Journeys to democracy

Vigil for Sabeen in Harvard Yard, April 28, 2015. Poster designed by Erum Sattar shows a painting by Frida Kahlo whom Sabeen loved, with a word play on “mARTyr” she would have enjoyed. Photo: Ken Shulman

In the summer of 2011, young academic Nosheen Ali, and journalists Sahar Habib Ghazi and Malik Siraj Akbar approached me to work on a new initiative they called “Unsilencing Pakistan” that aimed to make an online record of all the journalists, activists, and thinkers in Pakistan who have been harassed, tortured, and/or executed. I had written at the time about those killed as ‘enlightenment martyrs’, part of an ongoing intellecticide. The “Unsilencing Pakistan” idea included a statement that we got several progressive voices to endorse  — Sabeen Mahmud among them (see below). We weren’t able to take the idea forward then but the concept remains critically important as Sabeen’s murder a week ago reminds us. I was also reminded by my friend Huma’s Facebook post today about the vigil for Sabeen uses the term #unsilencePakistan; and by the seminar titled Unsilencing Balochistan that was canceled at LUMS but held at T2F after which Sabeen was killed. 

Back in June 2011, we agreed that documentation is important to memorialise the brave voices of Pakistan, and make clear the enormous nature of the crimes. “The aim is to build public awareness, attention, and pressure. The documentation will happen through open collaboration with volunteers in news rooms who have been tracking the data. The final database will be visible to anyone on the web, with mappings of the total number of cases, where the most intimidation has taken place, details about the most common forms of torture etc. This documentation will also be instrumental for any legal proceedings that may be brought against the culprits.” What has changed?

Saluting Sabeen, May Day, 2015, Facebook post by Sharad Sharma with the comment: “Remembering those who deserve to be @May Day”

STATEMENT, drafted and endorsed, June 2011

An Honest Pakistan Will Be a Better Pakistan

We, the undersigned, condemn the continuing harassment, torture, and killing of progressive thinkers, journalists, and activists in Pakistan. Although few inquiries have been conducted so far, most fingers point to the security establishment because of its track record of intimidation that is familiar to anyone involved with the press in Pakistan. The most recent cases include the assassinations of the respected journalist Saleem Shehzad and the prominent Baloch scholar and poet Saba Dashtiyari. Most major Pakistani newspapers have written editorials and published opinion pieces that attest to the new depths that the nexus of the ‘agencies’ and militants have reached in the country, and to their continued immunity from serious investigation or accountability.

The situation in Balochistan is particularly disturbing in this regard. Hundreds of students, lawyers, journalists, and activists have been abducted and tortured in the region since 2005, in response to Balochistan’s legitimate demands for its rights. According to the organization Voice for Missing Baloch Persons, around 149 of those missing have been brutally murdered and disposed off, in what Amnesty International has termed “kill and dump” operations. These operations are then being used to justify the deplorable revenge-killings of non-Baloch, worsening the situation even more.

There have been attempts to question the policies that have led to this situation, but to no avail. We urge the elected civilian government as well as the judiciary, the military, the opposition, the media, the bureaucracy and the citizens of Pakistan to work together and ensure accountability, justice, and due process of law.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned (with Name, Profession, & Institutional Affiliation)

Thank you.

1. Sahar Habib Ghazi, Hosh Media
2. Nosheen Ali, UC Berkeley
3. Malik Siraj Akbar, Editor-in-chief The Baloch Hal
4. Beena Sarwar, journalist
5. Mehreen Zahra-Malik, Assistant Editor, The News International
6. Shehrbano Taseer, journalist, Newsweek Pakistan
7. Samina Omar Asghar Khan, Sungi Development Foundation
8. Sheikh Asad Rahman, Sungi Development Foundation, freelance journalist.
9. Amber Rahim Shamsi, BBC Urdu Service
10. Professor A. H. Nayyar, LUMS, Lahore
11. Syed Mustafa Qadri, Researcher, Amnesty International
12. Mehmal Sarfarz, journalist, Daily Times
13. Huma Yusuf, freelance journalist
14. Fahd Husain, Executive Director, ARY News
15. Kamran Asdar Ali, University of Texas, Austin
16. Ayesha Jalal, Tufts University, Boston
17. Saba Hamid, actor, Lahore
18. Dr Omar Ali, MD,  Asiapeace and Brownpundits.com
19. Zubeida Mustafa, freelance journalist
20. Zeeshan Haider Producer, BBC Pakistan
21. Dr Asad Sayeed, economist
22. Zahid F. Ebrahim, lawyer
23. Zofeen T. Ebrahim, journalist
24. Haris Gazdar, researcher
25. S.M. Naseem, economist
26. Zohra Yusuf, editor and writer
27. Kamran Arif, lawyer
28. Ghazi Salahuddin, journalist
29. Iqbal  Ali Alavi, Social  activist, Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences
30. Asad Ali Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
31. Shayan Afzal Khan, social entrepreneur and writer
32. Rahimullah Yusufzai, Resident Editor, The News International, Peshawar
33. Imrana Khwaja, journalist, Express Tribune
34. Zia Mian, Princeton University
35. Kamran Shafi, columnist, Dawn
36. Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi, Founder & Chair, Pakistan Youth Alliance
37. Jamal J. Elias, Univeristy of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
38. Shahzad Bashir, Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University
39. Zakia Sarwar, teacher and teacher trainer
40. Nusrat Javeed, Director Current Affairs, Aaj TV
41. Dr. Taimur Rahman, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Lahore University of Management Sciences
42. Dr Abbas Hamdani, Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
43. Salman Ahmad, MD, musician, author, teacher, co-founder of Junoon and SSGWI (www.ssgwi.org)
44. Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, Associate Professor of History, Brown University
45. Abbas Nasir, journalist
46. Umer Draz Nangiana, journalist, The Express Tribune
47. Fasih Ahmed, Editor-in-chief, Newsweek Pakistan
48. Ayesha Alam Khan, Director, The Knowledge Factory
49. Mekaal Hasan, musician & record producer, The Mekaal Hasan Band
50. Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell University
51. Pervez Hoodbhoy, physicist
52. Nadeem F. Paracha, journalist, columnist & cultural Critic, Dawn newspaper and Dawn.Com
53. Sabeen Mahmud, PeaceNiche
54. Naveen Naqvi, Founder and Editor-in-chief, Gawaahi.com
55. Kamran Rehmat, Editor, Islamabad Dateline
56. Jehan Ara, President, Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA)
57. Adnan Rehmat, InterMedia Pakistan
58. Khurram Husain, Business, Express
59. Hassan Bashir, Ph.D.  Assistant Professor of Political Science, Liberal Arts Program, Texas A&M University at Qata
60. Zain Alavi, Hamza Alavi Foundation
61. Dr Ghazala Kazi, physician

Sabeen’s advice to people organising solidarity vigils, Dec 18, 2014 (in the wake of the Peshawar APS massacre)

Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: Balochistan, intellecticide, saba dashtiyari, sabeen mahmud, Unsilencing Balochistan, Unsilencing Pakistan |