Malala's homecoming

Malala Yousafzai is by far the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history. She stands as an unwavering example around the world for her brave resolve to fight for what she believes in. Yet why is that she is despised by most in Pakistan, in her own native country?

In our country, instead of evidence, unfortunately public sentiments are guided by conspiracy theories, the rants of our conservative majority on social media and our right-wing news anchors that crowd the airwaves.

Public outrage against Malala began to grow since she started to receive the Western accolades for displaying this courage to speak against Taliban, who still drives sympathies among a shocking number of Pakistanis. Right-wing commentators and conservatives in the urban middle class claim she is an agent of the West.

Through no fault of her own, Malala is often blamed for revealing to the world how powerful the TTP was in certain areas of Pakistan. In a statement released after her shooting, a Taliban spokesman singled out Malala’s crime not as the desire for education, but as spreading propaganda. The diary series she reportedly dictated over the phone to a BBC reporter made her famous abroad, and a target at home. That’s a national affront! How could she!

As she became more prominent and had contact with world leaders, including President Barack Obama, some in Pakistan asked why she even meets with those responsible for drone attacks.

They, of course, overlooked the fact that when Malala met Obama in the White House, she challenged U.S. drone policy. ‘Drones fuel terrorism,’ she told the president face to face. This was a public statement that even the most seasoned Pakistani politicians have not had the courage to make when they visited the White House. But her privileged status in the West confuses her legitimacy at home.

In a time, when the word 'Pakistan' is considered, around the world, synonym to 'terrorists,' 'corruption,' and 'illegal immigration,' we have too few heroes and heroines, to not hold on to Malala for our love of conspiracy theories.

Bushra
1750 hours
Saturday 31 March 2018

Trump and aid

In his first tweet of the new year, US President Donald Trump threatened to cut aid to Pakistan for accusations of lying to the US and offering 'little help' in hunting terrorists in Afghanistan.

Not only Trump’s tweet sound highly undiplomatic, what provoked Mr Trump to single out Pakistan remains quite unclear. Just a few weeks ago, Trump praised Pakistan for starting to 'respect the United States.'

Back in US, some policymakers have been debating that any rebuke to Pakistan risk throwing an important partner further into the hands of a rising China, which has already been favouring Pakistan through investments in infrastructure projects and other forms of aid.

On the other hand, many of Pakistani news analysts are arguing that US cutting down funds to Pakistan will not have a significant effect on Pakistan’s economy. There can be a period of difficulty if US stops all aid, but not a complete collapse. Many analysts believe that if US happened to curtail aid to Pakistan, China would quickly step in to fill the gap.

When it comes to Pakistan, it is true that US counter-terrorism and strategic objectives offset its concerns over support for terrorist activity within Pakistan's borders.

In this backdrop. Trump's latest tweet doesn't seem anything more than an undiplomatic move, taken out of US frustration at itself for not achieving any stability in Afghanistan, even after more than 16 years of conflict.

Bushra
0100 hours
Sunday 7 January 2018

Woman who won Pakistan its only Oscar!

Not that there was ever doubt about the misogynist nature of online trolling in Pakistan, but the attacks on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on her description of the Facebook request as ‘harassment,’ have marked a new high in online hate on women.

Some on social media posted photographs of her with other men - apparently suggesting these images made her a hypocrite for complaining about alleged harassment. Facebook pages were created encouraging people to send Obaid-Chinoy friend requests. A Facebook page posted a video called ‘Sharmeen triggered - how to trigger (harass) Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’, showing visuals of searching for her profile on Facebook and then adding her as a friend. On Twitter one user vowed to keep attacking Obaid and her sister until the suspended doctor is allowed to go back to work and declared that he was going to send friend requests to as many women as he wanted to. ‘Sharmeen is a tout and a dirty fly. She is only trying to seek fame through these tweets,’ chauvinistic comment said.

Some suggested she exemplified the phrase ‘wrong women in the wrong family’ and called her an elitist. She, however, subsequently clarified she was referring to the fact that ‘women in my family are strong’ and had not meant to ‘suggest a sense of privilege or power.’

Unsurprisingly, Facebook and YouTube got flooded with videos, particularly of Pakistani men, condescendingly explaining what exactly constitutes harassment to Obaid and through her, to Pakistani women. Others accused her of harassing the doctor by tweeting about the incident.

Reading the comments and tweets online, one could feel the exasperation with which Pakistani men were trying to explain how this friend request could possibly be a consequence of an ‘informal conversation’, a ‘misunderstanding’ or something initiated by the woman; how the man was not given a chance to even breathe and explain himself. I wonder how many men hearing the story got scared that their own immoral behaviour could be punishable. That their ‘innocent’ comments and actions towards women at work, in the streets, in public transport, in bazaars, etc could indeed be harassment. And in realising that, rushed to their phones and laptops to defend their ‘right’ to do all this without any consequences?

One of the widely circulated comment of a journalist on his Facebook page said that comparing a social media request to harassment was ‘ridiculous.’ He added ‘What’s next, asking for a pen is harassment… Looking at someone for three seconds will be harassment?’ In his post, he also said that the claim ‘is actually taking away from real victims of harassment.’

Sharmeen has been accused of being a ‘traitor’ to Pakistan in the past as well, in relation to her work that exposes violent and misogynistic cultural traditions prevalent in certain parts of Pakistani society. Her tweet storm renewed those criticisms and she was repeatedly accused of having harmed the country's international image. Her Oscar-winning short documentaries tackle the topics of acid attacks and honour killings of women.

One popular video with tens of thousands of views has a gentleman schooling Obaid on how not to abuse her influence as a celebrity while, of course, belittling her professional achievements: ‘making 2 to 4 documentaries is not a big deal at all … and it is the doctor who is being harassed.’

In a subsequent statement, Obaid-Chinoy revealed that the doctor in question had conducted a ‘very private examination’ of her sister before going online and ‘leaving comments on photographs & trying to add her as a Facebook friend.’ She clarified she regularly receives ‘unsolicited friendship requests from strangers’ but that she considered this episode a ‘serious breach of patient-doctor privilege.’

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council referred the BBC to their ethical guidelines, which don't specifically mention social media but do state that a ‘professional position must never be used to pursue a relationship of an emotional or sexual nature with a patient, the patient's spouse, or a near relative of a patient.’

Bushra

1850 hours

Friday 3 November 2017

Of misogony and Gulalai Yousafzai

When female politician, 31, accuse the cricket-star-turned-opposition-leader Imran Khan of sexual harassment, the venom unleashed against her was unmatchable vicious.

As if Khan’s public denouncement and demand of PKR 30 million in compensation for damage to his reputation and “mental torture” was not enough, the trolls took it on them to insult Gulalai in a way that reeked of misogyny.

Gulalai is Pakistan’s youngest parliamentarian and the first woman from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) to hold such office. Following Gulalai’s accusations, social media users did not spare even her younger sister, Maria Toorpakai Wazir, a famous squash player! She has also received death threats for playing in shorts and without a headscarf despite of her inspirational and courageous story of defying Taliban and representing Pakistan on international platform.  

On social media, some said Gulalai, should have acid thrown in her face, others that she should be whipped. She was called a liar and a carpetbagger. Mocking TV hosts asked, smirking, if she actually wanted to marry the man she accused. ‘You are shameless doing press conference, giving interviews, biggest liar, with a filthy tongue wicked and a shame to Pakhtuns,’ a comment on social media said.

The backlash against Gulalai is evidence of the abuse reserved for Pakistani women who venture to speak out publicly against harassment – abuse that is now increasingly taking place online. 75-80% of social media users in Pakistan are male, making women an online minority. In a study of 17 Pakistani universities, the Digital Rights Foundation found that 34% of surveyed women had experienced online abuse or harassment by men.

In a country where hundreds of women each year are murdered in so-called honour killings, such public debasement of women carries real danger. In 2014, the cricketer Halima Rafiq died, in what her family said was suicide, after accusing a top cricket official of sexual harassment.

While some people have questioned the timing of Gulalai’s claims. She came forward days after Khan succeeded in his campaign to oust Nawaz Sharif as prime minister on corruption charges in July, leading some to accuse Gulalai of taking money to defend Sharif – a charge that remains unproven. If it is unfair to believe an allegation, it is also unfair to doubt Ayesha Gulalai and call her names.

Bushra

1130 hours

Sunday 24 September 2017

Sans-Sharif!

The Supreme Court on Friday disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from holding public office in a landmark decision on the Panama Papers case.

It is true that Sharif has been stripped of the prime ministership on quite narrow legal grounds. If the democratic project is to be sustained and strengthened, the rules of the system must be clear, fair and transparent.

Although, Sharif family's legal team's strategy  has been quite troubling in this case. They only focused in subsequent hearing, on discrediting the report, and raising questions about the impartiality and capability of the six men who had comprised the JIT, instead coming up with a clear or transparent explanation. Instead, 'Sans-Sharif' and #FontGate scandals further tarnished their defense.

Nevertheless, we were hoping that the Supreme Court would deliver a well-argued and well-reasoned judgement that would create a desirable and easily implementable legal precedent. Instead, the one that now holds sway in the application of disqualification criteria for elected officials is very vague. What is the scope of Article 62(1)(f) and has it been properly determined by the bench? What constitutes a misdeclaration in a candidate’s nomination forms that can trigger disqualification?

The Supreme Court was in a Catch-22 situation; it had lowered the threshold for ineligibility of elected members to such an extent. It seems following this judgement; one hundred per cent of this country’s elected representatives face at least some uncertainty about their legitimate qualifications to hold public office. Doesn’t that sound like a fiasco…for a democracy!

Bushra
2005 hours
Sunday 30 July 2017

The ordeal of Kashmir

Farooq Dar was tied up on a spare tyre at the front of an armoured jeep and driven through villages of Srinagar, after a severe beating. Indian soldiers claimed he had been pelting stones at their patrol and the ordeal of him, tied on a tyre, would scare off others from doing the same.

On 22 May, the Indian army announced an award for the officer who tied Dar to the jeep for ‘sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations.’ An Indian television even called the officer a hero for using Dar as a ‘human shield.’

Now in a recent surge of events, the Indian authorities imposed a curfew across most part of the valley and suspended mobile and telephone services ito suppress widespread protests after gunning down Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Ahmad Bhat – the successor of Burhan Wani – and his 16-year-old associate.

The recent unrest in Kashmir has been of a different kind from the insurgency of 1990s and 2000s. India has made the problem quite complex by refusing to differentiate between the new type of demonstrator and the usual guerrillas. It has responded to protests with extreme violence. Last year security forces dispersed wild crowds by firing shotguns at them, blinding or killing several people. Recently, they have abstained from using such weapons, but they have revived aggressive searches of a kind not seen since the height of the Kashmir insurgency, 15 years ago.

Those who throw stones at soldiers, often in response to aggression by the army, are routinely described as ‘militants’. Indian media report, with weak evidence, that Pakistan pays protesters 500 rupees per projectile hurled.

Since when calls for independence is synonymous to violence?

With more than 500,000 security personnel deployed across Kashmir it is highly likely that the current turmoil will now prevail, for quite some time. A lot is being lost, in the paradise on earth.

But mostly, emotionally, it seems, little remains to be saved!

Bushra
0530 hours
Monday 29 May 2017

The Police 'Encounters'

Yesterday, the Counter Terrorism Department in Punjab claimed that in a terrorist encounter at 1:15, they killed 10-suspected Jamaatul Ahrar terrorists, including the handler of the bomber who carried out the suicide attack at Lahore’s Mall Road.

A firefight followed, in the dark? I’m sure our Counter Terrorism Department must have ‘night-vision goggles,’ or perhaps they are simply superb marksmen — especially in the dark.

At the end of the exchange, there were 10 dead and surprisingly no survivors, injured or uninjured, from the group that attacked the police.

The most unsettling fact about this ‘encounter’ is that there hasn’t been public presentation of evidence against any of the dead as yet. These unusually common incidents of police ‘encounters’, not only in Punjab, has resulted in multiple deaths of men ‘alleged’ to be terrorists.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) report 2016, Police in Pakistan may be illegally executing hundreds of people each year in fake ‘encounter killings’. It said it was concerned that many, ‘if not most’, of the 2,108 people reported by the media to have been killed in encounters in 2015 died in circumstances that were ‘faked and did not occur in situations in which lives were at risk.’

The technique has been widely used in recent years by police and paramilitary forces battling to bring order to Karachi.  It’s shameful how some in Pakistan, often support these killings, which they say are responsible for a dramatic improvement in Karachi’s law and order situation.

This ‘extrajudicial killing’ right after a terror incidents may be an attempt by Punjab authorities to neutralise the public criticism they are facing for their failure to counter terrorists attacks: they surely are not a solution to the real problem.

The real solutions involves the authorities to take effective measures before occurance of an incident - operations against terrorists and effective surveillance. With this mockery of rule of law we are getting nowhere as a society to combat terrorists elements, in the long run. We will miserably fail.

Bushra
01:30 hours
Sunday 9 April 2017

Trump’s Muslim ban

Not everyone is perturbed by President Donald Trump's executive order to place travel restrictions on the citizens of selected Muslim countries.

Islamists and extremists that have long debated against the "evils" of democracy and the US - are likely having a "told you so" moment. However, there are politicians, such as Pakistan's Imran Khan, that are looking at the silver lining of this policy if Pakistan was added to the selected countries list.

It's true that in a single blow Trump has erected a wall – that of ideology, race and religion. The sides will have to be picked and many Muslims who are not extremists or terrorists will be stranded in the middle.

A potential outcome of Trump's policy is also a slight chance that the immigration restriction would allow some of the Muslim countries, their leaders and the people to take responsibility and control of their countries, instead of plundering it and finding an escape route.

This school of thought is exactly what has been reflected by Imran Khan. In his comments he argued that he would welcome a travel ban from Trump for Pakistan as a way for the country to fix its internal governance and security problems instead of relying on the US.

Perhaps this is Trump's end goal, to shake foreign policy and politics in Washington and do things differently to get different results given that for the longest time US interaction with the Muslim world has only produced corrupt leaders and instability in the region. This could potentially benefit the Trump government and perhaps the Pakistan and US in the long run by breaking the status quo in the region and forcing a bottom-up change.

Bushra
2125 hours
Tuesday 7 February 2017

Freedom of speech that hurts other people's feelings

Five liberal activists, including poet Salman Maqsood had each gone missing separately since Jan. 4.

While the disappearance has raised many discussions on popular media and human rights activist on the state of freedom of speech in Pakistan and international community, it seems some human rights commentators here confuse freedom of speech as synonym of the right to offend.

Free speech is a crucial part of democracy; but this freedom necessitates respect and responsibility. Simply because we can say something doesn’t necessarily mean that we should.

We should consider more carefully what ‘freedom of speech’ actually means in context. Despite popular belief, free speech is not absolute, even in the United States, the UK and other developed countries that are considered global champions of Freedom of Expression. The US Supreme Court has made this clear through a number of cases. The government can regulate speech in certain instances, with exceptions for circumstances like ‘fighting words,’ or incitement to imminent violent action.

In a democracy with freedom of expression, one must tolerate scorn, mockery and ridicule. Religious and cultural pluralism are core values that democracies should aspire toward. But, pluralism, according to scholars like Harvard University’s Diana Eck, goes beyond tolerating diversity to actively seeking to engage difference through mutual dialogue. This kind of pluralism is impossible if we deliberately use free speech to provoke, demean or injure others – stereotyping a certain section of society, a set of religious values or an institution.

Bushra
2300 hours
Friday 20 January 2017

Tayyaba and child labour

As the heart-wrenching tale of Tayyaba, the child maid, allegedly tortured in Islamabad, surfaces – it raises more questions on child labour.

Many people in Pakistan would argue that if underprivileged and poor children are being given a means of supporting themselves and their families that can only be a good thing.

Certainly, when people from wealthy countries try to tell families in developing countries, stricken with poverty, living under $2 a day, that they cannot determine how to best look after their families, it can seem quite paternalistic.

But there is a reason, deeper and more valid than obvious.High levels of child labour is in fact linked with adult unemployment and under-employment.

The reason many people and business choose to employ children is because ‘they slip so easily under the radar.’ According to Stop Child Labour, one of the reasons children are so vulnerable is because ‘there is no supervision or social control mechanisms, no unions that can help them to bargain for better working conditions. These are very low-skilled workers without a voice, so they are easy targets.’ Because of their vulnerability, many people and businesses in Pakistan will actually employ children in preference to adults.

According to the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations: ‘There is a clear link between child labour and low wages for adult workers, both in agriculture (cotton production) and in garment factories.’ They argue that if ‘child labour was banned, labour would become more scarce, which would actually allow adult workers to negotiate better wages and improve labour conditions.’

If children are being paid less than adults to do the same job, it means that families are actually worse off. If adults are paid a better living wage, their children can have the opportunity to get an education, thus giving them more opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

Bushra
2040 hours
Thursday 29 December 2016

Why trump is good for Pakistan

Many in west argue, Pakistan is at best a sometimes-ally when it comes to counterterrorism. But Pakistan is equally taken as an enemy, a state sponsor of terrorism a host to anti-Afghan, anti-Indian, anti-west jihadi militants. It is widely alleged that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services prefer to maintain friendly ties with some terrorists for two reasons. For Pakistan’s strategists, they are useful proxies to destabilise Pakistan’s enemy neighbours and but they are also be deadly adversaries if confronted head-on.

Tens of billions of American dollars with the carrots and sticks American approach –have clearly not succeeded in changing Pakistan’s core strategic calculations.

It’s true that the only time that Pakistan has changed its strategic approach in any significant way was immediately after 9/11, when fear of a vengeful America led then-President Pervez Musharraf to cooperate on a variety of counter terror operations that netted top Al-Qaeda leaders on Pakistan’s soil and to acquiesce, at least for several years, to an overthrow of Pakistan’s favoured Taliban regime in Afghanistan. As Musharraf has claimed in his memoir, he and other top Pakistani generals feared that unless they bowed to the Bush administration’s demands, they would be “bombed back to the stone ages” or, more likely, would suffer the strategic consequences of seeing the United States align with India.

Trump’s apparent “irrationality” could conceivably make American threats to Pakistan far more effective. One of the only sure things we know about upcoming policy is that he means to get tough against “radical Islamic terrorists.” Trump may be uniquely well positioned to deliver a credible ultimatum to Pakistan: “Begin a full-scale, verifiable, and rapid offensive against all terrorist groups on Pakistani soil, or else.”

None of this is to suggest that Pakistan will simply cave to Washington’s demands. It’s true that whatever happens, Pakistan will remain a nuclear-armed state of 200 million people with increasingly close ties to China. But at least this way, Pakistan could arrest or kill some top terrorist leader to demonstrate the value of cooperation, while suggesting that coercive ultimatums are really unnecessary.

Bushra
1815 hours
Saturday 12 November 2016

The honour killing bill

Pakistan on Thursday passed laws to increase sentences for rapists and those who commit so-called honour killings of women, and closed a loophole that allowed many of the killers to go free Goof development.

But it hurts that only about a third of the 446 lawmakers attended the session, but debate was raucous, with the loudest opposition coming from hard-line Islamists. Senator Hafiz Hamdullah said parliament should instead address elopements by women, claiming 17,000 had done so since 2014.

He echoed a stance taken by many hard-liners that the law is bringing Western-style independence for women. "Why don't we see what are the reasons behind such killings? Why are girls eloping from their homes? They are trying to impose Western culture over here. We will not allow (it)," he said.

Conservatives even demanded that the Islamic Ideology Council, a body of conservative Muslim clerics, weigh in on the bill before the vote. Yes the same council that once ruled it was permissible for a man to "lightly" beat his wife.

It's a shame that honor killings are rooted so deep in traditions by which a family's honour is bound up with a woman's chastity. Killings met with acceptance, even approval, by neighbours and relatives.

Bushra
2200 hours
Monday 10 October 2016

To honour is...to love and protect!

15 years old Ambreen was dragged from her home, injected with sedatives, strangled with ropes, tied up in a van and then burned while still alive.

Her crime: Helping her school friend flee the village to marry of her own free will.

The ‘honour killing’ was ordered by a tribal jirga, including some family members of the eloped girl, who then carried out the killing.

This is not the first time such a heinous crime is committed against a woman on the order of the tribal council. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, over a thousand women were killed in Pakistan last year in the name of so called 'honour killing.'

Pakistan is currently ranked 147th out of 188 countries on the UN Gender Equality Index. We all are seeing, since the passage of the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Bill recently, more than 30 religious groups have spoken out against the bill, calling campaigning in favour of the bill as promotion of obscenity and the destruction of the family system. The bill offers a bare minimum protection for women from crimes of physical, financial and psychological abuse, among latest reports that 70 to 90 percent Pakistani women have suffered some kind of abuse at least once in their lives.

The criminal justice system is completely not working very effectively. There has been a complete failure of the state and the society to deal with such premeditated crimes.

Ambreen's father, a poor local labourer from Abbottabad, said his daughter had just quit school at grade eight.

It’s not only a cold-blooded murder, it’s savagely barbaric.

Bushra
2105 hours
Saturday 7 May 2016

What is with Maulana Sherani, anyways!

The latest in the series of imprudent remarks by Maulana Sherani is his comment this Sunday that the Panama Leaks were somehow a Western conspiracy aimed at destabilising Pakistani democracy and to ‘implement their nefarious designs in the country.’

This is of course not the first time Maulana Sherani has voiced any opinions that is not grounded in facts. His ignorance over the global state of affairs and controversial verdicts on various laws, insisting on men and women on unequal footing, makes one wonder how this advisory council could be held in high regard by most in the country.

In February, the provincial Punjab assembly passed a landmark women's protection bill, establishing hotlines and shelters for women to protect them from domestic, psychological and sexual violence. The harshest criticism against the legislation came from the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII).  Commenting on the bill, Maulana Sherani said: ‘The law is wrong and that the lawmakers had not taken the Islamic teachings about ‘family protection’ into consideration.’

Prior to this, Marvi Memon tabled a bill in the National Assembly in January. The bill was aimed to address the issue of child marriages. UNICEF estimates that about 3 percent of girls in Pakistan are married before they turn 15, and 21 percent before age 18. This bill though didn’t even see the light of day as the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) immediately shot it down.

The council also ruled in the past that DNA could not be used as evidence in rape cases, endorsing controversial ‘Hudood’ laws that mandate that a rape victim get four male witnesses to be able to testify in court.

The CII was formulated in 1962 under Ayub Khan as a constitutional body that would provide Islamic guidance when it came to lawmaking. Its ruling on bills however never was, nor is mandatory; rather just an opinion that should not decide the fate of any bill. Unfortunately this has not been the case.

The CII is a redundant organisation. Under the 73’ constitution it was supposed to submit an annual report up till 1996 after which it would no longer be necessary. But the council keeps on going, priding itself on speaking exclusively on issues relating to women.

Stopping important legislation that protects the rights of those who cannot protect themselves doesn’t only give Pakistan a very ‘negative image,’ it forces half of country’s population to live a life of fear, devoid of due self esteem.  This is what forces the world to reason that we are a country of misogynistic bigots.

Bushra
2237 hours
Saturday 30 April 2016

Of Valentine’s Day and that advert

This morning, I spotted this ultimate advert at the back page of a leading daily, to my horror!

Why don’t I share this amazing sense of morality with the person who decided to place this advertisement? I wish I had such wits, but unfortunately, whatever angle I look at it, I just can’t seem to find the exact element which makes this worthy of a quarter-page advertisement in a top newspaper!

Though, I am not an advocate or an opponent of Valentine’s Day as such, even then, I can’t help but spot this deliberate twisting of facts about St. Valentine and the day, in an obviously not so witty manner.

The story of origin of Valentine’s Day centres Emperor Claudius II deciding that unmarried men made better soldiers so he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, a Roman Saint (and not a Jew), defied this ridiculous decree by performing marriages for young lovers in secret. When this was found out, Valentine was put to death and thus, in his memory, lovers started to profess their love for each other on this day.

Please when will you get your facts right?

Besides, this argument that Valentine’s Day is spoiling the youth and culture of Pakistan, and is against religion, doesn't seem to sit well with me. The only things that spoil the youth, culture and name of Pakistan are our obnoxious practices of child marriages, honour killing, treating women as commodities, giving them in swaras, victimisations of raped women, one of the highest numbers of rape cases of minor girls, acid throwing, crippling sectarianism and extremism, intolerance and terrorism that’s eating this country to its cores.

Sorry to spoil it, but the narrators of this advert clearly didn’t do their jobs well. I hope I’m not the only one who finds this advert utterly misleading, and depressing at the same time!

Or did I simply miss my cue to find it otherwise?

Bushra
2302 hours
Friday 12 February 2016

When people like Maulana Sheerani govern our laws

Maulana Sheerani, Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), never falls short of stirring controversies every other month or so through his rounds of statements. In his latest statement to the press he announced that he intended to discuss three important issues in the meetings. (i) Deciding whether Ahmadis are non-Muslims or apostates; (2) Imposing jizya on non-Muslims (iii) determining which sects fall under Islam.

Earlier, the CII recommended to the government to round up those who were not born Ahmadi but had embraced the sect as “normal” Muslims and put them to death.

Pakistan is a democratic state and a democratic state treats all its citizens equally, irrespective of their cast, creed, religion or ethnicity. The Ahmadis are already under disabilities that a modern democratic state should be ashamed of. They can’t say the word ‘masjid’, pointing to their mosque, among many other words associated with Islam, otherwise they go in jail for six months. Routinely attacked, desecration of their old graves, corpses thrown on the roads and ‘true Muslims’ going round trying to trap an unaware Ahmadi into pronouncing an Islamic phrase before putting him in police custody are common practices in Pakistan, according to human rights watchers.

On top of this, comes the role of CII to incite hate and violence, in a society already wrecked with religious intolerance, jihadism and religious terrorism. Following are some of the recommendations CII has made over past couple of months:

• Among issues taken to the council by the religion ministry was the issue of girls marrying of their own choice. The CII announced that the nikah of a girl without the permission of the wali (a male member of family or guardian) was un-Islamic and those girls getting married of their own choice should be punished under law.
• It also declared that sending anyone to prison was against Shariat and recommended that prison sentences be abolished. Early Islam had no jails, no police, and no banks. Thieves used to have their hands cut.
• They also want to recommend, to ban kite-flying, organ transplant and smoking.
• The other enlightened opinion of the CII was that co-education be banned and that all lotteries like prize bonds be banned.
• The CII ruled that insurance of all kinds was against Islam and should be abolished forthwith.
• It had earlier endorsed the destruction of Afghanistan’s archaeological heritage by the Taliban.
• It also said women should be disallowed from appearing in ads and that only men should be used to promote products.
• Women were allowed to work as air hostesses but they should be wearing the burqa or hijab (veil) on board.
• This is not it for their obsession with women, they recommend no tailor should be allowed to sew women’s clothes and only women tailors should be used by women. 

Bravo!

At a time when Pakistan is said to be fighting a final war against terror, extremism and radicalization, when our forces and civilians are sacrificing their lives, the Chairman CII has decided to lead petty discussions to impose some medieval laws that have little to do with Islam or modern statecraft.


Bushra
1334 hours
Sunday 7 Febuary 2016

Killed in the name of honour

Shameen Obaid-Chinoy’s film on honour killing cases in Pakistan, A Girl in the River, got nominated for the Oscars today. It tells the story of a young woman who survived attempted murder by her father and uncle after she fell in love, eloped and married a man who was deemed ‘unsuitable’ by her family.

Talking about the film, Shameen Obaid-Chinoy, the film’s director says: ‘you can go into small towns and villages across Pakistan and you will find that people think that honour killing is not a crime because nobody ever goes to jail for it.’

Ironically, over a thousand honour killings were reported in Pakistan last year, with the victims including 923 women and 82 minor girls – that makes it almost all women. These numbers are way shorter than the fuller picture as the vast majority of honour killings are never reported or registered, especially in rural areas.

Human rights agencies in Pakistan have repeatedly emphasised that women victims of honour killings were usually those wanting to marry of their own will. In many cases, the victims held properties that the male members of their families did not wish to lose if the women chose to marry outside the family. More often than not, the honour killing murder relates to inheritance problems, feud-settling, or to get rid of the wife in order to remarry.

Thanks to our deep rooted feudalism, tribalism and the continuing presence of elder councils, especially in rural Pakistan. The fact that much of Pakistan's Tribal Areas are semi-autonomous and governed by often fundamentalist leaders makes federal enforcement difficult when attempted. Such councils are the root cause of these heinous crimes as they allow the families to settle honour killing cases among themselves so that there is no legal punishment. The victim's family is given monetary compensation instead.

Also, the 1997 Retribution and Compensation Act allows a victim's legal heir to close a case at any point in the court, take monetary compensation for the honor killing and pardon the accused. So, if and when the case reaches a court of law, the victim's family may 'pardon' the murderer, who may well be one of them. The murderer then goes free. Once such a pardon has been secured, the state has no further writ on the matter although often the killers are relatives of the victim.

It's big time our state needs to take concrete actions to end this heinous practice. Removing the possibility of compromise, waiver, and compensation between the victim's family and the perpetrator can be an effective measure to curb these murders.

Bushra
1905 hours
Sunday 31 January 2016   

Pakistan’s impunity for crimes against journalists

On Global Impunity Index of Committee to Protect Journalists (CJP), Pakistan ranks as the ninth worst country in the world in which journalists are murdered and no one is brought to justice.

More than 70 journalists and media workers have lost their lives since 2001 while pursuing their duties in Pakistan – 47 of whom were deliberately targeted and murdered for practicing their profession. Another 194 journalists were injured in gun attacks while 40 others were detained by law enforcement agencies and tried for different crimes.

The most ironic part of the report is that perpetrators in all these murder cases, but two, were never convicted.

Pakistani journalists are not only targeted by militants, political, religious, ethnic groups, but also by the law enforcement agencies.

One of the much talked about cases of journalists targeted include the case of Salem Shahzad. Four year back, he was found dead in Islamabad after he reported on the infiltration of terrorist groups in the military. The investigation commission’s report on Saleem Shahzad's murder that followed afterwards failed to ensure accountability or even name the perpetrators.  An investigation commission report on the assasination attempt on Hamid Mir last year, one of Pakistan's most renowned journalists, remains pending and the proceedings are shrouded in mystery. 

According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists 41 journalists have been targeted in Balochistan in different incidents since 2008. The province is literally an information black hole with virtually no news reaching out to masses through media.

Bushra

1914 hours

Monday 2 November 2015

When rape victims resort to self-immolation

 A girl, only in her late teens, self-immolated this week in Muzaffargarh after police refused to act on her claim she was gang-raped by police. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died of her injuries.

In April this year, Amna Bibi, another 18-year-old girl from Muzaffargarh district died after setting herself ablaze in protest against a police report that led to the release of her rapist.

Last year, a woman from Dera Gazi Khan set herself on fire as a protest against the attitude of the Punjab police for setting her rapists free.

During the last couple of years, the crime rate in Pakistan, specifically women, has increased to a great extent. This can be seen in various categories, such as rape, sexual abuse and murder. A report released by War Against Rape (WAR) group highlights that of 60 reported cases of rape, 20% involved police officers. According to Women's Action Forum, up to seventy-two percent of women in custody in Pakistan are physically or sexually abused. 

               

In a country like Pakistan where there are only a few laws protecting women; and bodies like Council of Islamic Ideology that seem obsessed with limiting women’s capacities as house-bound objects and refuse to put any focus on laws that govern child marriage and rape –  enjoy so much influence in the society.

It is high time that the state fulfils its primary responsibility of protecting the lives of women of Pakistan as equal citizens as per constitutional mandate. The whole system of the police in Pakistan needs to be revamped and reformed based on new laws involving women in line with the international standards.

Bushra

2145 hours

Monday 26 October 2015