South Asia Citizens Web

The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is holding hundreds of people each year without charge or trial in order to ‘keep them out of circulation’, a new Amnesty International report released today shows.

The Round Table on “Strategising Civil Society’s Role in Peace Process: Identifying Priority Issues/Areas and Interventions” held at Hotel Beach Luxury, Karachi on March 20, 2011 unanimously demanded that the Indian and Pakistani governments should release all the civilian prisoners including fishermen as a good will gesture. Both the countries should also liberalise visa regime, revive the India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners, open trade, reduce military expenditure and urgently implement the already resolved disputed issues like Siachen, Sir Creek.

Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) is now forty years old. It is rated among the worst functioning reactors of the world. Situated on the Arabian Sea, it was originally far away from populated areas of Karachi, but now many residential schemes have moved close to it. The reactors at Chashma are relatively new. The site is on the bank of River Indus, situated between Indus and Chashma-Jehlum Link Canal. The reactor site is known to be on top of a series of tectonic plates. Nuclear power is inherently unsafe and perilous. The mantra of solving our energy needs through nuclear power is not acceptable any more after the Fukushima event. It is in our interest to stop the strong nuclear lobby from imposing itself upon our safety and security.

Tom Heinemann, the director of the documentary broadcast on Norwegian television which accused Muhammad Yunus of transferring aid money out of the Grameen Bank and using some of it to fund a telecom company, appears on the cusp of securing a big scalp.

As the religious right wing goes from strength to strength in Pakistan, it is increasingly urgent that we understand how the threat it poses to women is largely accepted, rather than meeting with recrimination or resistance.