Pakistan Press on: Carbon, Levy, Circus, Crypto, Freedom: New Age Islam's Selection, 19 April 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
19 April 2025
Carbon Levy: A Fail-Safe?
The Ongoing Circus
Regulating Crypto
Tariffs, Turmoil & Tech
The Freedom To Fly Solo
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Carbon Levy: A Fail-Safe?
By Furqan Ali And Arfa Ijaz
April 19, 2025
Despite decades of ‘reforms’, Pakistan has tragically failed to establish a pro-growth, anti-cyclical, and sustainable economic paradigm. This is primarily due to the overreliance on fiscal austerity and a flawed political economy, evident in macabre issues like bloated tax expenditure, bleeding SOEs, and pathetic public service provision.
On the one hand, this cookie-cutter approach limits development expenditure and extracts ruthlessly from a narrow tax base. On the other hand, current expenditure is rising sharply, particularly in terms of interest payments. Consider that in the past five years, the fiscal deficit averaged 7.0 per cent of GDP, while interest payments consumed 81 per cent and 400 per cent of tax revenue and development expenditure, respectively, for FY24.
The external trade account only adds to the gloom. A deteriorating investment climate is stifling sustainable exports and import substitution, compounded by looming global shifts like the EU’s CBAM and US reciprocal tariffs, which threaten to escalate the economic crisis. The CBAM, with its transition towards full integration, disproportionately affects Pakistan.
For example, the World Bank’s CBAM Exposure Index reveals that Pakistan’s electricity sector is 1.44 times more carbon-intensive than the EU average, leaving its exporters vulnerable to penalties. If tariffs are implemented, they could further strain the external accounts – especially given the lack of meaningful change in Pakistan’s climate policies.
Against this backdrop, the government seems hamstrung in its ability to spend on vital areas such as climate action. The climate division’s budget over the past five years reflects a troubling inconsistency. After peaking at Rs14,327 million in 2021-22, funding sharply declined to just Rs4,050 million in 2023-24, with a slight recovery in 2024-25. These fluctuations undermine long-term climate planning and indicate a lack of sustained political commitment to environmental priorities.
With recent negotiations, carbon taxation is gaining traction in Pakistan as part of the $1.3 billion IMF Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) agreement, which is expected to include reforms such as formula-based fuel pricing and the introduction of a carbon tax.
Put simply, a carbon levy, when thoughtfully designed, can be a powerful lever in the fight against climate change, but its impact stretches beyond just emissions. Its effectiveness hinges not only on the right price and scope, but also on public trust and how the revenues are reinvested – whether into renewable energy, public transit or easing the burden on low-income households. Despite being rebuked due to valid concerns about economic strain, tangible examples show it can spark innovation, shift behaviour, and even boost green jobs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but as part of a broader, well-coordinated strategy, a carbon levy can help reshape the trajectory of how economies grow sustainably.
As per SDPI’s brief on ‘Carbon Taxation for Sustainable Industrial Transformation: Modalities around Equity and Revenue Recycling’, carbon pricing mechanisms like carbon taxes and emissions trading systems (ETS) have rapidly gained global support, with 75 jurisdictions covering 24 per cent of global emissions. In 2023 alone, these systems generated over $100 billion in revenue, highlighting their fiscal potential and effectiveness in driving environmental change. Implementation of these taxes is already underway in various countries.
Estimates suggest that an equitable and efficient carbon tax could fund renewable energy initiatives and hard-to-abate sectors while fostering economic growth. A $20/ton tax could yield 1.2 per cent of GDP annually, providing stable revenue for both climate and development goals. For economies with large informal sectors like Pakistan, it can also generate higher revenue with lower administrative costs.
Prima facie, this levy seems to offer a solution to Pakistan’s fiscal constraints, trade imbalances like CBAM, and climate challenges. However, viewing it as a panacea would be a superficial fix – a mere Overturn Window.
Pakistan faces multiple administrative, economic, industrial and regulatory hurdles in implementing an effective carbon tax regime. On the administrative front, the absence of robust Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems, coupled with high risks of tax evasion, severely undermines emissions tracking and revenue collection.
Also, this is an undeniable fact that Pakistan’s tax administration has remained lethargic & corrupt. The tax-to-GDP ratio was recorded at around 9.6 per cent and 10.8 per cent in the first and second quarters, respectively – well below the tipping point of 15 per cent observed in middle-income developing countries and significantly behind the globe such as Azerbaijan (18 per cent), Cambodia (13.5 per cent), Sri Lanka (13 per cent) and the 28 per cent and above seen in mature Western economies. In this administrative climate, a blanket carbon levy, without the removal of structural bottlenecks, seems far-fetched, if not a fanciful figment.
Economically, high energy costs – such as the Rs70/litre petroleum levy – exert inflationary pressure, disproportionately impacting low-income households. And the power sector, on the other hand, due to inefficiencies in all dimensions has caused a large circular debt along with a dismayed tariff structure. According to the IEA, 2024 electricity rates averaged 6.3 cents/kWh in the U.S. and India, 7.7 in China, 4.7 in Norway, and 11.5 in the EU. In contrast, Pakistan’s energy-intensive industries paid around 13.5 cents/kWh, significantly higher than global averages. Plus, energy poverty remains a pressing issue, with over 40 million people still lacking access to electricity.
The political economy is further distorted by policies like fossil fuel subsidies, which amount to Rs1.3 trillion annually. These subsidies undermine market signals and directly contradict emission reduction goals.
To address climate change effectively, Pakistan should adopt a phased hybrid carbon pricing model, ensuring the absence of high-handed and haphazard administrative dispensation. In Phase 1 (2025–2026), a carbon levy of 1,500 PKR/ton CO2 will target high-emitting industries like cement and textiles, with gradual expansions in Phase 2 (2027–2029), increasing the levy to 2,500 PKR/ton and introducing differentiated rates for trade-exposed sectors. By Phase 3 (2030 onward), the system will combine carbon taxes and emissions trading, aiming for a carbon price of $50–75/ton CO2, potentially linking with regional carbon markets.
Revenue generated from the carbon levy should be allocated towards low-carbon R&D and green initiatives, like afforestation, and support Pakistan’s National Economic Transformation Plan (Uraan Pakistan). The carbon tax should align with the EU’s CBAM, ensuring that export sectors, such as textiles, are not penalised through double taxation. Introducing tax swaps to offset economic impacts by reducing labour or capital taxes for industries adopting renewable technologies will provide fiscal incentives without increasing the overall tax burden.
Sector-specific measures include mandating carbon reporting for large industries, launching an emissions trading system for the power and cement sectors, and enforcing stricter fuel standards by 2026. Incentives for electric vehicles should be introduced, using 10 per cent of carbon tax revenue for subsidies. A carbon credit mechanism should be established for hard-to-abate sectors, allowing industries to offset emissions via domestic carbon credits. Export sectors should be allowed to bank credits for future compliance with CBAM.
To ensure successful implementation, Pakistan should create a Climate Fiscal Framework in collaboration with the IMF, linking carbon taxation to the country’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) commitments. Revenue from the carbon tax should be pooled into the Pakistan Climate Fund and managed by the Pakistan Climate Change Authority, with oversight from the Climate Change Council. Coordination with provincial governments will be crucial to ensure broad support and smooth execution. The initiative should focus on both emission reduction and revenue generation, with compensation mechanisms to mitigate economic impacts.
Pakistan must revamp its governance structure, particularly in the power sector, to minimise supply-side cost overruns. Without addressing these inefficiencies, the carbon levy could simply be passed on to consumers, exacerbating inflation and making Pakistani industries less competitive globally.
Carbon tax revenue could also be strategically allocated to reduce the tax burden on labour through reductions in personal income and payroll taxes. This fiscal policy approach would serve to neutralise the regressive effects of the carbon tax on households, while simultaneously enhancing labour market participation and overall economic efficiency.
Finally, Pakistan must adopt a pro-growth, anti-cyclical approach to ensure that fiscal policies, including carbon taxation, strengthen economic resilience during downturns, stimulate growth and protect industries in the long term, thus creating a solid foundation for a low-carbon, high-resilience economy. Done with precision, carbon taxation could position Pakistan as a leader in sustainable economic development.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1302800-carbon-levy-a-fail-safe
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The Ongoing Circus
By Raoof Hasan
April 19, 2025
A circus may remind you of many things: there are actors, there are clowns, there is dialogue and drama, there are smiles and tears, there is happiness and there is anguish, a heart breaks here and love prospers in the other corner. But, in the end, nothing remains to remind you of what one may have seen. An all-encompassing stillness grips you. That is how an ordinary circus becomes a minuscule reflection of life itself.
There is a circus that is being played around us every moment that we breathe. This has many dimensions that eternally transmit messages regarding the fickleness of life and all that we may be engaged in doing. In the end, it boils down to nothing. Does that mean that we should desist from getting involved in anything substantive and, instead, start taking our days and nights simply as manifestations of a transition; and that we should start enjoying whatever happiness may accrue through prolonged interludes of pain and suffering?
A circus is a place of make-believe. Watching its various acts, one is transported into a world which has no reality beyond the boundaries of the arena where the show is being staged. But it does give you a feel of dynamics which would have impacted the conceptualisation of the narrative within the confines of acts perceived and played. In his famous play ‘As You Like It’, Shakespeare said: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts”.
Breaking through the shackles that have been imposed on our thought process, one becomes sensitive to the enormity of challenges that we are confronted with and the pressing need to untangle them. This is no ordinary realisation as, in the current times, it comes laden with a myriad risks that can put you back by a life span. But then, there is something within us that propels us forward, saying that some challenges must not be endured as that would neither diminish the pain they cause, nor would they disappear leaving our progeny free of suffering at their hands.
In simple words, in such circumstances, a peaceful struggle to claim your rights becomes incumbent both as our constitutional and moral responsibility, as also it being a necessity for the larger good of the society. In the absence of such effort, the tentacles of oppression will continue digging in deeper, thus intensifying and increasing the agony they have caused through clueless ages. This provides the essential rationale for breaking free of the traditional logjams and helps unmask a new reality to behold.
There are things that one sees and there are things that one feels, absorbs and assimilates. Without diminishing the importance of the former, the latter experience has a more lasting and meaningful impact as it gets embedded in one’s psyche. It is from such an impact that the germs of change are born, propelling us to surge forward and beyond. This initial motivation for change then takes root over time before unravelling its full potential that can alter the direction of things at multiple levels. Having been denied our rights which are duly granted by the constitution, we are just about skirting such a situation.
Starting with the premise that we all want good for our country, why is it that we seem to falter at critical junctures in our endeavours to realise this objective? Besides other factors relating to the formulation of our plans, there is a core reason blocking our way forward. This relates to our deep-seated infatuation with individualised effort in preference to a collective initiative with the inclusion and support of the people of the country. While every individual matters as a peg in the overarching plan, it is the combined wisdom that will always be more likely to achieve substantive results.
There is another reason that accentuates the malady we are suffering from: the disconnect between the rulers and the ruled. This disconnect is multi-layered and is born out of denying them their rights as guaranteed in the statute book. Their deprivations have continued to increase with time, and there has been scant effort to mend the wrongs and bring them into the mainstream of national life. For most of their time in this world, they have remained perched at the edges, fighting for their few morsels to survive another day. This has denuded them of their dignity and self-respect.
Classically, the state is now suffering from the same ailment that, over time, it has subjected its people to: Pakistan has been reduced to being an economically captive country, going around the world with a begging bowl. Understandably, even our close allies and friends are unwilling to engage as they would in the past. This is a demeaning sight for its people. They would want their country to progress and attain a position of prominence in the comity of nations. Unfortunately, not only has this not happened, but Pakistan continues to slide with time simply because we are not making the effort to understand the issues in their entirety and then try to find tangible and sustainable remedies.
Whatever efforts are being made to attract investment will not yield results simply because the conditions that would be conducive to facilitate this do not prevail in the country. There is increasing political unrest as a bulk of people supportive of the PTI have been singled out for state reprisals. For them, the constitution and rule of law have become extinct commodities as they are gravely discriminated against by the state institutions. They are like aliens who cannot access the annals of justice as would be available to others.
The increasing disconnect between the stfacilitatingate and its citizens should be a matter of utmost concern for the bastions of power. Are they listening? Do they have the sensitivity to feel the pain that the people are enduring? They have all the remedies, but are they willing to treat their people on a par, irrespective of their political beliefs? I say so because there is palpable resentment, which is generating further problems for the country.
There comes a time when wisdom and sanity, not political discrimination, should define the policies that the state should pursue. That time has been knocking for a while now, but there are no listeners.
By its very nature, time waits for none. It is slipping away. This is the moment to dump the clowns. Wisdom demands that we make amends for the shortsighted policies that we have pursued in the past. Otherwise, this same time shall come back to haunt us.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1302801-the-ongoing-circus
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Regulating Crypto
By Mariam Saleem
April 19, 2025
Borderless, open-sourced, volatile and decentralised – crypto is fast-paced and constantly evolving. These aren’t just buzzwords; they define a technology that challenges the very foundations of traditional financial systems.
The question that looms large is: how do you regulate something designed to resist control and defy regulation while growing faster than our ability to legislate around it?
For years, Pakistan warily watched as the global crypto revolution surged ahead – sceptical and silent. In 2018, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) issued a circular, prohibiting banks from facilitating crypto transactions. But a ban is not regulation and silence is not strategy. And Pakistanis were quick to sense the stirrings of something bigger. Was this mind-boggling asset class a commodity, a security, a currency – or something else entirely?
With no legal clarity or roadmap, Pakistan’s cryptocurrency market grew quietly in the shadows – unregulated, misunderstood and vulnerable to misuse. Yet despite the legal vacuum and risks, by 2021, the country had surged to third place globally in crypto adoption, with an estimated 15 to 20 million active users.
The government has recently taken significant steps to formalise the crypto sector with the establishment of the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC). Led by Bilal Bin Saqib and supported by key figures such as the finance minister and the SBP governor, the PCC aims to responsibly integrate digital assets into the national financial system. The appointment of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao as a strategic adviser further signals Pakistan’s intent to align with global crypto standards. Still, challenges remain. Financial literacy is uneven, and institutional capacity stretched. Regulators now face the dual task of building a global-standard framework while keeping pace with a rapidly evolving industry.
The regulation of crypto occupies a uniquely complex space, sitting at the crossroads of multiple, often overlapping, regulatory regimes. As blockchain-based applications rapidly evolve and new cryptocurrency use cases emerge almost daily, each innovation introduces fresh legal uncertainties and risks.
For Pakistan, the challenge is even more pronounced. It must strike a careful balance between establishing legal certainty and navigating its own economic priorities and institutional capacities. Yet the urgency to bring this emerging sector under the umbrella of a comprehensive regulatory framework is undeniable. Pakistan must foster responsible innovation while protecting consumers in a borderless digital economy – or risk falling behind in the global race.
The following policy recommendations outline a phased and pragmatic path forward.
Phase 1 would be to lay the foundation. This would include: one, establishing a Central Oversight Authority. Set up a dedicated crypto regulatory body with a clear mandate for licensing, compliance, coordination and ongoing policy development.
Two, aligning AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Countering Financing of Terorism) standards with FATF guidelines. Develop a crypto-specific anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework with robust KYC norms, transaction monitoring, and enforcement.
Three, clarifying legal definitions and regulatory guidelines. Define crypto assets, service providers, and blockchain applications to eliminate ambiguity. Set rules for capital requirements, risk management, and investor protection.
And, four, licensing Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). Require registration and licensing of exchanges, wallets, and custodians to ensure consumer protection and regulatory compliance.
Phase 2 would involve controlled innovation by one, adopting a dual-tier licensing model. Inspired by models in Singapore and Japan, a dual-tier system can regulate small innovators lightly while requiring stricter compliance from large players, ensuring flexibility and systemic safety.
Two, expanding regulatory sandboxes and pilot programmes. Controlled testing environments allow the government to observe, learn from, and adapt to crypto innovations without exposing the broader financial system to shocks. SECP’s sandbox should be expanded and focused on blockchain, digital payments and tokenised assets.
Three, creating a legal framework for blockchain use. Beyond cryptocurrencies, blockchain can streamline governance, logistics and recordkeeping. A national blockchain strategy, with accompanying legal clarity, can improve public sector efficiency and trust.
Phase 3 would be about protection, resolution and value creation. This would involve consumer protection standards to enforce transparency, secure custody protocols, and disclosures to safeguard users and build market trust. Data protection laws would require encryption and secure personal and financial data handling practices across all crypto platforms to prevent misuse and ensure privacy. Fast-track arbitration and mediation frameworks for crypto and blockchain-related conflicts would also be needed.
The last phase – Phase 4 – would be about strategic integration. This would be about first, regulating and incentivising Bitcoin mining. With surplus electricity in certain regions and rising global demand, Pakistan can explore environmentally responsible, licensed Bitcoin mining – offering tax incentives and clean energy solutions to attract legitimate investment.
Second, developing a cryptocurrency taxation policy. Introduce clear capital gains and income tax structures on digital assets to support fiscal transparency, while simultaneously raising revenue.
Third, promoting innovation and international cooperation. Offer incentives for block chain start-ups and collaborate with international partners for cross-border enforcement and knowledge sharing.
The world of digital assets is rapidly reshaping global economies, and Pakistan faces a critical moment. With technology redefining finance, the country must act swiftly to create a robust regulatory framework that safeguards consumers, combats illicit activity and establishes its position in the global digital economy.
The borderless nature of crypto offers limitless opportunities, but without urgent action, Pakistan risks being left behind.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1302803-regulating-crypto
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Tariffs, Turmoil & Tech
Asad Baig
April 19, 2025
ON the morning of April 5, 2025, traders at the New York Stock Exchange were glued to their screens as Apple’s stock nosedived nearly five per cent in an hour.
Tesla had already fallen 7pc the day before, and Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet were not far behind. In just three days, nearly $2 trillion in market value was wiped from America’s largest tech firms.
The crash wasn’t triggered by a product flop or a bad earnings report. President Donald Trump had just announced sweeping new tariffs, 10pc on all imports, with steep penalties for key trading partners, including China, India and Vietnam. For Big Tech, which relies on deeply interwoven global supply chains, the blow was immediate and brutal. The markets did not just react; they imploded.
Previous tariff announcements have rattled Wall Street, but this one is different. The scope, timing and targets threaten to fundamentally reshape how global tech operates. This wasn’t just an economic hiccup; it was a structural tremor. Apple’s iPhone, which depends on Chinese and Vietnamese factories, is now caught between rising input costs and collapsing margins. Analysts warn a flagship iPhone could soon cost more than $2,300. And Apple is just one node in a vast ecosystem.
Meta, Google and Amazon also lean heavily on Asian manufacturing for hardware, including VR devices, server racks, even cloud infrastructure. Tesla’s electric vehicles rely on components from India and China. And in the world of AI, where cutting-edge development depends on GPUs and servers often sourced from the same region, the consequences are especially severe. Tariffs on key computing parts are expected to raise development costs by more than a third, a surge that could cripple smaller labs and delay innovation at even the largest ones.
Ironically, while the tariffs are meant to curb China’s tech rise, they may be undercutting America’s own dominance. Big Tech’s strength has long rested on low trade barriers, cheap offshore production and frictionless global logistics. That model is now being dismantled in real time. Investors are no longer just reacting to earnings; they’re questioning the future of an entire industry’s structure.
At a time when the US is racing against China for dominance in AI, the tariffs may be inflicting damage on America’s own momentum. AI development is built on GPUs, servers and high-performance computing systems, many of which are assembled or sourced from Asia.
While some advanced semiconductors have been given temporary exemptions, the broader ecosystem has not. Tariffs on GPUs alone are expected to spike development costs by as much as 35pc, which could cripple smaller AI startups and dramatically slow progress at larger labs.
The irony here is painful: in trying to weaken China’s tech rise, the US may end up kneecapping its own, and the market knows it. The $2 trillion erased was most likely a warning shot. Investors are not just worried about short-term earnings; they are rethinking the long-term profitability of Big Tech’s legacy business models.
The consequences are not contained within the US or China. In developing countries like Pakistan, which import nearly all their consumer tech and depend on global platforms to build digital capacity, the knock-on effects will be swift and severe. When Apple raises prices, when GPUs and cloud infrastructure become harder to source, the tremors reach straight into Pakistani homes, startups, classrooms, and servers.
Already saddled with local import duties and regulatory bottlenecks, Pakistani consumers face even steeper prices for smartphones, laptops and digital tools. But the deeper damage may hit the country’s fledgling AI and tech development ecosystem. Many local developers and researchers depend on access to global platforms, open-source models and affordable compute. As costs soar, those doors begin to close.
This creates a dangerous paradox: just as Pakistan attempts to digitise its economy, integrate AI into sectors like healthcare and education and foster homegrown innovation, the tools to do so become more expensive and less accessible. What follows is not just a tech slowdown, but the risk of falling into deeper digital dependency, reliant on imported AI services and locked out of the development loop.
Pakistan, of course, is not a player in the tech trade war. But it is caught in its crossfire. Tariff-driven supply chain shock may feel distant to some, but its results will show up in Pakistan’s stalled cloud deployments, paused AI experiments and shrinking startup runway. And as global companies restructure operations, smaller markets risk being deprioritised entirely.
Yet amidst the disruption, there is a sliver of opportunity. As tech giants look to de-risk from China and diversify their operations, Pakistan could insert itself not by mimicking China’s production scale, but by offering value in other ways. With a young, tech-savvy population and competitive labour costs, Pakistan can position itself as a digital services and backend talent hub for overstretched AI labs and global startups. But this won’t happen by default.
To seize this rather narrow window of opportunity, Pakistan needs to invest urgently and seriously in its human capital. That means prioritising technical education, scaling AI training programmes and subsidising access to computing infrastructure for universities, startups and freelancers alike. Without these fundamentals, the country risks becoming a spectator to a race it should be trying to run in.
Of course, all of this would require actual digital policymaking; something far more ambitious and conducive than criminalising misinformation through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and suspending X.
If we want to be a part of the global tech shift, we will have to do away with predatory laws and vague digital agendas. We need policies that enable infrastructure, promote learning and encourage innovation. As opposed to treating the internet as a threat to be contained, we need to look at it as a platform to be built upon.
Disruption is destabilising, but it also clears the way for new alignments. If the global tech order is being reshuffled, countries like Pakistan may have a chance to find new footing. The window may be narrow, but the cost of inaction is far wider.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1905222/tariffs-turmoil-tech
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The Freedom To Fly Solo
Rafia Zakaria
April 19, 2025
“FEMINISM convinced women they could have it all. Now they’re 40, independent and crying in a very nice empty apartment.” So wrote Nandi on X.
The response was swift as the ‘feminists’ that Nandi was taking issue with responded. “See sis,” wrote one “I’d rather cry in an apartment which I own than in one which I can be kicked out because the man bought it.” Another wrote: “…if you have a very nice apartment of your own when you’re 40 in this economy, that’s a well-played game of life and the privilege to cry in that apartment, wow.”
One of the best responses (among a huge number of them) simply stated: “Funny how people blame feminism for women ‘crying’ in nice apartments, but never blame patriarchy for women crying in marriages, bedrooms and kitchens, they were told would complete them.”
It is true that the very word ‘feminism’ raises the hackles of many — including women — when it is used. Weighed down by the accrued moral and historical baggage of being associated with Westernisation, colonial dominance and white supremacy, it is easy to hold up a word as the progenitor of all that is wrong with gender relations in modern society.
This is particularly so in the South Asian context where the entrenchment of patriarchy is such that women are even more eager to shut down other women who are fighting for basic equality and respect at the hands of social, cultural and political institutions. Nothing, it appears, endears women to chauvinistic men more than the former’s amenability to criticising their own. Hating women together is the glue of many a relationship.
This X kerfuffle over the feminist contribution to female loneliness took place within a context where women are increasingly financially independent and living alone. Pakistan is far behind in this regard; its flailing economy is often subject to the vagaries of whatever political order is having its moment in the sun, and simply does not provide the volume of opportunities that would ensure a strong middle class.
However, while one cannot see a mass upsurge in the numbers of financially independent women who can support themselves, their numbers are increasing even in Pakistan. The increase in urbanisation in recent years, along with educational opportunities for women, means that the financially independent and voluntarily single professional woman is no longer the oddity she once was.
Some of these women have taken to social media to chronicle what it is like to live alone as a woman in cities such as Karachi and Lahore. One of them, whom I watch regularly, begins every reel she posts on Instagram with a reminder that living by herself was always her dream. While she has not provided much of an explanation of why living by herself was her dream, it is not difficult to guess the reason.
Women in Pakistan grow up surrounded by the critical and toxic perspectives of everyone around them. As one of the respondents on X put it, the image of crying women is etched in our minds because women, by and large, still live a subservient and miserable existence pressed into the service of others. When one considers the drudgery of repetitive housework, the scolding of husbands and other relatives and the thanklessness of it all, it doesn’t take much to realise that living in an apartment alone is like a tropical beach vacation in comparison.
A glimpse into the lives of women living alone in Pakistan also dispels the myth that being alone automatically means being lonely. Social media content about their lives reveals that they eat, sleep, cook and clean according to their own schedules and convenience. There is time to enjoy a cup of tea and one’s inner contentment and peace are not being constantly disturbed by the vagaries of other people’s moods, needs, and demands. Most women in Pakistan spend all their lives entrapped by these forces; naturally the few who can escape are grateful for the reprieve.
This is not to say that the world, like our friend Nandi on X, is not up in arms to criticise the increasing numbers of women living alone. The solitary woman of their imagination is financially comfortable but emotionally bereft, essentially crying alone. These sorts of statements are part of the sociocultural backlash against women having this kind of autonomy. Society does not look kindly on women who choose paths that are not the usual that have been prescribed for them, ie, marriage and kids and family maintenance. This interpretation of the solitary woman as a ‘bechari’ is popularised as an added burden to the other obstacles already put in their way.
Interviews with women living alone in Pakistan reveal the problems they have renting apartments, getting cars fixed, and dealing with nosy neighbours and relatives. A woman living alone, after all, is a testament to the fact that women do not need men in order to live. And in a male-dominated society, where women are second-class citizens, such a testament is unacceptable in all circumstances.
The waves of change have a way of upending the status quo. The beginnings of change and the fact that there are Pakistani women out there who are living alone and are even willing to share how normal and enjoyable their experiences show that the old ways are slowly disintegrating.
This does not mean that all women should aspire to live alone for their entire lives. Instead, it shows that when the opportunity to live alone and independently presents itself, it can be looked at as an enjoyable and peaceful time of contentment and freedom.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1905223/the-freedom-to-fly-solo
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