When urban planning meets disaster management and mental health

Posted on February 23, 2014 by beenasarwar

Harvard SAI Karachi confMy article published in The News on Sunday today, about the Contemporary South Asian City Conference in Karachi last month co-sponsored by Harvard South Asia Institute and Aman Foundation, with Pakistan Urban Forum – by all accounts a most dynamic and exciting event. I spoke to two Harvard professors in Cambridge MA after their return from Karachi.

By Beena Sarwar

Rahul Mehrotra is no stranger to Karachi. From his base in Mumbai, he built Amin Hashwani’s house in Karachi some years ago, a project for which he visited the city several times. “By the time we did the interiors though, we couldn’t get visas,” he added, when we spoke in Cambridge recently. Continue reading →

Filed under: Environment | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The February 12 pledge, terrorism, and the Malala connection

Posted on February 12, 2014 by beenasarwar
Lahore, Feb 12, 1983: Police lathi charge demonstrators. Photo: Rahat Ali Dar

Lahore, Feb 12, 1983: Police lathi charge demonstrators. Photo: Rahat Ali Dar

The News published a slightly toned down version of my article, The Feb 12 pledge. Un-edited text below, followed by a postscript linking this struggle to Malala. More photos at this link.

Renewing the Feb 12 pledge

By Beena Sarwar

Every February 12 we commemorate Pakistan Women’s Day in honour of those who gathered at Lahore’s Regal Chowk on that day in 1983, defying the military order against public gatherings, to protest Gen. Zia’s ‘Law of Evidence’ that upheld the testimony of a male as equal to that of two females in a court of law. The police attacked the demonstrators with batons and arrested several, including the venerated poet Habib Jalib whom Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif is fond of quoting. Continue reading →

Filed under: 'War on terror', Gender | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Those demanding ‘Sharia’ in Pakistan, FYIP

Posted on February 10, 2014 by beenasarwar

Why I do not want Shariah in Pakistan

The Pakistan government is trying to hold talks with the Taliban, who should really be referred to as Fasadis*. There are no women in the government committee, and of course none on the Taliban side. One of the Taliban negotiators pulled out, refusing to participate until the agenda includes the imposition of Sharia law. Here’s a note posted by The Traitors of Pakistan and  Pakistan Votes  on Facebook, ’10 reasons why I do not want Shariah in Pakistan’. I have an additional question to the reasons they listed: 11. Whose Sharia? Each religious sect has its own version. Many of us reject the one propagated by the Fasadis and the Saudi-patronised Takfiris**. Here’s the note, for your information please, as desis say:

Continue reading →

Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

India/Pakistan: Asha ki Kiran

Posted on February 6, 2014 by beenasarwar
Tea with the lovely Nandita Das in Mumbai

Tea with the lovely Nandita Das in Mumbai

Found to be inoperable in Bangalore, young Kiran Soomro won over scores of hearts and has returned to Pakistan with a priceless gift of love – and homemade Singhar mithai. My article published in Aman ki Asha and TOI blogs today

On January 20, 2014, her seventeenth birthday, Kiran Soomro flew from Karachi to Bangalore on with her parents. They left with hope in their hearts and a prayer on their lips, expecting that Dr. Devi Shetty at the Narayana Health hospital would be able to surgically close the hole in Kiran’s heart.

Five days later, they learnt that her condition is inoperable by now. It would have been a fairly simple operation had it been looked into and treated earlier. Doctors initially discussed a heart-and-lung transplant. Dr. Balakrishnan, a well-known surgeon from Chennai drove down on his own initiative to examine Kiran in Bangalore. Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Censorship, book bans and Malala: exposing closet Talibans

Posted on January 30, 2014 by beenasarwar

malala bookRecently, an editor in Karachi told the well known defence and policy analyst Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa “not to bother writing anymore about the Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or any other militant outfit, religious party or even the cricketer-turned-politician’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).” She was told not to even mention TTP and affiliated organisations. The call followed the attack on a vehicle carrying staff of a media organisation, in which three people were killed and four injured.

And in Peshawar, the launch of “I am Malala” was stopped from taking place at the last minute. Read poet and activist Harris Khalique’s comment about it – “Malala interrupted and the Khan surprised“. As he mentions, another activist and friend M. Tahseen had written an email, angry at the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtukhwa (KP) for preventing the book launch from taking place. It was scheduled last Tuesday, January 28,  at the Area Study Center, University of Peshawar,  organized by various civil society organizations  along with the Area Study Center.

Imran Khan’s response:

I tend to agree with my friend, the rights activist Dr. Fouzia Saeed, who proposes that if Imran Khan really means what he says, he should host a big event to launch the book. It is, after all, important as Fouzia says, “to make a distinction between KP ministers who did this, and the Taliban”.

Continue reading →

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Musharraf or Zia… A dictator is a dictator

Posted on January 30, 2014 by beenasarwar
20130408 Mush Tamil UnrealTimes

One-man rule is disastrous in the long term. Image courtesy: Tamil UnrealTimes

My opinion piece published in The News op-ed, and for Hard News, India

Former Pakistan army chief Pervez Musharraf ousted an elected civilian government from power, and usurped power illegally, holding on to it for over ten years, but there are those in India and in Pakistan who feel quite sympathetic towards him.

He had dash and bravado, they say. He nearly resolved the long-pending Kashmir issue with India. He encouraged the classical arts, liberalised the media, oversaw a telecommunications revolution, and partially revived the joint electorate system that the previous military dictator Gen. Ziaul Haq had divided by religion (Ahmadis still are not allowed to vote as Muslims). Musharraf also took the teeth out of the controversial Hudood Ordinances, making it more difficult for false charges of zina (adultery) to be brought against women on various pretexts. Continue reading →

Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Musharraf’s trial and Pakistan

Posted on January 25, 2014 by beenasarwar
Musharraf and the famous fist. Photo T. Mughal/EPA

Musharraf and the famous fist. Photo T. Mughal/EPA

Below, my (un-populist) take on the Musharraf treason trial, in an opinion piece published in International Business Times, London, Jan 23, 2014. N.B. The recent attack on the bus in Mastung, Balochistan, that killed some 30  Hazara Shia Muslims, including women and children returning from pilgrimage in Iran is an example of the result of Musharraf’s policies of letting the home-grown ‘jihadis’ function. Plus I forgot to mention his role in the murder of Akbar Bugti… Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Update: Kiran Soomro in Bangalore

Posted on January 23, 2014 by beenasarwar
Happy birthday, Kiran. Photo: Haresh Jiwnani

Happy birthday, Kiran. Photo: Haresh Jiwnani

On Jan 19, 2014, friends and family gathered at heart patient Kiran Soomro‘s home in Karachi for a small send-off/birthday party. The following day, on her 17th birthday, Jan 20, 2014, she left Karachi for Bangalore with her parents, via Mumbai where her Indian ‘didi’ Nitu Jiwnani met her. The five hour flight delay had been exhausting. A skinny, exhausted, red-eyed Kiran clung to Nitu and wept. She didn’t want to get on another flight. But after a breather and some refreshments, she was ready to tackle the onward journey  (see my article in Aman ki Asha; also published in TOI blogs).

They landed in Bangalore late at night, and spent the following day, Jan 21,  at the police station undergoing the verification process that Indian and Pakistani citizens are required fulfill within 24-hours of arrival Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Martyrs and Fasadis. Rest in peace, brave Aitzaz Hasan and Ch. Aslam Khan

Posted on January 10, 2014 by beenasarwar

Screen shot 2014-01-09 at 2.33.58 PMScreen shot 2014-01-09 at 2.37.05 PM TTP: We did it.
JI/PTI: No.
TTP: Yes.
JI/PTI: No. Look, drone!
TTP: Where?
JI/PTI: Who cares? It made you do it.
TTP: It did? Hmmm.
– tweet by @NadeemfParacha

Rest in peace, brave Aitzaz Hasan, schoolboy who sacrificed his life saving his schoolmates from a suicide bomber. Rest in peace, SSP Ch. Aslam Khan, targeted and killed by the coward Fasadis (please let’s not call them ‘jihadis’ or ‘mujahideen’, holy warriors which confers a degree of legitimacy on them). Rest in peace all those innocent souls murdered in cold blood by coward Taliban Fasadis and their ilk. Shame on Jamat-e-Islami and all those who term these criminal Fasadis as ‘mujahideen’ and ‘shaheed’. They’ve made it very clear which side of the fence they’re on.

Filed under: Pakistan | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Nitu’s mission: Save Kiran

Posted on January 6, 2014 by beenasarwar

My column PERSONAL POLITICAL published in The News, TOI blogs, and Aman ki Asha

Kiran Soomro: "I want to live".

Kiran Soomro: “I want to live”.

Nitu Jiwani-1

Nitu Jiwnani: “Save Kiran”

By Beena Sarwar

“Didi, I want to live,” 16-year old Kiran Soomro in Karachi tells her friend Nitu Jiwnani in Mumbai. “I don’t want to die.”

They are talking on Skype in Sindhi as they often do, since first meeting at Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, in May 2013.

Kiran had gone there with her parents to undergo surgery for her congenital heart defect (“hole in the heart”) that should have been operated upon when she was much younger. But her father Sikandar Ali Soomro, a tall, thin matriculate who earns daily wages selling potato wafers at a Karachi roadside stall could not afford the operation. Her parents were resigned to losing Kiran, a weak and sickly child.

But she wouldn’t give up. Pulled out of school when she was in class five, Kiran studied at home. A few years ago, as a spunky teenager, she realised that without the surgery, she would die. Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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