South Asia Citizens Web

We, the members of the Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights Lahore (JAC) and Women’s Action Forum are deeply concerned by the Federal Shariat Court’s verdict on 22.12.2010, that declared four clauses (11, 25, 28 and 29) of the Women Protection Act 2006 as unconstitutional. The Joint Action Committee and WAF urge the Federal government and all four provincial governments who are respondents to this petition to challenge the verdict and ensure that the administration of justice in our country does not deteriorate further and result in intensifying problems of the public in general and women in particular.

There is some suggestion and strong possibilities that the Gujarat Police may try to stage an arrest of Teesta Setalvad, journists from Sahara, NDTV, CNN-IBN in a cooked up case.

K.G. Kannabiran, former
National President of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), leading
advocate of civil liberties and human rights and prolific writer breathed
his last this evening at his home in Secundarabad.

They are the world’s most powerful and largest democracies, respectively, but the United States and India have something most undemocratic in common. They both outsource means to kill, torture and coerce people to private militias and lawless mercenaries. They do it under the cloak of national security.

A 120 page report formally released on 30 December 2010 by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, presents a brief macro picture of labour, economy and politics, and then focuses on workers’ conditions and their struggles in just a few select sectors (agriculture, textile, brick kilns and the fisheries). The second section contains seven research articles on key issues (access to resources, food security, labour legislation, social protection, minimum wages, bonded labour and migrant labour)