PTH Exclusive: Statement on Saleem Shahzad by Human Rights Watch
An PTH contributor has managed to obtain a copy of the statement given by Human Rights Watch (HRW) statement submitted at the Syed Saleem Shahzad Commission set up by the Government of Pakistan. This statement was made by Ali Dayan, Director Human Rights Watch. We are posting it without prejudice. Pakistan’s journalists and writers need protection and PTH fully supports all efforts to this effect. It should be noted that this statement is one of the many submissions and the final verdict is yet to come. Full statement as a pdf document is here: Ali Dayan Hasan HRW statement to SSS Commission An excerpt from the full statement below: Syed Saleem Shahzad was a reporter for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and for Adnkronos International, the Italian news agency. My dealings with Shahzad were entirely … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, journalism, Pakistan
Hazardous Child Labor
By Mahe Darakhshan: Children are the most beautiful and purest creation of God. Every morning we feel a special kind of joy and happiness, watching them going schools in different colorful uniforms. Unfortunately there are millions of innocent children, who cannot go to schools due to the financial problems, and being forced to kill their dreams and pushed forward to earn living for their families. They belong to that segment of the society who don’t have any … Read entire article »
Filed under: Children, human rights, Labour
A mother cries out for her son
Heart wrenching! How long is Pakistani government going to stay a silent spectator as our youth is hijacked and taken for a ride like this? -YLH ISLAMABAD: A mother is desperately searching for her only son for the last 32 months after she allegedly lost him to a group of women recruiting teenagers in the capital for the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights
Revolution is God!
By Pritha Kejriwal : A naked torso has always been political, and its historicity has progressed through many tidal waves, radically altering the times, each time, they rose… However, one naked, hairy, torso akin to generating waves through muscular spasms, claiming to move billions, with each contraction of its muscle, has also generated a tidal wave – one which brings with itself, all the debris, the dead animals, the rotting matter, the sludge of a frothing, foaming, stormy, … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Labour
PAKISTAN: Destruction of the Indus Delta: A case of human rights
By Jamil Junejo: Once the Indus Delta, a magnificent creation of the mighty Indus river, was the most prosperous, fertile and beautiful piece of land characterized by prosperity, agricultural productivity and soil fertility. The delta was such a vibrant and prosperous region where none experienced things like poverty. Livestock mushroomed, agricultural production boomed, fruits farms were plentiful, fresh water gushed and a variety of fish species existed. Thus, life and beauty in everything gleamed … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Pakistan
A.R Cornelius – The Islamic Catholic?
By AA Khalid ‘’Over the past twenty-five years, academics in Europe and the United States have written a great deal about the relationship between Islam and democracy, and between Islam and human rights. This scholarship often fails to acknowledge or take into account similar debates that occurred earlier during a period of decolonization. This article discusses the work of a Christian judge who served on the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This judge, A.R. Cornelius, was a famous Cambridge-educated legal liberal who courageously tried in the 1950s and 60s to protect human rights as Pakistan came under martial rule. Cornelius came to argue shockingly and controversially in the 1960s and 70s that Islamizing the law of the state not only permits the liberal rule of law to survive, but, under certain … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Islam
Mukhtar mai Media and Misogyny
By Raza Rumi As if the showering of rose petals on Mumtaz Qadri and the release of a new Urdu book ‘Parwana-i-Shama-i-Risalat’ extolling him were not enough, Mukhtar Mai’s plight in today’s Pakistan is simply depressing. Within hours after the Supreme Court’s split verdict on her was announced, Pakistan once again appeared as a divided polity. The medieval minds in media and intelligentsia were quick to harp on the soundness of the Court’s verdict while those who were … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, violence
Whither Labour Rights
[First published in The Friday Times] By Yasser Latif Hamdani The 18th Amendment to the constitution was welcomed by all who want to see Pakistan a truly federal, progressive and democratic state where the federating units and the centre are balanced in terms of power and rights. Pakistan vests residuary powers in constituent units but the net thrown by the federation – federal and concurrent legislative lists – was so wide that residuary powers amounted to very little. The abolition of the concurrent list devolves real powers to the provinces. … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Labour
Unpacking the Mukhtaran Mai Judgment
By Yasser Latif Hamdani (First published in The Friday Times) The 2-1 Mukhtaran Mai Supreme Court verdict that has rocked the nation was extraordinary given the wide gulf in the approach of the majority and minority opinions to evidence. The issue turned on the following points: 1. Was there enough evidence to convict the accused of gang rape? Justice Saqib Nisar’s majority view held that the prosecution had failed to make its case beyond reasonable doubt, and in particular, the lack of semen and DNA testing was negligence because it could decisively prove or disprove the gang rape allegation. The sole testimony of the prosecutrix was considered insufficient without corroboration. … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Justice
Legal Lessons from Mukhtaran Mai Judgment
By Yasser Latif Hamdani (First published in the Daily Times) The acquittals of five of the six men charged with raping Mukhtaran Mai have once again underscored the need for genuine reform in Pakistan’s criminal legal system. Pakistan’s criminal procedure and laws have not been updated to improve efficacy for a very long time. The main obsession in the last 30 years has been on blending in sharia with the legal system and, in the process, we have completely ignored the real issues of our legal system, which require constant evolution to meet the needs of the modern day. … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Judiciary
Mukhtaran Mai: Pakistan betrayed you once again
By Raza Rumi April 21, 2011 will be remembered as a black day in Pakistan’s history. Not because this was the day when the Supreme Court acquitted the alleged rapists of a poor, marginalised woman. It will be marked as the day when, once again, Pakistan’s colonial criminal justice system failed to protect the vulnerable, thereby rendering a heinous crime such as gang rape almost unpunishable. Nine years ago, a misogynistic panchayat of south Punjab ordered the gang rape of a woman for no sin of hers. It was her (then 12-year-old) brother who was sodomised and then accused of illicit relations with the sister of the powerful rapists. This low-caste family had to be ‘fixed’. Thanks to the media frenzy, the state had to act when what happens in subaltern Pakistan was exposed. … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights
Is May Day just another holiday?
By Ammar Aziz The traffic signal turned red and the drivers, who were desperately accelerating to get through that, stopped their cars. The main boulevard road of Lahore – that was surrounded by a few people who were gathering outside a factory – was blocked by them. The mob consisted of women, men and children who were vigorously chanting the slogans. It was one of the hottest days of summer and the gentlemen were waiting dreadfully for the clearance of road. The people who never criticize the usual VIP protocol seemed so offended when those few workers had blocked their way. However, the children, sitting in those cool cars, were curiously watching that crowd. A kid innocently asked her mother, ‘Mom, why are they wearing and holding red fabrics? Is it color … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Labour
Sexual Harrassment of Women in the Workforce
Uzma Anwar The harassment of female students by a teacher in one of the premier teaching institutes in the country makes headlines, not only because this is one of the first examples of this being a punishable offence, but because females have dared to come out in public against the questionable behavior of a senior and a teacher at that. Anyone who is a part of the workforce or students in Pakistan is familiar with the treatment meated out to women, their tribulations and hardships a routine matter. In a country, where women traditionally, barring urban areas, are discouraged from any meaningful pursuit of livelihood despite having the education and skills except in extreme situations, it is no surprise that the few who do engage in it are still looked down upon by … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, violence, Women
PAKISTAN: Civil society groups disappointed at the verdict of Supreme Court in Mukhtaran Mai case
We are posting this statement from National Commission on the Status of Women. With all due respect to the Court, we differ and hold the police and prosecution responsible for damaging the case of Mukhtaran Mai. PTH The National Commission on the Status of Women, an official organisation, and members of Insani Huqooq Ittehad, including PODA, Mehergargh, Aurat Foundation, Rozan, Sungi, Bedari, Ethno Media, Pattan and SPO convened an emergency meeting to express deep shock and disappointment at the verdict given by the superior court in the Mukhtara Mai gang rape case today. Although the judgment did prove that Mukhtara was raped because one accused did get life imprisonment, while others were acquitted. We are surprised to see why only one accused … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Pakistan
The Pro Rape Society
Raza Habib Raja Today the Supreme Court acquitted the rape suspects in the internationally famous case of Mukhtaran Bibi. For the last many years the case had captured the imagination of the country and had also propelled Pakistan in the international spotlight and as usual for all the wrong reasons. The brave stance by an illiterate woman highlighted several deeply controversial aspects of Pakistani patriarchal society and its disgusting treatment to women. The case highlighted the deeply flawed tribal “justice” system which in its essence is based on eye for an eye doctrine and is therefore completely divorced from modern day notions of human rights. The case also underlined the complete lack of understanding on the part of the society which women who are unfortunately raped in Pakistan face. Instead of … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Judiciary, violence
PTH biweekly Cartoon
Picture of the Week
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Sunrise at the Arabian Sea, Charna Island
24 Dec 2011
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