2 comments Read the detailed fact sheet on this dispute and then support these protestors by sIgning the PC Workers Petition to The Hashwani Group
It heartening to note that despite all the resistance by the Hashwani Group and the PPP Leader Najmi Alam who threatened the protestors setting up camp outside Pearl Continental to disappear for two days this last Friday since Mr. Zardari was in town. Abira Ashfaq talked to Mohd Nasir one of the protesting workers today to report that…
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Mai Jori continues her eight day Huqooq March by going walking through the various villages and towns in her constituency to rally up support for her by-election bid, but more importantly she is the symbol of hope for the down trodden and suppressed women of that area. throughout her journey she is being greeted by many peasants who greet her to a resounding welcome everywhere she goes.
On the third day (March 3rd) of Huqooq March she and her fellow marchers traversed through the village “Bagh Tail” by marching 30km through a convoy of motor bikes, hitching rides from various datsun pick ups, buses, cars and tractor trolleys. The marchers were well received by the villagers at Bagh Tail who literally came out in droves to greet her. Addressing the marchers and villagers gathered to receive her, Mai Jori resolved to continue lobbying for the rights of poor and vulnerable especially women regardless of the outcome of her election result.
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9 comments Mai Jori, a peasant women contesting the Baluchistan Assembly by-elections has embarked upon an eight day Huqooq March (March for Rights) journey across her constituency by foot rallying voters to stand up for their rights and be a part of the change. Mai Jori started on the 1st of March from the village Ghulam Muhammad Jamali to Gandakha and visited several villages on the way and will continue to march across the region till the 8th of March. Men and women of the area joined this March for Rights in hundreds.
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Mai Jori Jamali a peasant farmer belonging to a village called Ghulam Muhammad Jamali in Baluchistan filed to contest the bye-election on the vacant seat of Baluchistan Assembly PB 25 Jaffarabad – I on March 10th 2010. Her papers have been accepted and declared correct after scrutiny. Mai Jori is illiterate and helps her husband in farming she also looks after her nine children. She brings water for the family after traveling 2 km distance and was shot into prominence in 1978 due to Pat Feeder Kisan movement when progressive and trade unions leaders had started living in the Goth area for the sake of movement.
Mai Jori is contesting from the area which was recently brought into focus for the infamous and heinous crime against women where a few women were buried alive in 2008 in a case of Honor Killing. Mai Jori Jamali is contesting election on party ticket of Awami Party Pakistan.
It is being reported that Mai Jori and her relatives have taken this decision to dare to fight with outdated customs of women brutality in the region.
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Much out cry has been heard regarding the Daewoo rape incident which has lead many human rights organizations working hand-in-hand with the police to hopefully arrest the perpetrators – but today I was shocked to read in Dawn (10th Feb 2010 – Page 9) while discussing the story – the “correspondent” very casually mentions the name of the victim with such intricate details of the crime that it seems as if he might actually be quoting the actual FIR verbatim
“SIALKOT, Feb 9: Police have yet to arrest the second alleged rapist in the kidnap-cum-rape case of a bus hostess here in Sialkot, Dawn has learnt. Daewoo bus hostess A**** Q**** [censorship added] alleged that Irshad Bhatti, of Gujrat, along with Sarfraz allegedly kidnapped her late on Saturday and raped her. ” link
I do not know if the victim has come forth with permission allowing the Dawn correspondent to publicly use her name so explicitly and repeatedly so many times through out the column that it infuriates me -she has suffered enough of this heinous crime that it alone will take many years for her to recuperate the rape trauma – now adding fuel to the fire the public record and everyone even remotely associated with this 20-yr old girl will always brandish her name quickly linking her with the Daweeo rape victim – the pain which she will go through emotionally and physically is now going to be quadrupled to unimaginable proportions as she now will also tainted in the public eye too
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A US court has found Dr. Aafia Siddiqui guilty of attempting to murder US agents while she was detained for questioning in Afghanistan in 2008. She is allegedly have picked up an army rifle and shot at the US agents, none of the Americans was injured but Aafia Siddiqui also known as Prisoner 650, was shot in the stomach.
She was arrested by Afghan police in July 2008 on suspicion of carrying chemicals and notes referring to “mass-casualty attacks” in New York. A jury in Manhattan found Siddiqui guilty of attempted murder, of armed assault, using and carrying a firearm. She faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
It must be remembered that in 2005 the then President of Pakistan, General Pervaiz Musharraf had bartered a deal with the Americans and may have actually handed over Aafia to the American CIA as she was deemed to have been declared a suspected terrorist, since then she has been missing until an outcry by Yvone Ridley who spotted a certain Prisoner 650 illegally being detained in Afghanistan, it is probably due to this media rukus that the Americans then had to create an elaborate story, which suddenly lead to this “assault on American soldiers and her getting a bullet in the stomach”
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67 comments Mubashir Lucman in his show Point Blank on Express News which was aired yesterday on the evening of 29th December presents some sweeping evidences of the role of American forces in harassing Pakistani citizens, specifically intimidation and interrogation of Dr Mehvish Baig in Karachi – a naturalized Pakistani American who has been trying to give up her US citizenship.
Dr. Mehvish Baig shares her experience as a number of American forces enter into her house and harass her and her kids with dire circumstances. She resides in Naval Complex Karachi and her brother is a serving Naval officer. The first 12 minutes are relevant with the interview of Dr. Mehvish.
6 comments By: Amjad Malik, MA, LLM
I have been vehemently advocating the need to erect a system of accountability by invoking a new commission and an Act of Parliament to curb mal practice, plundering and looting whilst one is holding a public office. This new Commission can truly ensure compliance with the Clauses of Article 62 and 63 of the constitution too. We are witnessing many names in the list of beneficiaries of National Reconciliation Ordinance, and many names which are not in it, are either praying to be in it or cursing the said redemption order of the former military dictator who came to rid corruption on 12 October 99, and left giving this strange gift of ‘hypocrisy’ to the nation.
Mal practice, corruption and mal governance is a common phenomenon of the third world countries as wealth is confined to the elite and institutions are so weak that they do not get roots and are run on the dictat of personalities. Pakistan is amongst those few unfortunate countries where despite abundance of natural resources, talent, passion, capacity of self dependency in edible food products, the country is still rating higher in corruption, suffering from food, electricity, gas, sugar shortages. Who is to be blamed is a long short, and to me, all bear the collective responsibility to bring this country to a stage where each person of any possible public stature is not free from corruption charges, which I will call allegations.
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8 comments I share with you a very moving speech delivered by Sunitha Krishnan at TEDIndia in Mysore, Bangalore this November. Sunita speech was probably the most moving talk of the three days session at the Infosys campus. Sunita Krishan herself was a victim of sexual slavery but has now dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.
2 comments Laidback Show in its 7th episode invites Jehan Ara, President P@SHA to discuss the Take back the Tech initiative, a campaign which is condemning violence against women. Other issues were also discussed, watch the episode and follow the show notes below
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SWO with UNIFEM Pakistan celebrates ‘16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence’ Campaign 2009 with youth of Pakistan – Thinking about Women – a little differently!
These are testing times for women in Pakistan. The country ranks 106th out of 137 on the Gender-related Development Index and 66th out of 75 on the Gender Empowerment Measurement Index. Despite religious, constitutional and legal rights, women’s position in the society is weak.
With each passing day, conditions are getting miserable as women are subjected to more extreme forms of violence and exclusion. Incidents of honour killing, rape, fire and acid burning, domestic violence, dowry-abuse, trafficking, under-age marriage and trade of young girls among tribes for dispute settlement are gruesome and frequent. Women in rural and poor communities are more vulnerable to violence and crime, committed most often by their own family members, in the name of law, religion, customs and tradition. It is sad that incidents of physical and psychological torture upon women are increasing but grossly under-reported in the media or other public reporting systems.
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The United Nations is at the moment undergoing a very important debate on the Arms Trade Treaty which more or less has a very direct impact on the lives of everyone, specially in countries like Pakistan where there is an abundance of unregulated arms and ammunition. The Arms Trade Treaty is to control the conventional trade requiring states to authorize any international arms transfer which may originate or pass through their territory. The treaty was initially brought into effect in 2006 wtih a landslide vote in 2006 where 153 states voted in favor of this treaty while the USA was then the only state to vote against the Resolution. The major proponents of this bill have been UK, Argentina, Finland, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya and Finland. It must be noted that armed violence claims at least 2000 deaths per day, and NGOs have calculated the cost to Africa alone of armed violence is 19 billion dollars per day.
It seems ironic that on one hand the US claims itself to be the police force for the world waltzing into countries like Pakistan trying to sweet talk its way on Anti-Terrorism offering to lend a helping hand [sic] to de-weaponize Pakistan. ironically on the very opposite end the US of A remains remains the only country not willing to come under an Arms Trade Treaty, which would help control and monitor the trade, trafficking of ammunition across the globe
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Aman Ittehad: insaf, adm tashadud aur barabari ki jiddojehad
Representatives of 35 organizations from across Pakistan belonging to trade unions, media, youth organizations, minority groups, NGOs, academia, business, and the legal profession, gathered in Murree from 9 to 11 October to deliberate over the current situation in the country and to discuss pathways to peace. They unanimously agreed on the indivisibility of peace for all citizens, irrespective of gender, class, nationality, religion, occupation, age, etc.
They agreed to work together for peace by redefining the state’s relationship with citizens, making a paradigm shift from a security state to a benevolent state responsive to the needs of all its citizens, especially the socially, politically, and systemically excluded. They rejected all forms of religious extremisms and the use of violence.
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4 comments The third edition of The Laidback Show – UpShorts, by Fasial Kapadia and Awab Alvi. Enjoy the discussion but would love some feedback on how we can improve this casual discussion podcast
Show Notes after the jump
120 comments Location: Karachi Press Club
Date: Tuesday 7th October, 2009
Time: 5:00 PM
The People’s Resistance strongly condemns the Army brutality captured on video recently as illegal and despicable behaviour on the basis of violation of the understanding of our human rights and our laws.
In no sense can this strong condemnation be understood as support of the Taliban. Lets not fail to remind ourselves what else the fight was about besides army action. The fight was against violent intolerance and deluded religious bigotry. It was also long overdue. We are glad it happened. This behaviour, and that not shown in the video, is intolerable and will undoubtedly help in making a Taliban comeback.
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