message of love and peace. This will help the future generations to inherit a healthier, happier and a better world.

“The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service’ H. W. Longfellow.

Give the world back a little of your blessings and make this world a healthier, happier and peaceful home for everyone.

Read: True friends: the fountain of love and happiness

__________________

Tasneem Hossain is a multilingual poet, columnist, op-ed and fiction writer, educator, translator and training consultant. She is the Director of Continuing Education Centre, Bangladesh. With four published books (four more are underway), her writings are published regularly on the global platform. Some of her works have been translated in 23 languages. 

The post Charity Brings Fulfillment in Life first appeared on Sindh Courier.

As if they are giving their clothes to the soil

So that the soil will not be cold in winter.

But the city municipality

Has the leaves collected and burned.

Bahtiyar Hidayet

Bahtiyar Hidayet, born in 1974 in the Gazakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, graduated from university in 1995 and has been working as a history teacher since 1998. Wrote poetry since high school and has 4 poetry books published in Azerbaijan.

Vandalism in the name of Cleanliness

The trees in the park

Have seen the cutting down of forests,

Raise their arms to the sky and give thanks

For having once left their homeland.

The distant mountains I trusted

Have raised a white flag.

They were the first to surrender to winter.

The trees are taking off their clothes,

As if they are giving their clothes to the soil

So that the soil will not be cold in winter.

But the city municipality

Has the leaves collected and burned.

White fog in the mountains after the rain,

Black fog in the park.

Aristotle’s black-and-white theory is still in force.

But Lotfi Zadeh’s fuzzy logic theory

Should not be forgotten either.

There is a rainbow of a thousand colors in the distance.

And yet,

I know this chairman of the municipality.

So that the city will be clean,

He would burn the manuscripts

Of both Aristotle and Lotfi Zadeh.

But I, looking at these trees,

Feel longing for my homeland.

I think this theory

Is a more precise theory

Than the black-and-white theory,

And the fuzzy logic theory.

Precise and tragic.

______________ 

Read: Fire and İce – Poetry from Azerbaijan

The post Vandalism in the name of Cleanliness first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Noor Zaheer

At a site in Malir where a mosque was demolished in the presence of a heavy police contingent only a few days ago, and a large boundary wall was also brought down, serious questions remain unanswered for the local community. The mosque served as a place of worship for the people living in the area.

Standing at the same site today and looking around, one can still see Malir’s natural landscape — its greenery, agricultural fields, and long-established villages. The area is home to several settlements and thousands of acres of land where local families have lived for generations, depending on their land for their homes and livelihoods.

The question is: for what purpose is this fertile and largely green part of Malir being transformed? If large buildings, industrial projects, lithium battery and tyre manufacturing units, and other industries are established here, what will be the social and environmental cost of this development — and who will bear it?

Local residents say they are unwilling to leave their land. For them, these lands are not simply pieces of property; they are their homes, their source of livelihood, and part of a history passed down through generations.

There is also a fundamental legal question. Articles 23 and 24 of Pakistan’s Constitution protect the right to own property and establish safeguards against the deprivation of property except in accordance with the law. In Sindh, the Goth-Abad (Housing Scheme) Act, 1987 provides a legal framework for housing facilities and the regularization of rural settlements, including the rights of eligible occupants.

Therefore, if local residents are being asked to vacate their land, the legal basis for such action should be made clear. What legal procedure has been followed for acquiring the land? What notices have been issued to the affected people? And what arrangements have been made regarding compensation and, where necessary, resettlement?

The demand that local residents vacate their land within only two days raises particularly serious concerns. For families that have lived in an area for generations, being asked to leave their homes, land, and livelihoods within a matter of days is not merely an administrative decision; it can fundamentally disrupt their lives.

If the government or relevant authorities have the legal power to acquire the land, they should make public the relevant notifications, the legal basis for the acquisition, the procedure being followed, and details of the rights and compensation available to the affected people. Transparency is essential if public concerns and doubts are to be addressed.

Another important question concerns the use of the police. Who is directing the police to take action on the land of local residents? Under what legal authority are such directions being issued? Where land disputes exist, are all affected parties being given a fair opportunity to present their case and seek legal remedies?

The role of elected representatives also deserves scrutiny. Local residents have, in the past, received assurances regarding their land and settlements, yet disputes over land and displacement have continued. Residents have also alleged that they have faced pressure in matters concerning their land. In such circumstances, elected representatives and relevant authorities have a responsibility to provide the public with clear and verifiable information.

We are not against development. Malir should certainly develop, but development should not mean that the land, homes, places of worship, livelihoods, environment, and settlements of local communities become its price.

Development can only be sustainable when local communities are included in decision-making, their legal rights are respected, the environment is protected, and every process involving the acquisition of land is carried out transparently and in accordance with the law.

Malir is not merely a piece of land. It is home to communities with generations of history, culture, livelihoods, and a deep connection with the natural environment. If all of this is sacrificed in the name of development, we must ask a simple question: development for whom, and at whose cost?

Read: Malir – Farmlands, Heritage at risk

____________

Noor Zaheer

The post Development at Environmental, Social Cost first appeared on Sindh Courier.

• The struggle of the industrial worker was for dignity against the power of the factory owner. The struggle of the new proletariat may be for dignity, opportunity and a fair share of the wealth generated by AI, data and technological capital.

By: Ramesh Raja

Humanity is standing at the threshold of another great transformation. The Industrial Revolution changed civilization by replacing human muscle with machines and creating the modern factory worker. Electricity multiplied industrial power, the computer transformed information, and the internet connected economies and societies across borders. Now artificial intelligence is taking this transformation into a new and far more profound territory: the automation and augmentation of human intelligence itself. For more than two centuries, one fundamental question has remained at the heart of political economy: who owns the means of production? In the 19th century, those means consisted primarily of land, factories, machinery and physical capital. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels identified the wage-dependent industrial worker as the proletariat and argued that the relationship between labor and capital would remain a fundamental source of social and economic conflict. The world has changed dramatically since Marx’s time, but the question of ownership has not disappeared. It has simply moved from the factory floor into the digital and technological infrastructure of the modern economy.

From the Factory Worker to the Digital Proletariat

The original proletariat emerged with industrialization. Millions left rural communities and entered factories where machines and productive assets were owned by others, while workers exchanged their labor for wages. Long working hours, low wages, dangerous conditions and child labor produced a powerful response. Trade unions, workers’ movements and socialist organizations demanded dignity, fair wages, shorter working hours, workplace safety and social protection. The struggle took different political forms. The Paris Commune of 1871 became an early symbol of working-class political power, while the Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed Marxist ideas into a revolutionary state project. Elsewhere, however, labor movements pursued gradual reform rather than revolution. Over decades, these struggles helped establish the eight-hour working day, minimum wages, collective bargaining, pensions, workplace protections and the modern welfare state. But the worker of the 21st century increasingly occupies a different world. The factory may have been replaced by an office, warehouse, laptop, smartphone or digital platform. A delivery rider, call-center employee, software developer, freelance designer, warehouse worker, driver, content moderator or remote professional may appear independent, yet remain economically dependent on a digital platform that controls access to customers, determines visibility, measures performance and influences income. The factory gate has, in many respects, been replaced by the login screen, while the old supervisor was visible and the new supervisor may be an algorithm. This is the emergence of algorithmic management, where software can allocate tasks, monitor productivity, evaluate workers and influence employment decisions. The worker may not know why an assignment was given to someone else, why a particular rating affected income or why an automated system judged performance inadequate. Economic power can therefore become less visible while becoming more pervasive.

Data, Algorithms and the New Means of Production

Industrial capitalism depended on coal, iron, oil, land and machinery. The new digital economy increasingly depends on data, algorithms, semiconductor chips, cloud infrastructure, computing power, AI models, robots and data centers. Data has become a strategic economic resource because every search, purchase, movement, communication and digital interaction can generate information. When collected and processed at enormous scale, that information can be transformed into commercial intelligence, predictive systems and increasingly capable artificial intelligence. This creates a new version of an old question: who owns the value created by human activity? People generate enormous quantities of data through their everyday lives, yet the infrastructure capable of collecting, storing, processing and monetizing that data is concentrated in relatively few corporations and institutions. The economic struggle of the future may therefore involve not only wages and working conditions, but also data ownership, privacy, intellectual property, access to computing power and control over technology. Artificial intelligence takes this transformation even further. Earlier waves of automation primarily threatened repetitive physical labor, whereas AI can now perform or assist with tasks involving language, analysis, coding, research, design, translation and decision-making. It may eliminate certain occupations, transform others and create entirely new forms of work. The critical issue, however, is not simply how many jobs AI will destroy or create. It is who will capture the productivity gains. If AI allows one worker to produce what previously required several people, society could become enormously more productive. That productivity could mean shorter working weeks, better healthcare and education, greater social security and a higher quality of life. But if the gains are concentrated among those who own AI systems, data, intellectual property and computing infrastructure, technological progress could instead produce unprecedented economic concentration. The central question therefore becomes whether AI will liberate human beings from unnecessary labor or make human labor increasingly subordinate to technological capital.

The Rise of the Cognitive Proletariat

The new proletariat will not necessarily resemble the factory worker of Marx’s century. It may include platform workers, service employees, technicians, programmers, administrative staff, creative professionals and highly educated specialists whose work is increasingly mediated, evaluated or replaced by intelligent systems. A university degree may no longer provide permanent protection from technological disruption. AI can already assist with tasks traditionally associated with lawyers, accountants, engineers, programmers, journalists, designers, researchers and other professionals. The professions themselves may survive, but their structures, skills and employment requirements are likely to change. A new economic hierarchy could consequently emerge between those who own technological capital, those who design and control AI systems, those who possess scarce technological skills, those who work alongside AI and those whose labor becomes increasingly replaceable. This would represent a significant transformation of the traditional class structure. The divide may no longer be simply between the owner of the factory and the worker. It could increasingly be between the owners of intelligent capital and those whose livelihoods depend upon it.

From Labor Rights to Algorithmic Rights

The Industrial Age created the need for labor rights. The AI age may require a new generation of algorithmic rights. Workers may need the right to know when AI is being used to make consequential decisions about their employment. They may require protection from discriminatory algorithms, excessive workplace surveillance and automated dismissal without meaningful human review. They may need stronger rights over their personal data, opportunities for continuous education and reskilling, and social protection during periods of technological displacement. Perhaps most importantly, society will need to decide how the benefits of automation are distributed. The question should not merely be how many workers machines can replace, but how machines can enable human beings to live better while working less unnecessarily. The eight-hour working day was once a radical demand. The AI age may eventually force societies to reconsider the length of the working week, the distribution of income and even the traditional assumption that employment must remain the primary route to economic security.

The Continuing Relevance of Marx

Marx’s theory should not be regarded simply as a relic of the industrial era. Its continuing importance lies in its examination of the relationship between labor, capital, ownership and the distribution of economic power. The means of production have changed, but the fundamental question remains. The factory has become a data center, the machine has become an algorithm, the industrial supervisor has become software, the raw material increasingly includes data, and capital increasingly includes technological intelligence. Yet behind every advanced system remains society itself. AI does not emerge from nowhere. It depends upon generations of human knowledge, scientific research, public education, infrastructure, electricity, natural resources, workers and the vast quantities of data generated by human activity. Therefore, the future debate should not be about rejecting capitalism or stopping technological progress. It should be about ensuring that capital serves society rather than society becoming subordinate to capital. If artificial intelligence dramatically increases productivity, its benefits should strengthen the welfare of states, expand opportunities, improve public services and raise the living standards of ordinary people. Technological wealth should not become the exclusive property of a narrow technological elite. Ultimately, the wealth created by intelligent machines should benefit the society whose labor, knowledge and data made them possible.

The proletarian struggle, therefore, may not be ending. It may be entering its most technologically advanced phase. The struggle of the industrial worker was for dignity against the power of the factory owner. The struggle of the new proletariat may be for dignity, opportunity and a fair share of the wealth generated by AI, data and technological capital. The great promise of artificial intelligence is not a world in which human beings become unnecessary. It is a world in which human beings become less trapped by necessity. Technology should give humanity more time for family, education, creativity, science, culture, community and meaningful life.

The defining question of the 21st century may therefore no longer be simply capitalism versus socialism, or workers versus machines. It may be something much more fundamental: if intelligent machines create an increasing share of the world’s wealth, will that wealth belong primarily to those who own the machines, or to the society whose labor, knowledge and data made them possible? The answer may determine whether the Age of AI becomes an age of unprecedented inequality, or the beginning of a new social contract in which technology, capital and artificial intelligence ultimately serve humanity.

Read: When Superstition Becomes a Business

________________

The author of this article, Engr. Ramesh Raja, is a Civil Engineer, visionary planner, PMP certified and literary enthusiast with a passion for art and recreation. He can be reached at engineer.raja@gmail.com  

The post New Proletariat in the Age of AI first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Shakil Kalam | Bangladesh

[The coronavirus epidemic had passed the first wave around the world. Now most of the countries over the globe, facing a second round attack of Covid-19. Some countries have been facing a third wave. On the stage, we can say, the world is tackling a tragic situation now. Corona’s onslaught has left the world facing multidisciplinary problems such as  health hazard, food crisis, shut down of education, decreasing its quality, economic degradation, be shattered business, be stopped trade, lack of employment generation, losing employed, created more unemployment, and new unemployed people not to get jobs.

After all, the way of people live their lives, the decline of the economy, the form of social reality, and the behavioral aspects have changed drastically. People’s healthcare and employment are having a hard time. As a result, the number of poor people in the world is gradually increasing. Meanwhile, the poverty of women has increased indiscriminately. For these causes, Covid-19 pandemic is a great impediment for women to gain new jobs in the workfield. So women’s poverty has reached its peak all over the world.]

From the earliest times of creation, women have been deprived of their just rights. In a male-dominated society, they were not valued in any way. But it does not end here. They have been physically and mentally abused forever. They have been depriving or deprived from family, social and state in the all level as. They have used to be dependent on men for food, clothing, education, shelter, and entertainment. In a word, they have been politically, economically and culturally exploiting and depriving them for a long period. Not only that, regardless of caste, they had no rights over movement, ancestral property, husband’s property and other assets. But in some societies it exists till today. They have to give birth and nurture children. The social situation was such that it was like a maidservant profession, as if that was only their destiny. They had no freedom of speech, so they could not decide on their marriage, childbearing, sexual intercourse, occupation etc. As well as they had no rights to take any decision about family matters. That is, they could not or would not participate in the decision-making process in any way. They have had to endure the pain of this lack for a long time. Although their situation has not changed over time, there was no discussion on women’s poverty. Even it had no idea about the matter. There was not much discussion about women’s poverty. In the late twentieth century’s seventies to nineties decades, discussions on women’s poverty began.

The United Nations takes initiatives to reduce the poverty rate among men and women. Since that time, women’s organizations have been formed in various countries around the world to address the issue of women’s poverty. It then began, the discussion and movement for establishment of equality between men and women. Later, the feminization of poverty has been reduced. But the global corona epidemic and aggression by nuclear-weapons countries have exacerbated women’s poverty at a high rate. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, it will take 123 years to achieve full global gender parity at the current pace, which is roughly five generations. s, it is estimated that it will take more than 268 years to bridge the divide. As a result, feminization of poverty entered into a new era.

What is Feminization of Poverty?

Women-poverty does not just mean the economic condition of women. In this case, the overall conditions of women are explained there. So that women’s poverty transformed into feminization of poverty. The feminization of poverty refers to the average rate of burden that women carry on poverty. It also enhanced gender inequality among the men and women in the same socio-economic conditions which is expedited living standard specially. In a word, feminization of poverty is not only a consequence of lack of income and resources but it is also the deprivation of capabilities and gender biases in both societies and governments level. In this phenomenon involves family size, head of household, deprivation, sexual harassment, education, employment, health hazard, climate change, natural disasters, unequal laws and regulations formulation, country’s trade and business, employment generation scope etc.

The feminization of poverty concept first came to light in the 1970s at first. It has become popular because of United Nations different agencies’ research in the early 1990s.

The concept of feminization of poverty has various meanings, some of which are not entirely consistent with its implicit notion of change, as the feminization of poverty is a change in poverty levels that is biased against women or female headed households.

At first in 1978, Diane Pearce coined the term “feminization of poverty” in the United States, when two-thirds of the poor over age of 16 were women.

According to Buvinic and Gupta (1997), between the period 1965-1970 and the mid-1990s, the number of rural women living in poverty increased by 48 per cent, while the number of rural men living in poverty increased by 30 per cent in the same period. This alarming trend is referred to as feminization of poverty. United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), describes it as “the burden of poverty borne by women, especially in developing countries.”

According to the United Nations Division for The Advancement of Women (UNDAW), feminization of poverty denotes that access to critical resources, such as credit, land and inheritances, access to education and support services and participation in decision making at home and in the society is minimal.

From the above definitions we get the below mentioned causes are involved for feminizations of poverty:

1. Implicit notion of change in feminization of poverty.
2. Change in poverty level that is biased against women or female headed households.
3. Gender biased changes in any dimension.
4. Difference in poverty level between women and men.
5. Burden of poverty borne by women.
6. Lack of access to critical resources like credit loans and investment and inheritance.
7. Lack of access to education and support services.
8. Lack of participation in the decision making process.

In the twentieth century, when the issue of women’s poverty was discussed, experts included these issues in their definitions. In today’s 21st century, more new problems have increased the poverty of women. These problems must be included in the theme of feminization of poverty. These problems are: global warming, natural disasters, displacement, non-protection of women’s rights in legislation, women’s empowerment, inflation, rising prices of essential commodities, pandemic situation, child marriage and divorce provision, personal life, sexual harassment in workplace, access to modern technology, protection of women physical and emotions etc.. Then the theory of feminization of poverty will get a new shape as well as it will be fully defined.

Causes of Feminization of Poverty

There are so many previous causes of feminization of poverty, as well as newly created causes are described as under:

1. Female headed family: Single mother households are at the highest risk of poverty for women due to lack of income and resources. When female headships are active and no male headships in the family for that the critical situation addresses feminization of poverty.
2. Differences of wages between women and men: This social inequality deprives women of capabilities, particularly employment, which leads to women having a higher risk of poverty. This increase in occupational gender segregation, exclusion, wages gap increases feminization to poverty.
3. Deprived from property rights: Women have the right to get property as heirs like father, mother, and brother, husband and so on, but a whole range of customary practices, emotional pressure, social sanction and plan violence prevents them from acquiring those by women.
4. Low profile employment: Low profile employment leads to the feminization of poverty to a perpetual system of poverty because of the social restrictions on women’s labor force participation, insufficient number of jobs and lower earnings of women.
5. Unwillingness or no interests about trade union: Women express unwillingness and no interest about trade union due to no-support from the society and family, fear of violence, needy situation of women, image and obstacles created by the societies with the religious restrictions which lead to the feminization of poverty.
6. Lack of social capital: Women are deprived of basic education and health care due to less income than men. Higher income allows greater access to skills and job skills raises income as well. This attitude of social capital is a cause of feminization of poverty.
7. Decision-making power: The participation of decision making process often does not bring the women’s perception. So, this powerless position of women at home and in the societies increases the poverty in feminization.
8. Lack of education: One of the causes of feminization of poverty is lack of education which is a matter of negative ideas created by the patriarchal based society regarding education as well as subject choice for females.
9. Lack of social security: Feminization of poverty is caused by the women’ security in society in ensuring the opportunities basic rights such as feeding, lodging, shelter, health care as well as social factors related to her biological and mental affairs.
10. Social and Cultural Exclusion: Social and cultural norms that prevent women from having access to formal matters. The cultural and social norms do not allow women to have much labor productivity outside the home as well as an economic bargaining position within the household.
11. Pandemic Situation: As per Oxfam International reports, covid-19 made an alarming impact on women globally. Women lost more than 64 million jobs, which equals to 5% of the total jobs held by women in 2020. But it is mentioned here that men lost 4% in comparison with the total jobs of men in the last year. This loss of jobs due to the Covid-19 crisis cost women around the world at least $800 billion in earnings. The figure is more than the combined GDP of 98 countries of the world. Moreover, in that calculation, the informal domestic workers’ wages aren’t included who are doing unpaid work. It is mentioned here that 91.8% of workers in the informal sector in Bangladesh are women. Domestic workers as the great majority portion are women as well as day laborers, cleaners, infrastructure sectors laborers have lost their means of earning a living. In the formal sector, Covid-19 has also had adverse effects in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector due to cancellation and suspension orders by the buyers which is amounting to billions of dollars. Women are being tortured in the family and the social life due to the fact that most of the women lost their jobs during the Covid-19 era. Now I would like to say that it is very difficult to stop domestic violence as it is shaped into so much over the world.
12. Natural Disasters: Natural disasters occur due to weather and climate change and earthquakes, etc. over the world. Air pollution, deforestation, coal, diesel and atomic energy based power generation plant and green-house effects, global warming and excess carbon emissions damage and destroy the natural environment and biodiversity and raise the water level of the sea. As a result, occurred natural disasters like cyclones, storm, thunderbolts, spate, rains, heavy rains, floods, mountain slopes, river erosion, droughts etc. come down every year and the coastal areas’ land is drowning under the water. As a result, the people of the whole land, including the people of the coastal areas are affected. People’s lives and professions are facing destruction. People lose their resources like dwelling houses, accumulated wealth, cattle as well as become helpless. So, they were plunged into indescribable misery and forced to relocate and made displacement. That’s why women’s head of family poverty increases rapidly.
13. Extra stress on the cost of living: Inflation has risen as the economy has shrunk during the corona pandemic era. As a result, the cost of health care products, medicines and services has risen at the highest rate in the world, including daily necessities. During this epidemic, a large number of women and men have become unemployed. In this case, the number of women has increased at a higher rate. It will be a big challenge for all countries in the world to control the price of goods and create employment and bring the overall condition of women to the pre-epidemic stage. It is not possible for women-headed families and unemployed women to bear their extra expenditure of living standard. At the moment their standard of living has fallen below the poverty line. As a result, a new woman-poor class has emerged in the society. It can be said, women-poverty is increasing at a huge rate.
14. Lack of protection of women’s rights in legislation: Women are considered to be underdeveloped, developing and developed countries, color and religion in terms of getting formal and informal jobs, and women’s fair rights in the payment of salaries, allowances and bonuses are not protected. The issue of payment of wages based on women’s justice is not mentioned in the law on the basis of priority. Because, all over the world, women are not getting equal pay for men. Therefore, the issue of women’s wages should be included in the law on a priority basis while enacting the law, so that women are getting equal pay to men. Due to loopholes in the law the Women’s poverty rate is increasing on a large scale.
15. Child Marriage and Divorce Provision: The rate of child marriage in the least developed and developing countries, especially in rural areas, is much higher. Most of the people in the rural areas of these countries are poor. They promise to give different types of dowry to the groom when they marry their daughters. But after the marriage, if the girl’s family could not meet the dowry demand, the girl become subjected to endless torture. In the end, the groom divorced the girl because he did not get the dowry. Unable to bear the torture of her father-in-law’s house for dowry, many girls bind to suicide. Again many girls are killed. However, in the least developed and developing countries, the trend of this rate is much higher. Those who got divorced and return to their father’s house, from then on, extreme misery descends on their lives. Again, many are unable to remarry because of religious restrictions. So the girl of child marriage has to suffer from the cruelest poverty.
16. Lack of personal life: The women haven’t personal rights within the family boundary. No illuminating focus on economic, political, social and cultural sectors on women’s life. Moreover, women have no choice about gender inequalities in marriage, divorce, inheritance and custodianship within different communities.
17. Lesser access to modern technology of women: Women participation is concentrated in readymade garments and agriculture sectors. Whatever, women’s involvement is lower in other sectors like information, social media, modern technology and Conventional gender roles.
18. Equalization of wages between women and men in every sector: Still there remains wage differences between men and women in formal and informal sectors. Women receive less wages rather than men. This situation creates poverty for women.
19. No protection regarding women physical and emotions: Majority women have no legal protection regarding abuse, discrimination, irregular employment, low wages, and long working hours. Although several laws, policies, rules and regulations are formulated to protect women rights all over the world. But women are facing difficulties and inadequate opportunities like child care, day care centers, health services in the workplace, entertainment, transport, accommodation and job security and mobility. So, women have been gradually losing their eagerness and enthusiasm about gaining jobs.
20. Lack of borrowing facilities: Lack of borrowing facilities: Women entrepreneurs’ have no larger opportunities to take loans from banking, non-banking financial institutions and other investing organizations, due to women’s incapabilities as unskillness, collection of documents, securities and guarantees and lack of financial knowledge and courageous initiatives.

Conclusion:

The Corona pandemic and war has brought huge changes in the economic, political and social life of the world. As a result of this change, its effects will be felt unevenly for the next few years. Various studies have provided that more than 47 million women will fall into extreme poverty. These women are living on less than USD 1.90 cost per day in 2021. Moreover, in the United States, the most developed country in the world, 1 out of 6 women is facing extreme food insecurity due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Governments around the world needed to come up with short, medium and long term plans to deal with this crisis. To revive the economy, women-friendly and inclusive economic programs must be adopted and implemented. Moreover, social investment must be increased; so that the feminization of poverty is reduced. Again, the world needs to be considered as a global village to reduce gender and ethnic divisions.

To ensure women’s health care and protection, every woman should be covered by the free vaccine. This will allow women to return to their workplaces and reduce their poverty. Moreover, in the recovery of the economy, required measures must be taken in the field of tax assessment, and no new tax to be imposed. Again social security and service delivery must be ensured.

The price of services for women who have fallen in extreme poverty to be kept within their purchasing capacity or provided free of cost. Countries in the developed world need to provide assistance in the economic development of countries affected by global warming and climate change. If these measures are taken, the feminization of the poverty of the world will be reduced.

Read: Transformation Periods in Bengali Literature

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Shakil Kalam, born in Feni district in Chittagong Division of Bangladesh, received a Master’s Degree in Governance Studies from the University of Dhaka. Having also a diploma course on IAS and IFRS from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), he is known as a Central Banker, Corporate Governance and Internal Audit Specialist, Researcher, Poet, Translator as well as Child-Litterateur. He was engaged as an Additional Director in the Central Bank of Bangladesh. His book “A Handbook of Corporate Governance in Bangladesh” is enlisted as a reference books and taught in several universities including the University of Dhaka.

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