Dawn Editorials (with Summary and Vocabulary)

 

DAWN EDITORIALS

January 19, 2024 (Friday)

Day’s Vocabulary

• Apprehensions.  anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen
• Contextualised.  place or study in context
• Orchestrators.     arrange or score (music) for orchestral performance
• Tut-tutting.         make an exclamation expressing disapproval or annoyance
• Donned.      put on (an item of clothing)
• Felling.        cut down (a tree); stitch down (the edge of a seam) to lie flat
• Faze. disturb or disconcert (someone)
• Fanaticism.           Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or an obsessive enthusiasm
• Perpetrated.         carry out or commit (a harmful, illegal, or immoral action)
• Sham.           a thing that is not what it is purported to be
• Intimidation.       frighten or overawe (someone), especially in order to make them do what one wants
• Prima facie.          based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise
• Entrenched.          (of an attitude, habit, or belief) firmly established and difficult or unlikely to change; ingrained
• Jurisprudence.     the theory or philosophy of law.
• Erroneous. wrong; incorrect
• Adjudicate.            make a formal judgment or decision about a problem or disputed matter
• Confer.        grant or bestow (a title, degree, benefit, or right)
• Substantive.         (of law) defining rights and duties as opposed to giving the rules by which such things are established

AI in education

Summary

• Investment in AI for education is growing rapidly, with a potential market value of over $20 billion in the next five years.
• There are concerns that AI could automate many teaching tasks and lead to job losses for teachers.
• However, it is too early to say how AI will ultimately impact the education sector.
• Some teachers are already using AI-based tools to detect cheating on assignments and assessments.
• Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) have the potential to personalize learning and reduce costs, but they are not yet widely available or affordable in Pakistan.
• Other AI-based educational programs are being developed, but it is unclear how effective they will be.
• There are also concerns about the ethical and legal implications of using AI in education, such as student surveillance and data privacy.
• Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionize education, but it is important to proceed with caution and address potential concerns.

Article

Investments in artificial intelligence are massive ($94 billion in 2021 alone). They will continue as people see profit-making potential in them. We have all heard the rhetoric that AI is going to revolutionise many areas and have a major impact on jobs in several sectors.

Where it might increase marginal productivity (output per worker), it will automate jobs and thus replace workers. This is already happening in some spaces.

AI is expected to have a large impact on education too. There were already over 30 multimillion-dollar-funded AI-in-education corporations in 2022; some analysts expect AI in the education market to be worth more than $20bn in less than five years.

But the same apprehensions surface in this sector too. Where AI can help create more pathways for personalised and lifelong learning, it will also automate a lot of processes. Teachers fear they might be ‘replaced’ by AI systems eventually.

These apprehensions are a bit premature. AI is still developing and it is hard to predict all that it will be able to eventually accomplish. Although there are early indications that some teacher tasks can be automated, there is also a perception that certain functions that teachers perform, and that are relevant to socialisation and the development of deeper, more contextualised learning, won’t be easy to automate. The future being unknown, let us see how technology develops and is deployed.

Pakistan is not at the frontier of AI use in education. For now, its most common application is seen in students using GPT-3 to do their assignments or assessments and for writing essays. Professors are using AI-based systems to detect AI-generated assignments/ assessments. The main concern so far is the increase in the incidence of cheating.

If artificial intelligence delivers on its promise, it will change the education sector significantly.

Submitting someone else’s work as one’s own is cheating and hurts the learning process. Students, instead of trying to understand a topic, submit something they might not even understand. The struggle is not to stop students from using AI, but to convince them to use it for understanding concepts and deepening their learning instead of cheating.

This is not a major issue. There are programmes that detect cheating and many professors use these. The cat-and-mouse game between programmes that allow students to produce work without detection and programmes that allow professors to detect cheating will continue. Even before GPT, we had issues of plagiarism.

What are more interesting, but have not come to Pakistan in any significant manner yet, are intelligent tutoring systems. ITS allow a person-based introduction of information and then personalised feedback to students and the monitoring of progress by students as well as teachers (dashboards). They open up doors for increasing outreach, reducing the cost per student and allowing more student-specific learning opportunities.

Pakistan, with some 23 million out-of-school children, faces significant issues regarding the quality of school education, and limited and low enrolments at undergraduate levels. It could really benefit from ITS but it is a distant prospect.

We need good internet connectivity for this: we need students to have computers and tablets at home; we need teachers who are tech-savvy and are not afraid of what ITS could do. We need ITS that are much better than where they are right now. They still have a long way to go before they start delivering well on the promise of personalisation and customisation at low prices.

Existing ITS are better able to work in mathematics and physics, are more geared towards specific task or skill learning, and more suited to preparation for specific examinations. A lot of development still needs to take place before it is possible to see them being used for educating out-of-school children or ensuring improved learning for millions of children.

There are also AI-assisted applications that allow language translation and/ or mathematics learning. However, it is not clear if they assist student learning or undermine it by taking away the need for learning concepts and other things, very much like calculators did with simple multiplication and division tasks.

Other AI-based educational programmes are being developed in areas like formative assessments, dialogue-based tutoring systems, chatbots, learning network orchestrators, AI-assisted virtual reality or games, and so on. But in most of these areas, we do not have commercial applications yet.

We will only be able to assess viability and efficacy once commercial applications are available and ‘cheap’ enough to be deployed in Pakistan’s education market. And we will only be able to talk of what teacher-displacing impact they are going to lead to when we are closer to that point.

For the moment, most of these are interesting and promising possibilities from the point of view of opportunities to enhance student learning. But their future impact is as yet unclear.

At the same time, there are many legitimate concerns about AI in education. Apart from its impact on teaching jobs, increased student surveillance, data collection, usage and sharing raise legitimate ethical and legal concerns about confidentiality and safety. As more commercial applications become available, these concerns will need to be addressed as well.

AI has a lot of potential in education. It can, in principle, allow us to reach more children, ensure quality and do it at a much lower cost than the current schooling model. If it delivers on its promise, it will change the education sector significantly and many teacher-related tasks will become automated.

But we are far from there right now. It is not even clear if it can deliver on all these promises. We have only seen GPT-3 so far, and that is not a major game-changer. Given the potential and promise, for the moment, it seems that an attitude of curiosity, rather than fear, makes more sense.

The bounced cheque

Summary

• Justice Ijaz Ahsan has a history of aligning himself with powerful figures in the Pakistani judiciary, often adapting his rulings to match the prevailing political winds.
• He played a key role in supporting Chief Justices Saqib Nisar, Gulzar Ahmed, and Umar Ata Bandial in their respective agendas, even when those agendas involved controversial decisions or actions.
• Some of his notable rulings include:
• Helping to rewrite the Constitution in favor of Imran Khan's political party.
• Dismissing Absar Alam's petition against his removal as Pemra chairman due to a technicality.
• Suspending the Lahore High Court order that declared the Ravi Urban Development Authority project as illegal.
• Attempting to remain on the bench hearing Justice Isa's petition against the presidential reference, despite a potential conflict of interest.
• Joining four other judges in declaring the assumption of Army Act jurisdiction over civilians as illegal, but not being taken seriously by his fellow judges.
• The author questions Justice Ihsan's motives and suggests that he may be trying to distance himself from his past decisions in order to appear more independent.

Article

There are some people who are born superheroes. Others have superhero-ship thrust upon them, once a particular robe and wig becomes theirs to wear. But there are yet others who are natural sidekicks; those whose lot it is to let the superheroes really shine, whilst they keep to the background and manage the admin. After all, someone has to keep the bat cave clean and ensure weapon refill orders aren’t behind schedule. Even the batmobile needs servicing.

Ijazul Ahsan was Robin to the Batman that was Saqib Nisar. He went around tut-tutting after tasting prison food with chief justice Nisar, and stood around when the latter told off private hospital owners and gave them advice on what to wear whilst on a snap check of their private property. He enthusiastically helped host the Saqib Nisar weekend conferences on population control. He was with the boss at the forefront of the dam-building effort.

Then came Gulzar Ahmed, and Ijaz sahib donned his boots and work hat, and promptly became a city engineer with the new hero in town. He helped the top judge point his magic wand left and right, felling thousands of structures in Karachi for being illegal. This was the kind of superhero work which protected the paper plans of cities at the expense of the people for whom the cities are planned. But that didn’t faze justice Ijaz.

Next came Umar Ata Bandial, and here the sidekick took on a role far more equal to the hero’s. It also helped that there was an Imran Khan-led political party that kept asking the Bandial court political questions disguised as requests for interpretive opinion. Turn by turn, Ijaz sahib helped rewrite the Constitution. When it came to implementing the opinion-based works of fiction, he again helped seat himself on the permanent three-member bench which decided the same situation in two different ways depending on who petitioned it: if Imran Khan was not obeyed by his party, it was a cancer affecting the body politic; if Chaudhry Shujaat Husain wasn’t obeyed, dictatorships within political parties became the cancer needing judicial surgery.

He was with the boss at the forefront.

Justice Ijaz also has several great achievements outside of the political arena. Such as when he prompted justice Gulzar to add the word ‘alleged’ in reference to Matiullah Jan’s abduction when Gulzar sahib was dictating an order. Or when he dismissed Absar Alam’s petition against his removal as Pemra chairman, because his lawyer was absent due to being unwell. Ijaz sahib decided this wasn’t good enough because there was no medical certificate filed by the lawyer. Who couldn’t file it because he was unwell.

His environment-related record was equal to his other feats. Justice Ijaz was part of the bench which suspended the Lahore High Court order declaring the Ravi Urban Development Authority project as land grabbed from the poor with disastrous environmental impact, and allowed for ‘development’ to continue. RUDA was a pet project for Imran Khan, who shot a video there promoting it.

Justice Ihsan talked the big talk when he had another shoulder to shoot over. He took whatever was the flavour of the moment and ran with it as long as there was someone running ahead of him.

He tried his best not to recuse himself from the bench that was hearing justice Isa’s petitioning the presidential reference against him when it was pointed out that he would directly benefit from justice Isa being removed through a longer term as chief justice of Pakistan. Justice Isa fought and fought until all of Ijaz sahib’s friends couldn’t remove him.

Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others, said Oscar Wilde. After Imran Khan was deposed, Ijaz sahib strived hard to account for his curious attractiveness. This journey was a tough one, and occurred after he realised that an ousted Imran Khan needed the constitutional protections he had helped erode.

The hardest part of proving it is actually curious attractiveness must have been when he joined four other judges in declaring the assumption of the Army Act jurisdiction over civilians as being illegal and the relevant sections of the law unconstitutional. Like several of his other pro-democracy decisions that came after Imran Khan needed them this past year, no one took it seriously. Not even his brother judges at the Supreme Court.

It is surprising that justice Ihsan decided to take off the gloves even before the bell was rung. Even before the fight was announced. I wonder who he was afraid of being put up against. Perhaps an earlier version of himself?

Love of God

Summary

• The Quran frequently describes the qualities of those whom God loves and those whom He does not love.
• God loves those who are:
• Doers of good
• Equitable
• Patient
• Pious or virtuous
• Pure and clean
• God does not love those who are:
• Transgressors or aggressors
• Arrogant
• Cruel
• Spreaders of mischief on earth
• Troublemakers
• Almost all of the qualities mentioned relate to ethical or moral conduct towards other people.
• God especially disapproves of cruelty and creating mischief in the world.
• The Quran's emphasis on human goodness aligns with the concept of humanism, which places humans at the center of moral concern.
• Religious teachings should promote the welfare of people and creation, not fanaticism or violence.
• Caring for others is a way of caring for God, and ignoring the needs of others is a way of ignoring God.
• Many Sufi teachers, poets, and Muslim thinkers have emphasized the importance of humanistic values.
• True love of God is expressed through love and service to humanity.

Article

One of the recurring themes in the Holy Quran that may stimulate any reader’s imagination is the description of those who God ‘loves’ (uhibbu) and those He does not love (la uhibbu). There are numerous descriptions of both kinds, spread throughout the Quran. In this write-up, we will try to get a grasp of these two categories. Let us first describe the selective characteristics of those whom God loves and then look at those who attract God’s disapproval or dislike. Thereafter, some implications and lessons learnt from both categories will be shared.

On close checking of the Quranic dictionary (Mo’jam) for the verb ‘yuhibbu’ (likes or loves), we come to the conclusion that the Quran mentions this verb with the addition of Allah as subject (wallahu yuhibbu) around 12 times. Out of these, only five instances are mentioned here for the sake of brevity and discussion. Allah says He loves those who are doers of good (mohsineen, 2:195); loves those who act equitably (muqsiteen, 60:8); those who are patient (sabirin, 2:153); pious or virtuous (muttaqeen, 2:2); and who keep themselves pure and clean (mutatahhireen, 2:222).

On the other hand, there are around 21 verses wherein Allah mentions those He does not love. Here, we select five such qualities as: transgressors/ aggressors (mu’tadin, 7:55); the arrogant (mustakbirin, 16:23); cruel people/ transgressors (zalimeen, 3:140); those who spread fasad on earth (mufsideen, 29:30) and troublemakers or mischief-mongers.

Reflection upon these features reveals certain key points. First, almost all of them relate to ethical or moral conduct (huquq al-ibad). Almost all of them relate to human affairs advising to do good to people or avoid hurting them.

Cruelty is an act most disliked by God.

Second, among the behaviours God disapproves of the most, is creating mischief in the world. God does not will any wrong for His creatures (40:31) and He does not will any cruelty to His creatures (3:108). Cruelty is an act most disliked by God.

Third, almost none of them are linked to duties related to God (huquq ullah); not that they are not important, but in these two categories, they are not included.

Fourth, almost all these are universal human values admired by all faith traditions and societies. So, one can call them universal moral virtues advocated and accepted by all humanity. Both categories of qualities lead us to the conclusion that Allah likes human goodness and does not like wrongdoing against humans. This leads us to humanism, which regards humans at the central stage of human goodness.

Religion, after all, apart from foundational beliefs, is all about the welfare of the people and creation in general. It is not just religious causes, as surely there are others as well, such as power, possession, wealth, etc. But religious fanaticism was and is responsible for so much bloodshed. This is what is discouraged here through God’s disapproval of those actions that lead to atrocities perpetrated on humans through cruel actions. Often, we assume roles and responsibilities and interpret religion in a way that causes many rifts in the world and leads to great misery.

These teachings are further echoed in Hadith literature. A well-known Hadith-i-Qudsi rightly rejects those who, though supposedly God-conscious, are irresponsive to those humans who have different needs, such as those pertaining to hunger and sickness. God complains that ‘you’ (humans), did not care “for Me when I was hungry, sick” — and the examples go on. To which humans respond by saying that You (O God) cannot be sick, etc, to which God then responds, when you saw so and so sick or hungry man, you did not care, implying that all humans are God’s creatures. When we care for them, we ‘care’ for Allah, and when we ignore them, it is as if we actually ignore Him.

Inspired by such prophetic traditions, many Sufi teachers, poets and Muslim thinkers have emphasised these humanistic teachings. Probably this is why Maulana Hali rightly says: Prayer, faith and deen (overall) are all aimed at helping humans; so that when a human needs help, others can promptly provide it.

Allama Iqbal challenges us further by saying: There are many boastfully wandering in banu claiming to be the lovers of God; I, for one, will become the lover of the one who loves humans.

Finally, let us remember Abu bin Adam’s story, in which he reminds us of a pious mystic who ascends to a mountaintop to ‘access’ God. Once there, God inspires him to descend, reminding him that He does not dwell on the top of mountains, but among the humans.

Sham elections

Summary

• Recent Supreme Court judgment denies electoral symbol to PTI, impacting its participation in national elections.
• SC's order contradicts earlier progressive orders emphasizing the importance of fair elections.
• The decision is criticized for flawed reasoning and hyper-technical objections.
• Symbols are considered crucial in elections, as established in the 'Benazir Bhutto symbols case' (1989).
• Peshawar High Court's judgment relied on constitutional jurisprudence to support PTI's right to an election symbol.
• SC's reasoning in the 'PTI election symbol case' is questioned for lacking discussion on fundamental party rights and judicial precedents.
• The decision is likened to a historical case (1955) with flawed legal technicalities, raising concerns about constitutional principles.
• Overall, the writer, identified as a lawyer, criticizes the SC judgment's impact on democratic principles and electoral participation.

Article

In the bail petition of Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the ‘cipher case’, Justice Athar Minallah, through an order dated Dec 22, 2023, almost prophetically observed: “Discrimination or intimidation on the basis of political opinions are alien to the concept of genuine elections and even such a perception would be sufficient to … relegate it to the status of sham elections [emphasis added].”

Furthermore, in the ‘PTI level playing field case’, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, through the order dated Dec 22, 2023, while prima facie accepting the allegations of the PTI against the ECP, observed: “A level playing field is essential for healthy competition, ensuring that elections are a true reflection of the people’s choice, rather than the result of manipulation or coercion [emphasis added]”.

Could anyone have even imagined that, less than a month after these two progressive Supreme Court orders, it would be another SC judgement which would deny electoral participation to a national popular political party like the PTI, by depriving its candidates of a common election symbol?

Symbols as the soul of elections:

A 12-member bench of the SC in the landmark ‘Benazir Bhutto symbols case’ (1989) had held, in essence, that symbols are the very soul of elections and also a fundamental right of political parties under Article 17 of the Constitution because they are central to the voters’ right to identify and chose their public representatives in the less-educated societies of South Asia.

It is precisely because of this undisputed and entrenched constitutional jurisprudence that the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) brilliant and courageous judgement of Jan 12, 2024 also based its declaration and direction to allot the election symbol to the PTI on the series of SC judgements in the ‘Benazir Bhutto political party case’ (1988), ‘Benazir Bhutto symbols case’ (1989) and the ‘Nawaz Sharif case’ (1993).

Constitutionally speaking, and in terms of binding judicial precedents in Pakistan, there can be no democracy without party-based elections, there can be no elections without political parties, and there can be no political party participation in elections without election symbols.

Erroneous SC reasoning:

The Supreme Court’s short order dated Jan 13, 2024 in the ‘PTI election symbol case’, which upholds the ECP order of Dec 22, 2023, denies the election symbol to the PTI, and sets aside the PHC judgement, has given five main reasons for its order.

The judgement contains no discussion on the fundamental right of a political party to an election symbol based on the ‘Benazir Bhutto symbols case’.

Firstly, the SC reasons that the PHC had no territorial jurisdiction because petitions by the PTI challenging the earlier ECP order of Nov 23, 2023, declaring the PTI intra-party elections of June 10, 2022, illegal, were pending in the Lahore High Court. Thus, the PTI should have filed its petition challenging the ECP order of Dec 22, 2023, before the LHC.

But even this hyper-technical objection is erroneous because the SC itself accepts that both the PHC and LHC had concurrent jurisdiction to examine the legality of the ECP order of Dec 22, 2023. Moreover, the SC has completely failed to examine that, in terms of the Salahuddin Tirmizi SC judgement (2008), it is the PHC which had primary jurisdiction because the second-last petition (No.5791-P/2023) with regard to intra-party election proceedings pending before the ECP was filed in December 2023 before the PHC and not the LHC.

Secondly, the SC reasoned that the ECP order denying the election symbol to the PTI was not a case of victimisation, because the ECP had been calling upon PTI to hold elections since May 24, 2021, when the party was in the federal government, and 13 other parties’ intra-party elections had also not been accepted by the ECP.

This SC reasoning is erroneous for three reasons: (a) only those who are oblivious to events throughout 2023 to date would consider the ECP as being fair towards the PTI; (b) the SC judgement of Dec 22, 2023 in the ‘level playing field case’ itself acknowledges the prima facie validity of the unfair treatment towards PTI; (c) is the ECP action against these 13 other insignificant parties even comparable to the PTI’s case? Even otherwise, 13 wrongs don’t make it right.

Thirdly, it was said there was no proof showing even a semblance of intra-party elections being held. But this was never even an allegation by the ECP, which had accepted that intra-party elections were held, but not in accordance with the PTI’s constitution. Therefore, the SC had no jurisdiction to give such a finding.

Fourthly, few PTI members were denied nomination papers and the election notice did not mention the exact venue in Peshawar and even that venue was changed. But this was never even an allegation made by the ECP. Therefore, the SC had no jurisdiction to give such a finding.

Fifthly, the PHC had wrongly held that the ECP did not have the jurisdiction to adjudicate on the internal legality of a political party’s intra-party elections. But rather precisely, the PHC has held that Section 209 of the Election Act, 2017, doesn’t confer any jurisdiction on the ECP to question the substantive and procedural internal legality of such intra-party elections. On the other hand, the SC fails to point out any provision which confers such a substantive jurisdiction.

What is surprising about the judgement is that it contains no discussion at all on the fundamental right of a political party to an election symbol based on the ‘Benazir Bhutto symbols case’ (1989) and other SC cases.

In the presence of such a fundamental right and judicial precedents, it fails to consider whether, on the basis of major or minor irregularities in intra-party elections, the election party symbol can be denied so close to national elections, in effect banning the party from participating in them.

The SC judgement in the ‘PTI election symbols case’ bears an uncanny resemblance in its style of reasoning to the federal court judgement in the ‘Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan case’ (1955), which was also decided on the flawed reasoning of hyper-legal technicality. The 1955 judgement was also oblivious to the principles of constitutional democracy. Sadly, the ghost of chief justice Munir is alive and kicking in 2024.