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Posts tagged with: civil society
Sep 29, 2008    |      Comments Off on The News reports on PR Seminar with Hamid Mir

The News reports on PR Seminar with Hamid Mir

Most militants fighting to avenge military actions’
Published in The News: Monday, September 29, 2008

When Corps Commander Ali Jan Orakzai had deployed troops for the first time in Mohmand Agency in 2003, he gave an impression that the military intended to build schools, hospitals and roads there but he rather launched an operation against the militants that ultimately created further problems for civilians, as a result separatist tendency increased there. And this was the beginning of the conflict there.

Senior journalist Hamid Mir said this while speaking at a seminar “Military action in Fata, reality, myths and implications”, held at Justice Cornelius Library of the newly built National Law University, Clifton, on Sunday.

“The concept of Pakistan has almost ended there as the insurgency is taking shape of separatism,” he added.

According to him, there exist around 10-15 militant groups, which are not Taliban and they are not well organized. “They lack command structure and sometimes they also fight with each other. They are insurgents and separatists,” he claimed.
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Sep 25, 2008    |       6 comments

Peoples Resistance: Seminar on Military Action in FATA

The Peoples Resistance, a civil society group advocating for an independent judiciary and the Supremacy of Law is organizing a Seminar in Karachi on Sunday titled Military Action in FATA; Reality, Myths and Implications.

Basically Pakistan is at war and the US is attacking our borders while the Pakistan military is endlessly engaged in a relentless operation with over 2,000 civilians dead in the last year alone and about 800,000 have been displaced in the Northern areas.

Why is this happening? Who is responsible? What is the real story? What can ordinary citizens do to end this violence?

Seminar: Military Action in FATA; Reality, Myths and Implications
Date: Sunday September 28th, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM
Venue: National Law University, Street 3, Block 4, 26th Streeet, Clifton Karachi
Guests:

  • Hamid Mir (Geo)
  • Rahimullah Yousufzai
  • Mohammad Arif (Refugee from Swat)

For more information call 0333-3464403

Sep 14, 2008    |       7 comments

The Lawyers Movement – Achievements and Challenges

By Faisal Siddiqi
Advocate

Is it time to write the obituary of the lawyer’s movement? Or will this lawyer’s movement never be defeated because history and truth (and some say, God) is on our side?. The aforementioned responses are the two opposite responses given to the current impasse in the lawyer’s movement. The former response suffers from opportunistic scepticism and the latter response from irrational optimism. What is required is to avoid both these extreme positions. The lawyer’s movement urgently requires to build on it’s achievements, to learn from it’s past mistakes and to objectively analyze it’s future challenges in order to determine it’s goals and devise a realistic strategy to achieve these goals. The lawyer’s movement can neither go home in despair nor carry on with the same old script and strategy of their struggle.

What, has been and is, the principle objective of the lawyer’s movement? To restore, enhance and preserve the independence of the judiciary from both executive and legislative domination. The battle ground for this objective has been the restoration, enhancement and preservation of independent judges. In striving for this principle objective of the independence of the judiciary, the lawyer’s movement has also been the warrior brigade for the intrinsically linked objective of constitutional democracy in Pakistan. One doesnot want to sound arrogant or blow one’s own trumpet but in terms of the aforementioned objectives, the lawyer’s movement has been remarkably successful and there seems to be no rational reason for scepticism or for irrational bouts of despair and despondency.
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Sep 11, 2008    |      1 comment

Immediately Stop: ‘Logistic Support’ to Fascist NATO in Afghanistan

Guest Blog by Silence from Islamabad Observer

Dear Pakistani’s,
United States of America, the principal leader of fascist movement NATO has launched several unprovoked attacks inside Pakistan, killing innocent women and children. They launch their attacks, killing just about anybody including innocent women and children to vent their anger and frustration, as they are facing a shameful defeat in Afghanistan. They want us to take the responsibility for their failure. They want to breed hatred in our people against state and working on an agenda to disintegrate our country for their ‘oil plan’.

Our previous government does nothing to stop them, now enemy is putting more pressure on the newly elected government, to accept the directions of the enemy, literally to give up our sovereignty. We are under pressure to conform to our oppressors wishes about how we should behave, how we should govern our land, how we should live and how we should think even. Our enemy is suffering from might-madness, they think through might and they negotiate through killing.
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Sep 3, 2008    |       18 comments

When will the Heavens Fall

Guest Post by Naeem Sadiq

“It only pertained to five women. The media gave the matter such a colour as if heavens have fallen.” ~ Jan Mohammad Jamali, Acting Chairman of the Senate of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

How does Jan Mohammad Jamali know if the heavens chose to fall or not. Surely the heavens did not fall on the killers of the Umrani tribe. Surely it did not fall on their patrons in the senate of the Islamic Republic. It also did not fall on the political party who is banking on the votes of the killers to make it to the President House. They must all therefore defend their ‘honourable tradition’, give the usual insipid statements or simply look the other way. The more intellectually inclined like the Aitezaz Ahsans, Raza Rubbanis, Sherry Rehmans, Nafisa Shahs and the Kaiser Bengalis may even address a press conference, but will not resign in protest. After all the heavens did not fall upon them.
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