Four main camps around Karachi

Posted on August 26, 2010 by beenasarwar

On the side of Super Highway, children running after a Suzuki with relief goods (not managed). Photos: Yasir Husain

Received this information in an email from Yasir Husain, Karachi, Aug 24, 2010:

A C-130 from Jacobabad airlifted a group of stranded people to Karachi. These people are in a number of camps I visited in the Hawkesbay / Keamari / Manghopir area. One has 650 tents, and is generally secure and well catered for. The area has electricity and a tent hospital with beds.

Another camp close by is in a girls’ college on the main Hawkesbay Rd. The college was built by PPP government 15 years ago. It never opened or finished, but still gets additions. The refugees from upper Sindh housed here are being well looked after, but say they were never told that they were being taken to Karachi, or Mangopir. Ambulances and police are on standby, and district officers are on duty. There was an anti-mosquito spray at the college, which had a generator on standby, but no electricity. Continue reading →

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

Doctors protest target killing of colleagues

Posted on August 19, 2010 by beenasarwar

As the PMA protested in front of the Press Club in Karachi yesterday afternoon over the murder of an Ahmadiyya doctor – a paediatric surgeon at Dow – they got news of the murder of a Shi’a doctor in the city. This is beyond belief. At a time when the country is facing its worst natural disaster ever – these fanatics continue their killing spree, targeting doctors, of all people. See news report. Following is a press release sent out after the doctors’ meeting on Aug 20, 2010: Continue reading →

Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

60 Pakistan artists donate works; silent auction for flood relief

Posted on August 18, 2010 by beenasarwar

60 Pakistan artists have donated their works at a silent auction at Koel cafe in Karachi. Ends today (Aug 18) 6.30 pm. All proceeds will go to Pakistan flood relief work. See Express Tribune report at http://bit.ly/b8jeFG

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

Karachi today

Posted on August 3, 2010 by beenasarwar

Karachi, Aug 3: Tension grips the city today – the first of three days of mourning declared by the MQM – but some brave (and desperate) souls venture out.

A Walls ice-cream cycle vendor’s electronic bell (really annoying normally, but most welcome today) cuts through the humid air. I ask him where he’s coming from. Korangi, he says. Took a rickshaw. Buses weren’t running. 18 people died there yesterday. They (the miscreants) burnt the furniture market. But daily wagers like him have to risk going out. If they don’t earn, their families don’t eat.

Petrol pumps are closed. Our driver can’t make it because pumps in his area (Korangi) are closed and he has no gas in his motorbike. I have to attend a family wedding lunch. Pick up another guest. Drive to the other end of town. But it’s ok. Sparse traffic, lots of police vehicles, but calm.

Traffic picks up towards the evening as we head home. We notice a couple of overcrowded buses. As on any holiday, boys play cricket wherever they can – an open ground, a residential lane.

I head to office later – there’s a page to be made. Page designer Tanveer says he found a petrol pump open and was able to get gas to make it to work.

My colleague Muniba is thrilled to find an open khoka on main Drigh Road (now called Shahra-e-Faisal) where she could buy cigarettes. “There were about 20 people around that khoka,” she chuckles. “You know us cigarette addicts, we’ll do anything to get a ciggie.” Sadly, yes.

Geo News reports that 46 people have died since yesterday, over 123 injured. Several vehicles were torched, property destroyed. All leaders have “appealed for calm”. Tomorrow is another day.

p.s. Here’s the link to a radio interview I gave NPR’s The World (Boston) about this day (before I knew what the death toll was)

Filed under: Politics | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Karachi burns again

Posted on August 3, 2010 by beenasarwar

The latest target killing – or assassination – in Karachi has once again plunged the city into tension. Four unidentified gunmen shot dead MQM leader and member of provincial assembly Haidar Raza during wuzu (ablutions) at a mosque where he had gone to attend a relative’s funeral prayers in Nazimabad Block No.2 this afternoon. His guard was gunned down first.

Some 400 people have died in target killings so far this year in Karachi – but in this sprawling city of over 18 million, life in most areas goes on. Haidar Raza’s high-profile murder, however, sent a wave of panic through the entire city. Continue reading →

Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

Personal Political: Plays and books, not bombs

Posted on March 12, 2010 by beenasarwar

Pakistan's foremost sculptor Shahid Sajjad at the Retrospective exhibition at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, Feb 2010

My monthly column for Hardnews, India, also published in The News on Sunday, (March 7, 2010)

Feb 25, 2010

Beena Sarwar

“New Karachi literary festival hopes to turn page on bombs,” trumpeted a headline in the Independent, UK.

Inspired by Jaipur, the festival in March “may not turn the page on the bombs,” as Siraj Khan, a Boston-based Pakistani commented in an email, “but it is very inspiring. In my recent 7-month stint in Karachi, I saw and felt this breath of fresh air myself. This has not happened overnight and it’s not just the new crop of writers who are turning the tide.” Continue reading →

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

Asim Butt. Artist. Activist. Rebel. Karachi lover. RIP

Posted on January 15, 2010 by beenasarwar

Asim Butt [BBC photo


Asim Butt. Artist. Activist. Rebel. Karachi lover. Peace lover. Asimicus. Saw him last two days ago heading home, he was waiting at a bus stop, we exchanged delighted hellos, I offered him a ride. “It’s all great,” he said with a big smile, gave an “all’s well” thumbs up. Funeral today 4 pm. Why?

‘Eject’ (military OUT of politics) – graffiti art by Asim Butt (Photo K.B. Abro)

We may never know the answer to this “why”. Meanwhile we can only hope that he is at peace where ever he is. Life does go on, even after such a shock and bereavement. But Karachi will not be the same without ‘Asimicus’, his generous spirit, creative passion and love for the city, for democratic values and peace. He got into these symbols- the ‘eject’ sign, the ‘circle’ –  with great enthusiasm, even missed an anti-Musharraf Emergency  rally to which he was bringing posters – got so involved making them he lost track of time. But that was Asim. Continue reading →

Filed under: Peace | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

« Previous Page