South Asia Citizens Web

KARACHI: Forum for Secular Pakistan (FSP) supports Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to call off the proposed peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban, Pakistan. A state can talk with an enemy that follows some rules of warfare, not with brainwashed criminals who conduct cowardly attacks on innocents.

A video recording of Karamat Ali, the widely respected labour movement activist from Pakistan speaking on the subversive role of poetry of Majaz, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Makhdoom, Ali Sardar Jafri, Habib Jalib and others in capturing the popular imagination and shaping of progressive political culture in Pakistan of the 1950’s-1960s and after. This recording was made at a Tribute to Asraur ul Majaz an to Faiz Ahmed Faiz at Ramjas College in Delhi University on 24 February 2011.

It is important to ask why women’s education and the corresponding enhancement of women’s voice and influence in family decisions have not done much to eliminate selective abortion of female fetuses. Educated mothers seem clearly less inclined to neglect girls compared with boys once they have been born; but they seem almost as keen on having boys rather than girls as uneducated mothers are. Here larger questions of enlightened understanding and scrutiny of traditional values become central and go beyond women’s role and influence in family decisions. There seems to be a lack of adequate awareness of the oddity of seeing girls as inferior to boys, and a lack of knowledge about what happens in other places where such discrimination against girls is not present.

The law is finally taking its course against Asaram Bapu however, with utmost hesitation. Accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl in his care and custody, and with prima facie evidence against him, he could have been brought to book within hours. But it took days of massive public uproar, a hunger strike of the victim’s family, strong media protest and even mounting pressure from a section of parliamentarians to get the state machinery started. There is a big foot standing in the brakes: Asaram is protected by powerful political guardian angels. Another factor coming to his aid is this special kneejerk bent of Indian hierarchies to bow in front of anybody claiming holiness. It is working even without higher orders and often plays a crucial role by guiding a section of administration and police force to misuse their sphere of influence. In case of the alleged rapist Asaram, we see them delaying his arrest and confirming wrong alibi claims to help him escape.

some editorials and commentary in Pakistani and International newspapers