Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "Balochistan"
PAKISTAN: The law is prohibited in Balochistan province
Posted by Raza Rumi An Article by the Asian Human Rights Commission that asserts “conflict over Balochistan will undoubtedly have profound negative effects on the entire region” - Here is a paper by Baseer Naveed on three-day international conference on “Balochistan Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Meeting the Challenges” by Baloch Voice Foundation from February 22-24, 2010 at Bangkok, Thailand The situation of human rights in Balochistan province is deteriorating day by day due to the heavy-handed policies adopted by the government and the Pakistan military towards the people. Not a single day passes without enforced disappearances, abductions, arrests, torture in military or Frontier Corp’s camps and the murder of opponents. It looks as if the law is prohibited in the province. The killing of a renowned politician, Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti, former governor … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
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
Jennifer Musa
From Daily Telegraph UK, Published 18-Jan-2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1575879/Jennifer-Musa.html Irish nurse who became head of a tribe in Baluchistan and dedicated her life to its interests Jennifer Musa, who has died aged 90, was an Irishwoman of modest stock who took over from her husband as head of a tribe in the remote borderlands of Baluchistan; unveiled and uncompromising, she dedicated her life to the conservative Muslim tribesmen among whom she lived for 60 years until her death. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, baluchistan, Democracy, History, Jinnah, Pakistan, Partition, Politics, quetta, Taliban
Is the Check in the Mail?
The Confessions of a Groveling Pakistani Native Orientalist By PERVEZ HOODBHOY CounterPunch 14 Dec 2009 Here ye, Counterpunch readers! The victory of Native Orientalists – the ones which the late Edward Said had warned us about – is nearly complete in Pakistan. It has been led by “the minions of Western embassies and Western-financed NGOs” and includes the likes of “Ahmad Rashid, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Najam Sethi, Khaled Ahmad, Irfan Hussain, Husain Haqqani, and P.J.Mir”. Thus declares Mohammad Shahid Alam, a professor of Pakistani origin who teaches at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachussetts. [CounterPunch, 2 Dec 2009] … Read entire article »
Is it really India?
By Pervez Hoodbhoy Dawn, 28 Nov, 2009 FOREIGN Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says that Pakistan is “compiling hard evidence of India’s involvement” in terrorist attacks on Pakistan’s public and its armed forces. If he and the interior minister are correct then we must conclude that the Indians are psychotics possessed with a death wish, or are perhaps plain stupid. While India’s assistance for Baloch insurgents could conceivably make strategic sense, helping the jihadists simply does not. … Read entire article »
Balochistan: too small an olive branch
Cross Post from www.opendemocracy.net By Qurratulain Zaman, 27 November 2009 “They ordered me to rape her. She was so thin and was crying when they brought her in the room. I was terrified to look at her, as I thought she was a spy or an agent”, says Munir Mengal, a 33- year- old Baloch, living in forced exile in Paris. Munir Mengal spent 16 months in underground jails of the Pakistani intelligence agencies. “The low rank officers came back to the room and started beating me because I didn’t obey their orders. They took off my clothes by force and hers too, and left us alone. In her sobs I heard her praying in Balochi language. She was praying for someone named Murad. That’s how I got to know she is my … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Democracy, Heritage, Islamabad, journalism, Pakistan, Politics
Dawn's Editorial: "Kalat Independence Day"
On the so-called ‘Kalat Independence Day’ on Aug 11, Mir Suleman Dawood, grandson of the last ruler of Kalat, announced the creation of a council of Baloch separatist elements in Pakistan and Iran who will press for the formation of an ‘independent Balochistan’. Mr Dawood’s demand for an ‘independent’ Baloch state clearly cannot be countenanced; tomorrow marks the 62nd anniversary of Pakistan’s creation and there simply isn’t any room for debate about altering the physical boundaries of the country today. Pakistan’s problems — and, yes, there are many — can only realistically and viably be solved within the framework of Pakistan. Yet, while Mr Dawood’s demand must necessarily be dismissed, it points to ongoing problems in Balochistan that show no sign of abating, and this 18 months after national elections to … Read entire article »
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Pakistan’s Baloch: Life on the Margins of Punjab
(On our 62nd Independence Day, let us as a federation look also to the plight of those who we have alienated from the federation. Thank you RED DIARY for bringing this to our attention.-YLH) By Karlos Zurutuza Translated from the Spanish original by Daisann McLane A woman walks slowly across the Dera Bugti desert, laden with wood for her cooking fire. She’s headed towards the town of Pir Koh. For several hundred meters, she follows the gas pipeline that extends north, towards the Punjab. She got lucky; it isn’t easy to find wood in the Dera Bugti desert. Islamabad also got lucky when it discovered natural gas beneath this rocky landscape. Thanks to the gas deposits, the Punjabis have been cooking, heating their houses in winter and producing electricity for half a century. … Read entire article »
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Objectives Resolution- the first dagger in Pakistan's heart!
by Yasser Latif Hamdani Daily Times has commissioned a 7 part series from the former Governor of Punjab Shahid Hamid, the first part of which appears in today’s paper. It is about time we revisited this document and had a debate on it. So it is most welcome but perhaps choosing a former civil servant, cabinet minister and the governor of Punjab, hence an entrenched establishment man steeped in state-mythology, was not a very good idea. Here is an excerpt from the article: … Read entire article »
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Rebuttal to a Mullah of Another Kind
By Yasser Latif Hamdani I am not a Marxist of any kind. Far from it. However I have the greatest respect for Marx and his singular contribution to humanity. I also respect Lenin and the architects of the Bolshevik Revolution. … Read entire article »
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Pakistan's Federalism
Why the division of Punjab alone should be a topic of national debate? The long due reform of Pakistan’s federal politics is an urgent need and this is a time to act By Raza Rumi The elites drunk on the status quo have expressed two major reactions to the proposal of creating another province within the mighty Punjab. First that this is akin to opening a Pandora’s box when we are at war against terrorism. Second, that this is a planted controversy whereby the ruling PPP wants to harm the house of Raiwind; or a conspiracy by those who want to destabilise Pakistan’s political system. … Read entire article »
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Constitutional Anomalies
From August 1947 to 1970, no general elections at the federal level were held in Pakistan. When Yahya Khan grabbed power from Ayub Khan, he promulgated the first Legal Framework Order (LFO), abolished One Unit in West Pakistan, restored the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP and gave Balochistan provincial status for the first time. … Read entire article »
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Reform or Perish
By Raza Rumi On the face of it, the Pakistani state with the clear endorsement of political parties and the majority of its citizenry is fighting a battle against militant Islamism. However, it is not as simple a formulation as it appears to be. The state is also cracking under extreme pressure for having lost its capacities and effectiveness a long time ago. The central tenet of state policy and implementation is adhocism that keeps a mammoth, oversized, under-paid and snail-paced elephant going. With Mughal and pre-industrial social structures reflecting in a colonial organisation, the Pakistani state is an unattended patient lying on an Elliotesque table, waiting for a surgery. … Read entire article »
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On walls – the fences around us
Posted by Raza Rumi I received this letter from Lila Thadani that was an impassioned statement in response to Nadeem ul Haque’s article on building a security wall around Lahore’s privileged locality – GOR-I . Nadeem ul Haq’s piece is also posted below which by itself makes a poignant point. However, these exchanges are not conflictual – they are complementary and supportive in the sense that they bring out the key imbalances of the federation called Pakistan. Dear Mr Nadeem ul Haq et al: I support your plea to pull down the pointless walls meant to provide a safe enclosures for Punjab’s Babus. But aren’t you being a tad bit parochial; there are so many more important walls to be pulled down, particularly the invisible ones that lie in the minds of people, … Read entire article »
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This is a long war
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 By Raza Rumi This is a critical moment in our history perhaps unmatched for its severity and its brutal reality. The experiential nightmare that our country is passing through is perhaps unparalleled for the enemy is neither foreign nor fully identifiable. At the same time, never has there been a clear backing of a military campaign against domestic agents of subversion and anarchy. Forget the doctored samples of opinion polls, often conducted by foreign agencies. That by itself should make us ashamed for our proclivity to accept what others have to analyse and determine for us. Even ignore the fringe voices of dissent led by those who neither have credibility or sagacity to comprehend the existential crisis faced by Pakistan. The army has shown vision and displayed courage … Read entire article »
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