Vision 21
Posted by: vision 21 on: May 24, 2009
Vision 21 is Pakistan based non-profit, non- partisan Socio-Political organisation. We work through research and advocacy. Our Focus is on Poverty and Misery Alleviation, Rights Awareness, Human Dignity, Women empowerment and Justice as a right and obligation.
We act and work side by side with the deprived and have-nots.
We invite you to join us in this mission. We welcome your help. We welcome your comments and suggestions. If you are interested in writing on Awaam, please contact us at: awaam@thevision21.org
Supereme Court Throws out NRO
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 17, 2009
The following is the text of the order issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on petitions challenging the National Reconciliation Ordinance:
The bench
Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, CJ, Mr Justice Javed Iqbal, Mr Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Mr Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, Mr Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Mr Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Mr Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Mr Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Mr Justice Ch. Ijaz Ahmed, Mr Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Mr Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Mr Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, Mr Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Mr Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Mr Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi, Mr Justice Tariq Parvez, and Mr Justice Ghulam Rabbani. Read the rest of this entry »
Water Security in South Asia
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 16, 2009
Critical importance of Water to Human Life, or Life in general, cannot be overstated. Human body is 70 % water. Of all the known natural resources to man till date, water undisputedly continues to stand out as the most important of all. It is critical to human survival. All civilizations have been built around water resources. The history of humans is history of water resources.
Water ensures human health, environmental stability, social welfare, economic development and security. However, only one percent of all the water on the earth is available for human consumption. Hence, as the result of ever increasing world population, pollution, over-exploitation of water resources combined with inertia and mismanagement on part of international governments, the world today stands at the precipice of a global water crisis. Read the rest of this entry »
A tale of two classes
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 15, 2009
By Mohammad Wasim
In Pakistan, two dominant classes compete with each other for influence and privilege. One is the middle class, which provides the catchment area for the civil bureaucracy, technocrats, the military’s officer cadre and the business community.
The other can be called, for lack of a better term, the political class that includes political entrepreneurs of various kinds at various levels, led by the landed and tribal elite.
These two classes represent the two power centres in the country. The middle class operates as the most stable, influential and status quo-oriented segment of society. The institutional expression of this class is realised through the state apparatus. The process of post-recruitment socialisation in the form of the training of the bureaucracy and army officers aims at merging their individual ambitions with an all-pervasive institutional ethos. Read the rest of this entry »
گھر نھیں بیٹھتی
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 15, 2009
وسعت اللہ خان
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، اسلام آباد
پاکستان کی جن سرکاری اور نجی یونیورسٹیوں میں صحافت، ابلاغِ عامہ یا ملٹی میڈیا کے کورس پڑھائے جاتے ہیں ان میں لڑکیوں کی تعداد اگر لڑکوں سے زیادہ نہیں تو کم بھی نہیں۔ پھر ایسا کیوں ہے کہ اخبارات، خبررساں ایجنسیوں، ریڈیو اور ٹی وی چینلز پر مردوں کے مقابلے میں خواتین خال خال نظر آتی ہیں۔
پاکستان کی جن سرکاری اور نجی یونیورسٹیوں میں صحافت، ابلاغِ عامہ یا ملٹی میڈیا کے کورس پڑھائے جاتے ہیں ان میں لڑکیوں کی تعداد اگر لڑکوں سے زیادہ نہیں تو کم بھی نہیں۔ پھر ایسا کیوں ہے کہ اخبارات، خبررساں ایجنسیوں، ریڈیو اور ٹی وی چینلز پر مردوں کے مقابلے میں خواتین خال خال نظر آتی ہیں۔
کاش اے پی پی سمیت کسی سرکاری یا غیر سرکاری خبررساں ایجنسی کی سربراہ کبھی کوئی عورت نظر آئے۔ کبھی ریڈیو پاکستان کی ڈائریکٹر جنرل ہی کوئی عورت ہو۔پاکستان ٹیلی ویژن کی پینتالیس سالہ تاریخ میں صرف ایک عورت مینجنگ ڈائریکٹر اور ایک عورت ڈائریکٹر پروگرامز کے عہدے تک پہنچ پائی۔
صرف ایک خاتون ڈاکٹر ملیحہ لودھی ایک انگریزی اخبار کی ایڈیٹر بن سکی۔ آج تک ایسا کیوں ہے کہ کوئی عورت اس قابل نہ سمجھی گئی کہ کسی اردو یا علاقائی زبان کے اخبار کی ایڈیٹر بن سکے۔صرف ایک اردو ہفت روزہ اخبارِ خواتین ایسا تھا جس کی ایڈیٹر عورت تھی۔صرف دو سیاسی انگریزی ماہنامے ہیرلڈ اور نیوز لائن ایسے ہیں جن میں خواتین ایڈیٹر ہیں۔
خواتین کی پیشہ ورانہ صلاحیتوں کو خاطر میں لائے بغیر زیادہ تر کو جازبِ نظر نیوز اینکر یا محفوظ شعبوں کی رپورٹر کے طور پر موقع دیا جاتا ہے۔ان چینلوں میں ذمہ دار اعلیٰ انتظامی پوزیشنوں سمیت باقی سب مردانہ ہے۔نجی ریڈیو چینلوں پر اگر خواتین ہیں تو بیشتر ڈی جے کے طور پر گپ بازی یا نغماتی پروگراموں کے لئے موزوں سمجھی جاتی ہیں Read the rest of this entry »
For Every Decent Human Being
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 14, 2009
By Bilal Qureshi
Isn’t it time?
For every decent human being, it is sickening to see people being butchered the way human beings are slaughtered in Pakistan these days. Human life has no respect or value for barbaric animals responsible for these bombings and suicide attacks. And if the news of bombings and killing was not enough, I was horrified to learn that Lahore’s commissioner (incorrectly) blames India for these attacks while Punjab’s law minister (correctly) believes that the thugs being smoked out from Swat and Wazirstan are actually behind these attacks to force the government to back down. Isn’t it time for Pakistan to get united? Isn’t it time stop obsessing about India? Isn’t it time to be realistic? Read the rest of this entry »
Post-American scenarios in Afghanistan
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 14, 2009
By Ilhan Niaz
After three decades of turmoil, violence and killings, Afghanistan is still at war. A powerful foreign occupation force continues to hold in place a local collaborationist dispensation with few roots and even less demonstrable competence. Democratic development has replaced despotic Islamic rule which earlier replaced a socialist paradigm as the slop of the day dished out for public consumption.
The Islamic warriors who blunted and frustrated the armies of the ‘Evil Empire’ are now the ‘evil doers’. The other great enemies of the ‘Evil Empire’, namely the United States and its allies, once the benefactors of today’s terrorists have replaced the Soviets as the occupying force.
As guns and drugs boom, the writ of what is generously called the Afghan government is practically non-existent outside Kabul. Warlords, mafias and insurgents control 80 per cent of the territory and feed off the presence of the occupation forces. The reality is that a failing occupation is trying to prop up a failed state. Read the rest of this entry »
Establishing Allah’s discourse in Islam
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 12, 2009
The only way that I see forward is neither ‘ijtihad’ nor ‘islah’, nor ‘ tajdeed’ ‘ehyaa’ or ‘tashkeel e nou’. Islam and Muslims rather need ‘ibtidaa e nou – min al asal’
(New Beginning from the Original).
The first step is re-establishing Allah’s discourse in Islam.
So how can we achieve that ? how will that happen?
In my view that can only happen by certain fundamental reforms / rethinking to create a new Islamic discourse, which should then take its new form by open discussion and consent.
a. Understanding and direct connect with God, Allah; the creator of the universe and seeing Him in the correct perspective of human/ earth/ universe ; why He gave humans ‘ faculty of reason’; how He wants humans to use it; etc.
galaxy cluster in early universe
The size conundrum
I invite you (and anyone else who reads this ) to scale Read the rest of this entry »
MAULVI MUMTAZ ALI -A NINETEENTH CENTURY ADVOCATE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 10, 2009
Asghar Ali Engineer
It is generally thought that movement for women’s rights began with western educated people and in 19th century. But very few people know about Maulavi Mumtaz Ali Khan, a traditional ‘alim, product of Darul ‘Uloom Deoband who was very enthusiastic supporters of gender equality. There are two things to be noted here: one, he was a traditional ‘alim and was not under the influence of western thought and two, he was advocating gender equality purely on the basis of Islamic traditional sources i.e. Qur’an and hadith.
The Maulavi was enthusiastic supporter of women’s rights and was one of the colleagues of Sir Syed. However, Sir Syed had lot of troubles on his hand due to his campaign for a modern educational institution for north Indian Muslims. He was facing stiff resistance from orthodox ‘ulama and did not want more trouble and so he advised Mumtaz Ali Khan not to publish his book Huququn Niswan the manuscript of which he showed to the Syed. However, the Maulavi
was very enthusiastic about women’s rights and wanted to educate Muslim men and women and went ahead with its publication. Read the rest of this entry »
Tale of one Day
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 10, 2009
aye watan tujh pe agar jan ho nisar…
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 8, 2009
The Demons that Haunt the Pakistanis
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 8, 2009
Cross post from New York Times, Published: December 5, 2009
All rights reserved with The New York Times Company
By Sabrina Tavernise
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — These are emotional times in Pakistan, particularly since President Obama told its leaders last week to fight harder against Islamist extremists, and expanded a deeply unpopular covert air strike program in Pakistani territory.
After Mr. Obama’s speech at West Point, newspapers and talk shows here were full of heated commentary that those demands would push Pakistan further toward disaster. “Approval of increasing drone strikes in Pakistan,” blared one headline. “A very difficult time is approaching for Pakistan,” a former foreign secretary intoned on television. Read the rest of this entry »
PPP Minister says ‘Corruption is our Right’
Posted by: vision 21 on: December 7, 2009
Watch this Youtube video of a TV show where one Peoples Party Minsiter actually says in a discussion with full confidence that corruption is ‘our right’, if the elected parties dont do corruption then its their own loss. So much for the facade of denying that any party was ever involved in corruption, might this minister and his fellow corrupt party men, want to lobby for a bill in the parliament to legalize corruption?? The answer might be a resounding yes, when everyone does it, why not legalize it, hence the people who don’t, might be better of being labelled absconders of the law. Watch this youtube video and weep, Gaad can only Bless Pakistan
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