Update to the ‘coffin protest’ in Pakistan

Posted on January 14, 2013 by beenasarwar
Photo tweeted by Haider Changezi @Aushpaz: Dear #Pakistan U all came in protest but Gov is deaf, hasn't announced #ActionAgainstLeJ #WeAreAllHazara

Photo tweeted by Haider Changezi @Aushpaz: Dear #Pakistan U all came in protest but Gov is deaf, hasn’t announced #ActionAgainstLeJ #WeAreAllHazara

A quick note on the current situation: The past two days and nights have seen inspiring massive, ongoing peaceful protests all across Pakistan in solidarity with the ‘coffin protesters’ at Alamdar Road in Quetta who are refusing to bury their dead until their demands for security are met. The protests finally pushed the PPP government to action – the Balochistan provincial government has been dismissed and Governor Rule imposed in the province, one of the demands of the protestors. Continue reading →

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LoC tensions: Need facts, not hype

Posted on January 14, 2013 by beenasarwar
Jan 8, 2013: A grieving mother, mourning her son, Lance Naik Mohammad Alam.

Jan 8, 2013: A grieving mother mourns her son… Lance Naik Mohammad Alam.

My article in The News on Sunday, Jan 13, 2013

Need facts, not hype

Beena Sarwar

News about the death of two Indian soldiers at the Line of Control in Kashmir on Jan 8 triggered anger in India. Yes, a Pakistani soldier had been killed just two days earlier. But his body had not been mutilated. He had not been beheaded. For that is what Indian reports said, creating hysteria and leading to the beating of war drums: the bodies of their jawans had been mutilated, one of their heads was missing, and Pakistan was responsible (small mercy, authorities asked Indian journalists not to use the word ‘beheaded’ but ‘decapitation’).

India seemed to erupt in a storm of anger, outrage, and indignation, betrayal and hurt, and calls for retaliation against Pakistan. Understandable. Imagine the reaction in Pakistan had it been the other way around. Continue reading →

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Three journalists killed in Quetta bomb blasts

Posted on January 11, 2013 by beenasarwar

Three journalists lost their lives in the blasts that rocked Quetta on Jan 10. Here’s a moving obituary in Baloch Hal for one of them, Saif-ur-Rehman, a reporter for Samaa TV. Below, some tweets from a young journalist friend from Lahore:

Continue reading →

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Five years on, same questions…

Posted on December 26, 2012 by beenasarwar

BB shaheed Bashir Ahmed Bilour Was her courage in vain, or do we still not know?

Text of editorial in Economic & Political Weekly, JANUARY 5, 2008:

Benazir’s Last Battle

Benazir Bhutto died battling the “state within the state”. Can Pakistan rid itself of the cancer?

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister and opposition leader, on December 27 at the conclusion of an election rally in Rawalpindi has sent shockwaves across the world. Bhutto’s party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and the public at large held the government of president Pervez Musharraf responsible for the murder, while the government and its allies pointed the finger at Taliban and Al Qaida. The first reaction of US president George Bush also appeared to deflect blame from the Pakistan government and in the direction of Islamic militants. Continue reading →

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India-Pakistan ‘reunification’? Why not a South Asian Union?

Posted on December 19, 2012 by beenasarwar

himal_southasia_south-up_mapThe respected retired Indian Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju at a recent function New Delhi said that “the only solution to the Kashmir issue is reunification of India and Pakistan under a strong, secular, modern minded government which does not tolerate religious fanaticism or bigotry and suppresses it with an iron hand.” Continue reading →

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Indian Supreme Court acquits Pakistani prisoner Dr Chishty

Posted on December 13, 2012 by beenasarwar
After the acquittal: Dr Chishty and Mrs Chishty with Justice Katju at the judge's residence, New Delhi, Dec 12, 2012

After the acquittal: Dr Chishty and Mrs Chishty with Justice Katju at the judge’s residence, New Delhi, Dec 12, 2012

At last! On 12-12-12, the Indian Supreme Court acquitted Dr Chishty. Earlier, an unprecedented Indian SC verdict had granted him bail to return to Pakistan, the first time ever that a Pakistani prisoner in India was given such permission. The retired virologist, now over 80 years old, had gone back to India quietly in November for the court hearing seeking to dismiss the murder charges against him. It’s been a long struggle since we first started campaigning for this, and there’s a great feeling of satisfaction that it has finally ended well.

Tehelka did a podcast with me this morning. I made a mistake in the chronology of how the process to free Dr Chishty began. In fact, Amna Chishty (Dr Chisthy’s daughter) had written to the Indian SC and Law Ministry, after which the trial was finally held (after 19 years); Justice Katju came into the picture a bit later – but his role in freeing Dr Chishty was, as I said, essential.

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The dangers of ignoring ‘malicious intent’ in allegations of ‘injuring religious sentiments’

Posted on November 26, 2012 by beenasarwar
Shaheen Dhada, left, and Renu Srinivasan, who were arrested for their Facebook posts, leave a court in Mumbai on Nov 20, 2012. AP photo

Shaheen Dada (left) and Renu Srinivasan were arrested last Monday, seen here leaving a court in Mumbai on Nov 20, 2012. AP photo

Some thoughts on ‘blasphemy’ and the issue of ‘injuring religious sentiments’, in this blog post, which includes ‘Malicious Intent’, an article I wrote for The New Humanist on the blasphemy issue (original article below including references deleted from the published piece for reasons of space). Since then, in a move that was widely welcomed, the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court quashed the First Information Report (FIR) of the “blasphemy” case registered against the minor Christian girl Rimsha Masih. Here is the link to a downloadable PDF copy of the judgment, dated Nov 14, 2012 – IHC verdict on the Rimsha case.  Continue reading →

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Iqbal Haider, we’ll miss your ‘groove’

Posted on November 19, 2012 by beenasarwar

Iqbal Haider: A firm believer in secular values.

 My article for The News on Sunday, Nov 18, 2012 – in which I forgot to mention the resolution Iqbal Haider tried to get the Senate to pass against the cold-blooded murder of young Saima Sarwar in the office of Hina Jillani at the behest of her own parents, simply because she wanted a divorce from her abusive husband. Some senators from FATA physically attacked him for it (See my article ‘There is no ‘honour’ in killing).

 Beena Sarwar

The protests outside Karachi Press Club will be all the poorer without Senator Syed Iqbal Haider’s energising presence. Activists promoting any good cause could count on him to be there — whether it was justice for Mukhtaran Mai, protest against Shia killings, or a call for peace between India and Pakistan. Continue reading →

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One Billion Rising: Global campaign against violence against women

Posted on October 30, 2012 by beenasarwar

Eve Ensler, founder of the One Billion Rising movement. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian.

The well known feminist activist, playwright and actor Eve Ensler has given a call for One Billion Rising campaign that aims to mobilise and bring out one billion people on streets across the world on February 14th, 2013 against violence against women, and in celebration of women’s power (One Billion Rising on Facebook).

Noted women activists from all over South Asia, including Kamla Bhasin of Sangat, OBR’s South Asian coordinator, were at the launch in Nepal. (Photo: WFS)

This, writes Ensler, “is a call to the billion women who have been violated and the men who love them, to the women who have been beaten and raped and mutilated and burned and sold and who know the destruction of the female species heralds the end of human kind. A call to walk out of your homes, your jobs, your schools and find your friends, your group, your place and music and dance” (‘One Billion Rising: Together we can end violence against women’, op-ed in The Guardian). Continue reading →

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Malala Yousufzai – Some updates

Posted on October 18, 2012 by beenasarwar

Demo for Malala in Mumbai earlier this week

Adapted from the post I sent to my Yahoogroup a little while ago:

No point repeating what happened a week ago in Swat, when Taliban shot Malala Yusufzai, the 14-year old school girl who has been speaking out courageously for the right of girls to be educated, supported by her equally brave father, Ziauddin Yusufzai, principal of the school she was studying at.

Malala was already a hero to many. Now she has become a worldwide symbol of the right of girls to education, as well as of resistance to the Taliban. In this, she represents millions of Pakistanis – and world citizens. Her friend Kainat who was also injured, told CNN from her hospital bed that she hoped to continue her education and that Malala would come back and join her schoolmates soon. “I want to tell all the girls to continue their mission to get an education,” she said. Continue reading →

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