Three women tortured, forced to walk naked in public

Dawn: 29-09-09

No case has been registered against the mob that attacked the women and publicly humiliated them

LAHORE: Three women, accused of prostitution, were tortured by an angry mob and were later forced to walk naked on Multan Road in Phoolnagar, Kasur, a private television channel reported on Monday.

A large number of people attacked a house in Jambarkalan village, torturing the women — including one Shahnaz — for alleged involvement in prostitution and running a brothel in the village.

The victims said the accusations against them were baseless. They said they had a property dispute ongoing with Union Council Nazim Ilyas Khanzada who wanted to occupy their house illegally. The women have accused him of planning the assault on their home.

Khanzada confirmed the women were tortured by the mob. He, however, denied plotting against them.

Jambarkalan Police Sub-Inspector Bashir said a case had been registered against the women for running a brothel on the local residents’ complaints.

Meanwhile, no case was registered against the mob that attacked the women and publicly humiliated them.

The real issues in Pakistan

Dawn Editorial, 18 Sep, 2009

PEOPLE are dying queuing for grain in Pakistan. This is a country where food inflation is forcing parents to pull their children out of school – they can eat sparsely or be educated, not both. Lives are being lost to ailments that are easily curable. Street crime is rampant across a country where human life is worth less than a cellphone. Yet our political leaders appear oblivious to the misery that is everywhere. They seem to have no perspective, no grip on reality. Does a man who can’t feed his children really care whether or not Pervez Musharraf is tried for treason? Is a mother whose child has died of gastroenteritis likely to give much thought to America’s military presence in the region? Will a jobless person be impressed by the president’s much-touted ‘achievements’ during his first year in office? Our leaders have clearly lost sight of the core issues.

This is a country where religious minorities are targeted by Muslim mobs while the law-enforcers look on. Deadly attacks against Christians, in particular, are on the rise in Punjab. As is usually the case in such incidents, the violence has been triggered by unproven allegations of blasphemy. Robert Fanish Masih, who had been arrested last Saturday on blasphemy charges after Muslims went on the rampage in village Jaithikey near Sialkot, was found dead in his cell on Tuesday. The next day his family and community members, who had all been forced to flee Jaithikey, were prevented from burying him in their native village. And this heartless, inhumane act wasn’t the work of Muslim vigilantes alone. The local police also told the mourners to turn back, on the grounds that their presence could fan violence. In short the victims were punished, not the aggressors.

The Punjab government needs to take urgent steps to protect minorities in the province for the situation there is deteriorating. Its stance on minority rights will be gauged by its response. The centre, meanwhile, should start working towards the repeal of the blasphemy laws. For too long they have been used to settle personal scores, grab land – and to kill. These draconian laws must be struck off the books.

Taliban backlash haunts Swat locals

Tuesday, 04 Aug, 2009 | 10:02 AM PST |

 Frightened civilians fear the Taliban will pounce again on Swat as residents try to rebuild shattered lives and shot nerves in the mountain valley once likened to Switzerland.

Sex workers being educated, trained on health Dawn Friday, 10 Jul, 2009

KARACHI: A three-day skill building workshop on STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and HIV got under way on Thursday to educate and prepare sex workers for running various preventive health programmes solely for their own benefit.

The United Nations Population Fund, an international agency, is organising the workshop with the collaboration of the National Aids Control Programme. About 70 female sex workers, mainly from the red light areas of both Karachi and Hyderabad, turned up on the first day to attend lectures and interactive sessions.

The female workers were brought to the workshop entitled ‘Skill building workshop on HIV and sex works’ with the support of an NGO and contraceptive marketers, said an organiser, adding that there was a plan to bring the female sex workers operating from kothis, bungalows and those giving services on call to such a forum in the future.

A tragedy of errors and Cover-ups – By The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is convinced that the cost of the insurgency in the Malakand Division has been increased manifold by the shortsightedness and indecisiveness of the non-representative institutions and their policy of appeasing the militants and cohorting with them. While the ongoing military operation had become unavoidable, it was not adopted as a measure of the last resort. Further, the plight of the internally displaced people has been aggravated by lack of planning and coordination by the agencies concerned, and the methods of evacuation of towns/villages and the arrangements for the stranded people have left much to be desired.

 Based on reports by HRCP activists in the Malakand Division and other parts of NWFP/Pakhtunkhwa, visits to IDP camps by its activists and senior board members, and talks with many displaced people and several Nazims and public figures, the commission has released the following statement on the situation, its conclusions and recommendations:

Changing the way we have been By Ayaz Amir

( Comment by Awaam :  So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable—-Aldous Huxley )

The stakes couldn’t be higher nor the opportunity hidden in this hour of seeming distress more promising. Provided we don’t prove exceptionally unlucky once more — or exceptionally stupid — the crisis in which we find ourselves is an opportunity to change the face of Pakistan, change our direction and our established modes of thinking and make up for all the lost years — years lost to mediocre leadership, both civil and military.

It is not us who have created this moment of opportunity. Indeed it lay not in our power to do so. It has come our way through a combination of factors: America’s presence in Afghanistan; the growing Taliban threat within Pakistan; and Barack Obama as US president.

It is Obama’s approach to Afghanistan which has enhanced Pakistan’s importance — whether Pakistan’s inept leadership understands this or not. Crucial to any American success in Afghanistan — anything that enables the US to make a half-dignified exit from there — is Pakistan’s role or, specifically, the role of its army.

Who will bell the cat ? And How ?

Here are three pieces published in daily ‘The News’. These represent a cross section of views. Although they discuss the problem of Swat Operation and IDPs from different perspective, the common theme is ‘What needs to be done and how it should be done?’. However no one clearly comes up with the answer to the question ‘Who’ needs to do this. And if the government is failing, as they all say or imply, how the hell are we going to change this?

Is any one listening? Who will bell the cat?

On the other side of despair. by Ali Asghar Khan, 

No escape from hell by Noreen Haider    and     

Winning the peace by Dr Maleeha Lodhi

On the other side of despair. by Ali Asghar Khan

“Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.” –T S Elliot

Amidst the insanity, the brutality, hate and intolerance, there remains an overwhelming desire for peace and security. In the face of daunting issues and powerful actors, many may doubt their ability to contribute to change and question the relevance of making an effort. The importance of raising citizen concerns individually or collectively for creating checks and balances is greater now than ever before. We as citizens must demand that the manner in which we resolve our problems reflects our reality and our interests. For ordinary citizens to abdicate this role under the present circumstances is simply suicidal.

Hypocrisy, fast becoming a national pastime, should no longer be tolerated.

Pakistan’s war on civilians by Paul Rogers

This article was published on ‘Open Democracy’. Paul Rogers is professor of Peace studies in Bradford, England. He writes regularly on Open Democracy and for the Oxford Research Group. We do not agree with all of what he says, but he does raise questions we all need to think about and find answers for.

 The car-bombing in Lahore of a police station and the local headquarters of  Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency on 27 May 2009 is more than the seventh major attack on the city since January 2008 – and the third since March 2009, when the Sri Lankan cricket team and a police academy were targeted. The bomb, which killed twenty-seven people and and injured over a hundred, is a further indication of the systemic, interrelated and deep-rooted nature of Pakistan’s internal-security troubles. Lahore, after all, is Pakistan’s cultural centre, a sophisticated city that lies close to India and is a long way from the intense fighting currently being waged in the Swat valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). If it can be repeatedly attacked with apparent impunity, it tells its own story about how the different parts of the country are becoming implicated in an all-consuming conflict (see Ayesha Siddiqa, “Pakistan: a country on fire“, 24 September 2008).

Pakistan: women’s quest for entitlement

Apr 13, 2009

By Pippa Virdee

The article was published on open Democracy.

The emancipation of women is often linked to the progress of a society in transformation from a feudal society to a modern state. The story of women in the country that became Pakistan can indeed be told in such terms: as part of a struggle for advancement with education at its centre, and linked at critical moments to wider goals of national emancipation and social reform.