India, personally…

Posted on October 2, 2013 by beenasarwar
Fishing in Troubled Waters, launched in Delhi, Aug 13, 2013

Fishing in Troubled Waters, launched in Delhi, Aug 13, 2013

Update: See ‘A half-full glass‘ on the Singh-Sharif meeting at UNGA (and the ‘dehati aurat’ brouhaha), published in the Aman ki Asha page in The News on Oct 2, and in my column at TOI blogs.

This is a long-pending post, compiling articles, video and photo links (below) following my recent, brief trip to India at a time when tensions along the Line of Control (LoC) were running high. The Programme for Social Action (PSA) and the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) had invited me to a seminar on Aug 13, where they launched two publications. (I took the direct Karachi-Delhi PIA flight both ways, which has since then been discontinued — apparently not enough traffic because it’s so difficult to get visas; credit where credit is due – PIA is the only Southasian airline to fly to all the regional capitals and more).

Continue reading →

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Devise a long-term strategy for dealing with terrorism: Forum for Secular Pakistan

Posted on September 24, 2013 by beenasarwar

Peshawar-blast-78-Church-killing-suicide_9-22-2013_119340_lRead Omar Ali’s blogpost Three Layers of Confusion.. and their consequences” for a sound analysis of the vicious suicide bombing in Pakistan on Sunday targetting a church in Peshawar, killing at least 81 people, many of them women and children. Among them were six members of one family, including five women and a child.  As Dr Ali points out, “it is not that no action has been taken against them. ..but there is a curious disconnect between these operations and the national narrative being promoted by the same military”.  BELOW: a statement by the Forum for Secular Pakistan urging the government to Devise a long-term strategy for dealing with terrorism

Continue reading →

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From India with love: Tribute to Hassam , Friend and Human Rights Activist from Pakistan

Posted on July 2, 2013 by beenasarwar
"You were the steady hand, now we must learn to fight the pain" - Haris Gazdar

“You were the steady hand, now we must learn to fight the pain” – Haris Gazdar

A moving and beautiful tribute to Hassam Qadir Shah, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, a principled human rights lawyer and decent human being with a million dollar smile and gentle manner, married to the filmmaker Aisha Gazdar. Thank you Kamayani for writing this #RIP – Tribute to Hassam , Friend and Human Rights Activist from Pakistan. Here’s a link to Hassam’s seminal booklet on criminal procedures, in easy to read Q&A format about gender violence in Pakistan, “There is no ‘honour’ in Killing – Don’t Let them Get Away with Murder’ (Shirkat Gah, 2002)

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India, Pakistan: Cross-border cooperation against polio. “Failure is not an option”

Posted on June 15, 2013 by beenasarwar
‘Bowl out polio’: Pakistani cricketers Younis Khan and Imran Farhat give polio drops to a child at a UNICEF event in New Delhi, Jan 2013. Photo: PTI

‘Bowl out polio’: Pakistani cricketers Younis Khan and Imran Farhat give polio drops to a child at a UNICEF event in New Delhi, Jan 2013. Photo: PTI

Here’s something I wrote for Aman ki Asha recently, published in the June 5, 2013 edition:

India and Pakistan are working together against a common enemy. Pakistan’s new government must take up the baton

By Beena Sarwar

Over the past year, Pakistan has been studying how India dramatically eradicated polio, with the World Health Organisation striking it off its list of polio endemic countries in February 2012; the last case was recorded in January 2011. Continue reading →

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A Dutch journalist’s impressions of a Karachi dream turned reality

Posted on June 11, 2013 by beenasarwar

Babette-Cambridge-April-06I am proud of my old friend Ahsan Jamil for the work he is doing in Karachi, and delighted to have introduced him to another old friend Babette Niemel, who was inspired to write the following article about Aman Foundation, published in The News on Sunday, on March 10, 2013.

A Dutch journalist records her impressions of how Aman Foundation is changing the lives of Karachi’s underserved people

I have met Ahsan Jamil several times during my frequent visits to Karachi over the years. A modest, lively, kind man and a close childhood friend of my friend Beena Sarwar; when I met him once again a little over a year ago, he was positively beaming.

Engaged and committed: Aman Foundation CEO Ahsan Jamil and Manager Command and Control Center in discussion.

Engaged and committed: Aman Foundation CEO Ahsan Jamil and Manager Command and Control Center in discussion.

It was a cool summer evening in Karachi and we were out on the porch at Beena’s house. Ahsan was inviting her to come and checkout the new work he was doing. He could give us a tour of the facility, he said, extending the invitation to me as well. Continue reading →

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Quenching the thirst for peace

Posted on May 28, 2013 by beenasarwar
Tracing a peace sign together via a giant web-cam

Tracing a peace sign together via a giant web-cam

Here’s something I wrote about how a soft drink giant creatively connected Indians and Pakistanis with ‘the other side’, with a three-minute video that was easily the most shared link on the Aman ki Asha facebook group last week (not that it’s going to get me to start drinking Coke, or any other soda); published in the Aman ki Asha page in The News, May 22, 2013

Quenching the thirst for peace

An innovative idea connects Indians and Pakistanis with ‘the other side’

“It saddens me that we have neighbours that we can’t even go visit.”

“The perception is that they’re the bad guy. But when you actually meet them you realise they’re just like me.” Continue reading →

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Pakistan Elections: Democracy, Dichotomies, and Shades of Grey

Posted on May 17, 2013 by beenasarwar

Here’s the piece I wrote for the Economic and Political Weekly, India, published on the web today, copied below with minor changes, photos and added links.

Lahore, Dec 9, 2007: (L-R): Nawaz Sharif. Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Imran Khan meet to discuss whether to boycott January 8, 2008 polls. "Boycott, and then what?" asked Benazir Bhutto who convinced Sharif to participate in the polls. The rest is history. Photo: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Lahore, Dec 9, 2007: (L-R): Nawaz Sharif. Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Imran Khan meet to discuss whether to boycott January 8, 2008 polls. “Boycott, and then what?” asked Benazir Bhutto who convinced Sharif to participate in the polls. The rest is history. Photo: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

The recent elections in Pakistan show that the country is finally on the right track notwithstanding the rigging, the violence and the brutal prevention of women from voting in some areas by representatives of all the political parties. The huge turnout of women and first time young voters risking their lives to exercise their right to choose is something to celebrate and strengthen Continue reading →

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Boston bombings: A Pakistani perspective and a Cambridge cabbie

Posted on May 9, 2013 by beenasarwar
Khalid Lottfi: "We will not let them hijack our religion"

Khalid Lottfi: “We will not let them hijack our religion”

“You know, I think the Chinese student who was killed, I took her there,” said the cab driver. It was a few days after the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15, and after the police had chased the perpetrators, killing one and capturing the other. Everyone was still talking about the unfortunate events that claimed three lives and injured over 260 more.

It turned out that the brothers Tsarnaev lived on our street, on the next block. Here’s a link to the piece I wrote about it for weekly The News on Sunday in Pakistan – and a shorter comment for Global Post – Boston bombings: A Pakistani perspective. Continue reading →

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Pakistan Elections: protest unethical and undemocratic electoral process

Posted on April 8, 2013 by beenasarwar
Cartoon by Zahoor, reproduced in Nadeem Farooq Paracha's article on Pakistan 'ideology', Dawn, April 19, 2012 http://bit.ly/10Nfsg7

Cartoon by Zahoor, reproduced in Nadeem Farooq Paracha’s article on Pakistan ‘ideology’, Dawn, April 19, 2012 http://bit.ly/10Nfsg7

Pakistanis are vocally protesting the trend of over-zealous Returning Officers knocking down prospective electoral candidates like nine pins on “moral” and “religious” grounds related to Articles 62 and 63 inserted into the Constitution of Pakistan by the military dictator Gen. Ziaul Haq. Recently, former MNA and prominent newspaper columnist Ayaz Amir’s candidacy was rejected on the grounds that he has written articles opposing the ‘two nation theory’ and the ‘ideology of Pakistan’. (Here’s an online petition in his support that I have signed). Here’s the HRCP statement slamming “this latest plot to deny people the right to determine who governs them”; Khushal Khattak’s blogpost on “the kind of pre-poll rigging that ANP faces”; The devious Article 62: How pandering to the extremists made it stay, by Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad. Below, prominent citizens statement against the “unethical and undemocratic” electoral process that is allowing the “ignorance and personal prejudices of the Returning Officers” to rule. Continue reading →

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“It is essential for Pakistan and India to make peace” – Pervez Hoodbhoy

Posted on March 21, 2013 by beenasarwar

My article in the weekly Aman ki Asha page in The News today.

Speaking at MIT recently, invited by an Indian colleague, a leading Pakistani academic and physicist makes the case for peace

Indian and Pakistani scientists for peace: Pervez Hoodbhoy and Subrata Ghoshroy last week at MIT

Indian and Pakistani scientists for peace: Pervez Hoodbhoy and Subrata Ghoshroy last week at MIT

By Beena Sarwar

In the midst of ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan amplified by hyper media on both sides, an Indian scientist warmly introduces a Pakistani colleague at one of the world’s most prestigious universities – and that too for a talk on “Pakistan’s Bomb – Past, Present, and Future”.

The Indian scientist is Subrata Ghoshroy who leads the Promoting Nuclear Stability in South Asia Project at the Science, Technology and Global Security working group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Pakistani scientist is Pervez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, an alumnus of MIT where he obtained his BS, MS, and Ph.D degrees. Continue reading →

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