Invisible victims of terror By Rafia Zakaria A woman, standing next to her mother, holds a picture of her brother at the site that went missing in Lahore’s latest suicide attack on a law enforcement building in Lahore. –AFP Photo/Arif Ali The morning of International Women’s Day 2010 in Pakistan was a bloody one as a car laden with explosives rammed into the wall of a building in Lahore’s Model Town area and blew up. Among the first dead bodies taken to hospital were those of a mother and her daughter on their way to the latter’s school. Another woman … Continue reading Women – Invisible victims of terror!

Protection for women Dawn Editorial President Asif Ali Zardari signing the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Bill 2010 at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. –APP Photo Editorial Equal rights Equal rights Pakistan entered a new era on Tuesday when the president signed the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Bill 2010 that is designed to provide a safe working environment for women. Considering that one factor that deters female mobility outside the home is sexual harassment and that no other country in South Asia has a law like this, it is indeed a landmark event. But can we be … Continue reading Protection for women – A basic right now law?

Politics or parenting? Posted by Murtaza Ali Jafri  Last month, the Punjab Assembly resolved to ban all late-night call packages offered by mobile telecommunications companies in the province. During vigorous assembly debates, it was concluded that the ability to make cheap, late-night phone calls was having a negative impact on this country’s bright young things. Forget terrorism, the energy crisis, a weakened government, and water shortages – apparently boys and girls texting and calling each other past their bed time has become a matter of national concern. Hence the assembly resolution demanding that mobile companies stop promoting “cheap rate, late … Continue reading Politicians want to get involved in YOUR private lives….

Oghi attack Dawn Editorial A policeman looks for evidence in an office of the World Vision aid agency after militants attacked it in Mansehra. Suspected extremist militants attacked an office of the US-based Christian aid agency with a bomb and gunfire, killing 5 people, police said. –Reuters Photo/Abrar Tanoli Pakistan Militants blow up charity’s office in Mansehra, kill six Wednesday’s attack on the office of an American charity in Oghi, in the NWFP’s Mansehra district, reflects the insecure atmosphere in which foreign NGOs work in Pakistan. Suspected militants stormed the office of World Vision, a Christian charity, killing at least … Continue reading Mullahs attack charity after blowing up schools…

Women sans ideology By Jawed Naqvi Dawn.com “Millions of girls do not go to school because there are no segregated toilets for them,” writes Jawed Naqvi. –File Photo In a Premchand story that I can’t recall offhand, part of the job of an unpaid male agricultural worker, a chamar Dalit to boot, was to put up with the tantrums of the zamindar’s wife. He was her physical attendant, which in a quaint way breached the caste barrier if all too briefly. For usually it was the upper caste zamindar men who played havoc with the lives of young chamar women … Continue reading These women are everywhere! What is it with them?

Falling short of solutions Posted by annie  Addressing a group of Pakistani journalists last week, American religious scholar Imam Yahya Hendi presented a utopic vision of a world where “people would celebrate the differences amongst one another” and societies would flourish on pluralist sentiments. The evening, planned as a dialogue between the journalists and the imam, who is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, was largely meant to focus on Islam in America. However, Hendi appeared insistent on discussing, indeed sermonising about, the “universal need for religious pluralism and tolerance,” which although compelling, hardly elaborates on the challenges that Muslim … Continue reading American Muslim! Islamic Scholar!

Colonel Imam: Ideologue or pragmatist? By Wasif Khan Tuesday, 09 Mar, 2010 // // Amir Sultan Tarar also known as Colonel Imam. — File photo In a recent interview with the New York Times, the once renowned Colonel Imam made some very insightful remarks and dire predictions. For those unfamiliar with the name, Colonel Imam was an ISI operative who played a prominent role in recruiting and training resistance fighters during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. His list of students includes prominent ‘mujahideen’ commanders such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmed Shah Masood. The Colonel worked closely with the Americans and … Continue reading Colonel Imam supports the Afghan Taliban – but what makes you think he does not support the Pakistani Taliban?

Partners in blasphemy Last week, an interesting story in the Pakistani media went unnoticed in which an eminent Islamic jurist Dr Muhammad Aslam Khaki threatened to register a blasphemy case against the federal government for comparing the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to the Charter of Madina. The jurist was referring to the review petition filed against the recent NRO verdict by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that declared the ordinance unconstitutional, ordering the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to reopen all the corruption cases against a number of senior political figures and government officials who were earlier protected under the … Continue reading Blasphemy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or is this Law a BLASPHEMY?

Bad, bad secularism! —Farrukh Khan Pitafi The opponents of secularism are mere agents of the forces that want to subjugate us and keep us prisoners of contradictory, reductionist ideologies “Whereas sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust.” Thus begins the Constitution of the Islamic Democratic Republic of Pakistan. I have read these lines again and again throughout my life and have never been able to divine their meaning. Sovereignty, I take it, is a mundane, human … Continue reading Spanking Seculars?

King Qzer takes on Karachi Posted by Faisal Kapadia Dawn.com Recently, my six-year-old daughter accompanied me to a football freestyle event at a local mall. Needless to say, we had a blast as rap and hip hop blared in the background and desi kids ranging from 18 to 25 years old performed some incredible moves on stage with a bouncing football. Even more thrilling was a chance encounter with an 18-year-old rapper, Qasim Naqvi – better known as King Qzer in Karachi’s underground hip hop scene. I caught up with King Qzer to chat about Pakistani rap, what inspires him, … Continue reading King Qzer! Pakistani Rapper? What next Pakistani on the Moon?