Posted on July 2, 2014 by beenasarwar
Belatedly updating my blog with the article I wrote for The News on Sunday, June 15, 2014, as part of a Special Report on conspiracy theories. Other reports in that issue were Dr M. Taqi’s The truth behind conspiracy theories in Pakistan, an interview of Nadeem Farooq Paracha and more. Lots has happened since then, but this remains relevant.
Graphic: TNS
If India and Pakistan develop a good relationship, how will the security establishment justify its existence? Continue reading →
Filed under: Pakistan | Tagged: conspiracy theories, hamid mir, India, Karachi airport attack, Malala Yusufzai, Pakistan | 8 Comments »
Posted on June 7, 2014 by beenasarwar
Iqbal holds up a picture of his wife, Farzana Parveen, killed outside the Lahore High Court. Photo: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images
On the murder of Farzana Parveen in Pakistan and the two Dalit girls in India – something I wrote last week, published in The News and in The Times of India blog
There is no honour in killing
End the culture of impunity
Beena Sarwar
Last Tuesday, May 27, two crimes that shocked the world took place, one in the morning in Lahore, Pakistan and the other at night in Uttar Pradesh, India. Three young women – two of them just girls, really, were killed in these incidents. A fourth casualty was the unborn child of the five months pregnant woman in Pakistan. Continue reading →
Filed under: Gender, Human rights | Tagged: blood money, Dalit, Farzana, gang rape, honor killing, honour killing, impunity, India, Iqbal, Pakistan, Qisas Diyat, rape, rule of law | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 5, 2014 by beenasarwar
Got the word a few hours ago. Without any notice, warning or explanation, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has blocked several progressive pages on Facebook. Interestingly, there is no bar on the pages spewing hatred and furthering the ideology of banned groups.
The blocked pages include Laal, the largest leftist page in South Asia with over 408,000 followers. The other pages include those that post largely in Urdu and therefore reach large numbers, like: Continue reading →
Filed under: Media, Pakistan | Tagged: censorship, Internet, Media, Pakistan, PTA | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 2, 2014 by beenasarwar
Grieved to have had to write this. Published in The News today.
Columnist, humourist, cricket and jazz buff, advertising doyen and connoisseur of the finer things in life Masood Hasan, 72, passed away in his beloved Lahore on Sunday, June 1.
Sunday was the day of his popular column ‘Over the Top’ in the op-ed page of The News, where it has been published since the launch of weekly The News on Sunday (originally The News on Friday) in 1994. Continue reading →
Filed under: Pakistan | Tagged: Bapsi Sidhwa, Ira Hasan, Khalid Hasan, Kinnaird College, Lahore, lakshmi mansion, Masood Hasan, Mekaal Hasan, Samina Ahmed, sialkot, Waris Road | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 1, 2014 by beenasarwar
When a court in India ruled in favour of 60-year-old Shah Bano, granting her maintenance (under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code with an upper limit of Rs. 500 a month) from her ex-husband who had divorced her, it was not the first such judgment granting a divorced Muslim woman maintenance under Section 125 like all Indian women. But the orthodox lobby termed the verdict an attack on Islam.
Received the following note via email from Justice Katju in New Delhi, posted below. He has also posted it to his blog.
Uniform Civil Code
The refusal to modernise Muslim law or enact a common civil code has contributed to keeping Muslims backward in India, and has thus done great harm to Muslims
By Justice Markandey Katju
The issue of a uniform civil code has recently been raised. I am fully in support of a uniform civil code.
Article 44 of the Indian Constitution states : “The state shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India”. Continue reading →
Filed under: Gender, Human rights | Tagged: gender rights, katju, Muslim women, uniform civil code | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 30, 2014 by beenasarwar
Not just the ‘poor’ and ‘uneducated’ – Samia Sarwar was murdered in her lawyer’s office by a man abetted by her own mother, a doctor.
The outrage against the murder of Farzana Parveen outside the Lahore High Court reminded me of something I wrote in September 2008, published in The News, Pakistan and in The Hindu, India, below. Farzana was going to the court to testify that she had married her husband of her own choice (defending him against kidnapping charges her family had brought against him). Such murders for ‘honour’ are common in the region. In Pakistan, the situation is exacerbated by the Qisas and Diyat law which enables the perpetrators to literally get away with murder (as Raymond Davis did). This case is particularly horrific because of where it happened and because the woman was three months pregnant. See booklet by Hassam Qadir Shah: Honour killing-criminal procedures-Hassam Qadir Shah-Shirkat Gah (2002, PDF)
There is no ‘honour’ in killing, Sept 2008
[Note: in my published article, I had mixed up the names, corrected below – the correct names are Saima Waheed and Samia Sarwar] Continue reading →
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Asma Jahangir, balochisthan women killed, Farzana, Hina Jillani, honour killing, Iqbal Haider, love marriage, Pakistan, saima waheed, samia sarwar, senate, Violence against women, woman killed high court Lahore | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 26, 2014 by beenasarwar
May 25, , Puri beach, Odisha: Sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik’s image of India’s Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi and the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made in sand, with the message ” Peace gets a chance’.
I don’t have any great expectations from Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s upcoming visit to Delhi for PM designate Modi’s inauguration but it’s good that he’s going (despite all the pressures) and that contact is being initiated. Hopefully this contact will lead to steps being taken to implement agreements that have already been signed (re: trade, travel) that are in limbo. In that spirit, a re-plug for the Aman ki Asha petition against visa restrictions. Please sign and share if you haven’t already. Also, a very positive step ahead of the Modi-Sharif meeting is that, as a goodwill gesture, Pakistan has ordered the release of over 150 Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen, from Pakistani prisons. And for the first time, they are also releasing fishing boats. This is the first time in years that any side has decided to release fishing boats – kudos to Pakistan for taking the lead in this direction.
PIPFPD welcomes fishermen’s release, participation of Sharif in Modi’s swearing in ceremony
Modi’s invitation to Nawaz Sharif – a welcome move: Justice Markandey Katju Continue reading →
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: boats, fishermen, fishing boats, India, Modi, Pakistan, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, PIPFPD, Sharif | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 26, 2014 by beenasarwar
Hamid Mir: Fighting on. AFP photo: Aamir Qureshi
Retired judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Markandey Katju, Chairman Press Council of India, emailed the following statement about the attack on Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir:
May 23, 2014: I strongly condemn the attack in Karachi on Hamid Mir, the well known Pakistani journalist, who sustained six bullet injuries in the attack. This is a direct attack on media freedom, whether it was by the Taliban or ISI or anyone else.
Though I have differed with some of the views of Mr. Hamid Mir, I believe, like Voltaire, that he has the democratic right to express his views. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights, Media | Tagged: Baloch nationalists, Balochistan, democracy, freedom of expression, hamid mir, isi, katju, Media, Pakistan | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 14, 2014 by beenasarwar
Senior journalist and Director, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan I.A. Rehman on a valued comrade and beloved nephew, shot dead in his office last week:
He loved life but he loved justice even more. He did not fail anyone, everybody who mattered failed him…. What is the situation now?
• The journalists in Multan dare not write about the murder.
• The judges in the Lahore High Court are apparently avoiding hearing Aasia Bibi’s appeal.
• The Multan police want the people to believe they do not know who the mischief-makers are.
• There is no authority in the country that can stem the wave of intolerance that is going to erase all remnants of reason and civilisation.
Let all those hurt by murder in the HRCP office stop mourning Rashid’s loss and gird up their loins to save the next ones marked for annihilation.
Read the complete article: Obituary: Requiem for a rights activist
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: blasphemy, HRCP, Multan, Rashid Rehman Khan, rights activist killed | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 13, 2014 by beenasarwar
“Another light has gone out in Pakistan.” Less than a week after advocate Rashid Rehman was killed in Multan, Dr Faisal Manzoor has been gunned down outside his hospital in Hasanabdal. Tragic beyond words. May his family and friends find the courage to bear the loss. May the security and political establishments find what it takes to find his killers, charge, try and punish them. This culture of impunity must end. Please read
Dr Omar Ali’s blog post about his colleague Dr Rashid Manzoor, killed just two months after his cousin, also a doctor at the same hospital, was gunned down at the same spot — both killed only because they were Shia (
The Martyrdom of Dr Faisal Manzoor). “They were not just Shia, they were
prominent Shias. They were also prominent philanthropists, prominent doctors, prominent helpers of those in need, prominent hosts of distant cousins of friends of friends..and prominent friends of all and sundry. But being prominent Shia was what got them targeted…..and all the other prominences did not help one bit when the motorbike boys came looking for targets.”
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: #shiagenocide, Dr Ali Haider, Dr Babar Ali, Dr Faisal Manzoor, Shia doctors killing | 1 Comment »
Journeys to democracy 