A case for 20 provinces
By Yasser Latif Hamdani How many provinces should Pakistan have and are the current provinces and provincial identities sacrosanct? There is no good reason to assume so. Identity is always imagined and subjective. Administrative redistribution should not affect ethnic identity because there are Punjabis, Pushtoons, Sindhis, Baloch, Urdu speaking and other ethnicities living everywhere in Pakistan. However for the marginalised peoples of this multi-ethnic multi-cultural state of ours, administrative redistribution of provinces might actually be the best check against a tyrannical majority. … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Pakistan
Pakistani media does not report on the brutal realities of Balochistan
Ali Dayan Hasan — Pakistan representative, Human Rights Watch The News on Sunday (TNS) How does HRW view the current state of human rights in Balochistan? Ali Dayan Hasan (ADH) The toxic mix of armed nationalist, sectarian and Taliban actors on the one hand and the trigger-happy military authorities on the other, makes Balochistan one of the most dangerous places in the world today. Illegal detention. torture, disappearances and targeted killings by the military are commonplace. Abuses by nationalist militants are also on the rise. It is an appalling situation and the great losers in this are the long-suffering people of the province. TNS: Your report on attacks on education in Balochistan was criticised by the nationalists as focusing too much on the issues of settlers. What was the reason for highlighting that? … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Media
Balochistan: Pushed to the wall
By Raza Rumi There must be something terribly wrong with the state of Pakistan that in its largest province, state schools no longer recite the national anthem and are giving up on the Pakistani flag. Tragic, that such alarming reports flashed in the national newspapers and on the internet are a subject of little debate and introspection across the country. Either that nobody really cares as to what happens to the tribals in the southwest of Pakistan, or that there is soft censorship at play. Such is the level of self-censorship on the issue of Balochistan that the ongoing insurgency finds scant mention in the otherwise, hysterical electronic media of Pakistan. True, there are brave exceptions in the public arena, but the eerie silence on Balochistan is disturbing for any Pakistani … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan
Floods and the Existential Threat
By Adnan Syed The existential threat comes from disowning the democratic structure, giving up on it and looking yet again for another instant messiah in face of tremendous adversity and hopelessness. We were wrong in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s when the elected governments were overthrown. And if we continue with our mindless obsession with artificial stability, we would be wrong in 2010 yet again. (AZW) … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, baluchistan, Constitution, Democracy, Judiciary, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Politics, poverty, public policy, Rights
Pakistan's disaster could lead to a systemic collapse
Raza Rumi The colossal humanitarian tragedy and the imminent economic meltdown, will now shape a new Pakistan or rather, exacerbate its predicament in the months and years to come. Pakistan’s chronic political instability, structural economic constraints and a warped national security policy are all going to be affected by the unfolding drama of the national disaster, perhaps the severest, in the country’s history. Whilst the challenges have snowballed within a short duration of ten days, the … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Pakistan, strategy, Terrorism, violence, Zardari
Habib Jalib's tragic murder – a blow to national integrity
PTH strongly condemns this act of barbarity and tragic persecution of Balochi leadership. We cannot afford to let this continue. About time, the Balochistan package is fully implemented and widened in its scope. We have to redress all genuine grievances of this troubled province and instead of looking for a foreign hand, analyse where we went wrong. If the Balochis are with Pakistan, no foreign hand can be successful. This would the beginning of a new chapter in our federal history. We are posting a press release by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan that makes pertinent points and gives a way forward for the rulers. We cannot allow the elimination of representative voices. Raza Rumi Jalib’s murder a blow to national integrity: HRCP … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pakistan, quetta, Terrorism, violence
…On the Birth of Balochistan Liberation Army
The Stunning Investigative Story on the Birth of Balochistan Liberation Army By Tariq Saeedi in Ashgabat, Sergi Pyatakov in Moscow, Ali Nasimzadeh in Zahidan, Qasim Jan in Kandahar and SM Kasi in Quetta MARCH 1: Deception and treachery. Live and let die. The ultimate zero sum game. Repetition of bloody history: Call it what you may, something is happening in the Pakistani province of Balochistan that defies comprehension on any conventional scale. Four correspondents and dozens of associates who collectively logged more than 5000 kilometers during the past seven weeks in pursuit of a single question – What is happening in Balochistan? – have only been able to uncover small parts of the entire picture. However, if the parts have any proportional resemblance to the whole, it is a frightening and mind-boggling picture. … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Islamabad, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, quetta, Religion, Taliban, Terrorism, violence, war, Zardari
We Shall Overrun: The Young, Urban, Middle Class Pakistani Manifesto
By Nadeem F. Paracha http://blog.dawn.com/2010/03/20/we-shall-overrun/ 1. Asif Ali Zardari is the devil incarnate. 2. The Pakistan Army is the saviour. 3. The Taliban are resisting American imperialism. 4. We hate American foreign policy unless it suits us. We are against American imperialism if it means we have to ditch the Taliban as that would be against the aspirations of our founding father, Mohammed Bin Qasim. We will no longer shop at Marks and Spencer because they are somehow connected to Israel. However, that does not mean we will switch off our computers and cell phones whose chip technology has been made possible due to major contributions from Israeli scientists. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Benazir Bhutto, Democracy, FATA, Humor, India, Iran, Islam, Islamabad, Pakistan, Punjab, Punjabi, Religion, Taliban, USA, Writers, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
The More Things Change…
…the more they remain the same The ISI – a proxy for the Army, since Z.A.Bhutto’s creation of ISI’s infamous Political Cell – seems to be making it clear that it (too) is beyond accountability. After Malik Qayyum tried to show he still had some nuisance value by declaring to Hamid Mir that ‘a former head of a powerful intelligence agency had confirmed to him that (the missing person) Mr Janjua was dead’, there were news items about the police (possibly) investigating a handful of former and serving intelligence and army officers in relation to missing persons. Mrs Amina Janjua promptly responded to the possible muddying of the intelligence agency’s name by writing to The News. She declares in this letter that she does not seek investigation against any ‘valuable’ national agency … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Citizens, Democracy, human rights, journalism, Judiciary, Justice, Pakistan, Taliban, USA
The Year of the Drone, by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann
We are reproducing an important paper on the drone attacks in Pakistan. This report analyzes the numbers behind the drone attack casualties. This paper further discusses the drone policy implications for the US, Pakistan as well as for the Taliban. I encourage you to visit the New America website for full report with various graphs, further statistics and footnotes that give important details behind the information given in this paper (AZW) Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative Policy Paper The Year of the Drone An Analysis of U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2010 Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann February 24, 2010 For full report please go to http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/the_year_of_the_drone Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan from 2004 to the present have killed between 830 and 1,210 individuals, of whom around 550 to 850 were described as … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, FATA, Islamabad, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, strategy, Taliban, Terrorism, USA
Former corps commander, 2 ISI officials booked
Daily Times 04 Feb 2010 Case registered in line with orders of Supreme Court over disappearance of Quetta resident Ali Asghar Bangalzai By Malik Siraj Akbar QUETTA: Police in the provincial capital registered a case on Wednesday against former corps commander Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch and two senior ISI officials, in line with orders of a Supreme Court bench hearing a case related to the disappearance of a resident of the city, Ali Asghar Bangalzai. The family of Bangalzai, a tailor master, registered the first information report (FIR) with the Sariab Police Station against the former corps commander, former ISI Quetta chief Brig Siddique and another senior ISI official identified only as Col Bangash. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, baluchistan, Democracy, Justice, Law, lawyers movement, Pakistan, state
Flaws in the judgment
By Asma Jahangir Dawn, 26 Jan, 2010 The Supreme Court (SC) has spoken and the nation must bow its head. The chief justice has asked members of the bar to pray for the judiciary. This too must be respected, as the Almighty alone can rescue those who wish to destroy themselves. There is open friction between the ruling party and the court. By not restoring the SC judges earlier and letting Justice Dogar run amok with the law, the government lost face. … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Democracy, Justice, Law, lawyers movement, Pakistan, state
Pakistan: Military Undermines Government on Human Rights
Battling Taliban No Excuse for Complicity in Abusive Counter-terrorism Practices (New York, January 21, 2010) – Pakistan’s military actively undermined the civilian government’s human rights agenda in 2009, Human Rights Watch said today in its new World Report 2010. The 612-page report, the organization’s 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations and territories worldwide. The report says that Pakistan’s military publicly and privately resisted the government’s reconciliation efforts in the troubled province of Balochistan and attempts to locate people “disappeared” there during General Pervez Musharraf’s military rule. The military also opposed the international community’s attempts to end military intervention in the political and judicial processes through aid conditions. “The Pakistani military continues to subvert the political and judicial systems in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, human rights, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, violence, war
Mann o Mullah (The Mullah And I)
Poet: Gul Nasir Khan Language: Balochi Translation SOURCE: BALOCHI:- Mullah sunbahith pa waaz aa Reesh aa dasth jathag pa naaz aa Cho gushth pa buland awaaz aa “Yakkay waajag inth, yakkay meer Yakkay Haakim inth, yakkay peer Yakkay pa gham inth, yakkay seer Yakkay much kanth zarraan dayr Yakkay gushing inth, yakkay sayr Yakkay sar biranth, yakkay chayr Yakkay swaar beeth aulaakaan Posheeth jwaantharain poshaakaan Jaan aa dhrhanz danth laalthaakaan Yakkay gon shapaadain paadh aa Looch o langarh o barbaadh aa Zindh aa girr kanth naa shaadh aa Amar inth Qaadir i bay shakkain Athkag maan kithaab aa hakkain Raahay baarag o baaz sakkain … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Pakistan
PTH biweekly Cartoon
Picture of the Week
-
Sunrise at the Arabian Sea, Charna Island
24 Dec 2011
(4 Comments)
PTH on facebook
Recent Comments