LONDON: On Remembrance Sunday, Prince Charles will lay Queen Elizabeth II’s wreath honoring Britain’s war dead as she watches on — a rare public symbol of the 91-year-old gradually scaling back her duties.
It will be a milestone moment in the otherwise imperceptibly slow-motion process, as her eldest son, now 69, increasingly steps up on her behalf.
Experts said Britain’s oldest-ever monarch would never consider abdication or even a regency by her son, having sworn to serve her people for life.
But Charles, the heir to the throne, will steadily take on more duties outside the core constitutional obligations of her job.
“A very great deal can be done to scale back her public roles progressively and informally,” Bob Morris of the Constitution Unit at University College London told AFP.
“There are ways of handling a lot of the public functions which don’t necessarily require the queen personally to undertake them,” he said.
“Remembrance Sunday is a very good example.”
The ceremony is one of the core annual occasions when Britons expect to see their monarch center-stage.
She has missed it only six times in her 65-year reign: twice when pregnant and four times when overseas.
Sunday’s service at the Cenotaph memorial in London involves walking backwards down steps and standing still for a long time in often chilly and damp weather.
Queen Elizabeth will be looking on from a Foreign Office balcony, alongside her 96-year-old husband Prince Philip, who retired from public duties in August.
“The queen wishes to be alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and he will be in the balcony,” a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said.
A palace source suggested this would set the pattern for future Remembrance Sundays.
By joining her retired husband in this way, the queen opens the door to doing likewise at other events — and has set a precedent as to what she herself might do as she ages.
Some reports suggest she could eventually retreat into seclusion in Scotland, like her great-great-grandmother queen Victoria did after her husband Prince Albert died.
Queen Elizabeth’s official engagements have already dropped 22 percent from the 425 in her 2012 diamond jubilee year to 332 in 2016.
She has not made any long-distance trips since 2011.
Charles and his wife Camilla now do the bulk of such visits, such as their 11-day tour of four Asian Commonwealth countries which ended Thursday.
As the heir, Charles has for years been reading the red boxes of official state papers that are also examined by his mother, shadowing her work in preparation.
As Prince of Wales, Charles is outspoken on topics such as the environment, architecture, farming and youth skills.
His activism is partly fueled by knowing that his time is limited and he will be unable to do so as king.
Royal author Penny Junor, an expert on Charles and Camilla who recently wrote “The Duchess: The Untold Story,” said the prince was in no rush to become king.
“I don’t think Charles is itching to get his hands on his mother’s duties. He has a very full life already,” she said.
“He really enjoys what he does. When he becomes king, he can’t be so hands-on.”
Junor said it was the queen, not Charles, who was driving the process of handing over duties, and would progressively be “more and more realistic about what it is that she can do.”
Britain’s Prince Charles steps up as Queen steps back
Britain’s Prince Charles steps up as Queen steps back
In southeast Pakistan, Ramadan brings Hindus and Muslims closer
MITHI: Partab Shivani, a Hindu in Muslim-majority Pakistan, has fasted on and off during Ramadan for years, but this time is different as he practices abstinence for the entire holy month.
Every year, he and his friends in the southeastern city of Mithi arrange iftar, when Muslims break their daily fast, to foster peace and solidarity between the two religions.
“I believe we need to promote interfaith harmony. First, we are humans — religions came later,” Shivani, a 48-year-old social activist, told AFP, adding that he also reads the teachings of the Buddha.
“His message is about peace and ending war. Peace can spread through solidarity and by standing with one another. Distance only widens the gap between people,” he added.
Ninety-six percent of Pakistan’s 240 million people are Muslim. Just two percent are Hindu, most of them living in rural areas of Sindh province where Mithi is located.
In Mithi itself, most of the 60,000 inhabitants are Hindu.
Many of the city’s Hindus also observe Ramadan and iftar has become a social gathering where people from both faiths happily participate.
“This has been a wonderful tradition of ours for a very long time,” said Mir Muhammad Buledi, a 51-year-old Muslim friend who attended Shivani’s iftar gathering.
“It is a beautiful example of harmony between the two communities.”
Like brothers
Discrimination against minorities runs deep in Pakistan.
Following the end of British rule in South Asia in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
That triggered widespread religious bloodshed in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions displaced.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, freedom of religion or belief is under constant threat, with religiously motivated violence and discrimination increasing yearly.
State authorities, often using religious unrest for political gain, have failed to address the crisis, the independent non-profit says.
But such tensions are absent in Mithi.
“I am a Hindu but I keep all the fasts during this month,” said Sushil Malani, a local politician. “I feel happy standing with my Muslim brothers.
“We celebrate Eid together as well. This tradition in the region is very old.”
Restaurants and tea stalls are closed across Pakistan during Ramadan.
Ramesh Kumar, a 52-year-old Hindu man who sells sweets and savoury items outside a Muslim shrine, keeps his push cart covered and closed until iftar.
“There is no discrimination among us if someone is Muslim or Hindu. I have been seeing this since my childhood that we all live together like brothers,” he said.
Muslim shrine, Hindu caretaker
Locals say Mithi’s peaceful religious coexistence can be traced to its remote location, emerging from the sand dunes of the Tharparkar desert, which borders the modern Indian state of Rajasthan.
Cows — considered sacred in Hinduism — roam freely in Mithi city, as they do in neighboring India.
At two Sufi Muslim shrines in the middle of the city, Hindu families arrange meals, bringing fruit, meals and juices for their Muslim neighbors to break their fasts.
“We respect Muslims,” said Mohan Lal Malhi, a Hindu caretaker of one of the shrines.
Mohan said his parents and elders taught him to respect people regardless of religion or color, and the traditions pass from one generation to the next.
Local residents said both communities consider their social relationships more important than their religious identity.
“You will see a (Sikh) gurdwara, a mosque, and a shrine standing side by side here,” Mohan said. “The atmosphere of this area teaches humanity.”
