South Asia Citizens Web

Posted below is a set of demands released by civil society organisations in Pakistan following a meeting on ’Post Floods Rebuilding and Reform Agenda’ in Lahore on December 3, 2010. This is a part of the process of wider consultation of CSOs to develop a Citizens Charter to reflect Civil Society’s position on post floods reform and reconstruction.

Over 5000 peasants work on military farms in the Okara and Pakpatten district of Punjab [Pakistan]. Their demand is for ownership rights to the land their families have been cultivating for over 100 years.

It seemed to me that conditions at the Okara Military Farms and at the Kulyana Military Estate are a little better than before. The two large farms are spread over 20,000 acres and contain 26 villages. Okara City separates them. Many tenants had motor bikes and some also owned tractors. Mud homes are now being transformed into cement ones. And there had more animals. In fact there was smile on the face of almost all the tenants.
In 2000, the tenants at Okara military farms were asked to become lessees. After initial hesitation, they refused. In 2001 I attended a large gathering where tenants decided not to pay the share that they and their families traditionally paid to the administration of the military farms. For 10 years, they have successfully blocked any attempt by the military generals to reverse that process.

40-page report by Human rights Watch documents the killing of at least 22 teachers and other education personnel by suspected militants [in Balochistan] between January 2008 and October 2010. The report – based on interviews with teachers, students, victims’ families and friends, and government officials in Balochistan – describes these attacks and their consequences for the quality of education in the province.

The Fourth National Convention of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India, was held from 10th to 12th December 2010 in Delhi. CNDP opposes possession of nuclear weapons by any country including India and is wholly committed to seeking complete elimination of the existing stockpile of nuclear weapons at the global as well as regional level. We, the assembled delegates at this Fourth Convention of the CNDP, representing the peace movements in India and coming from various corners of the country reaffirm our conviction in the Nagpur Declaration, the Jaipur Declaration and our Charter of 2000. We also re-emphasise that: “the use, threat of use, or possession of, and even preparation for making, nuclear weapons is immoral, illegal, and politically unacceptable under any circumstances."

In less than a year Wikileaks has grown from a rather obscure website to a global political player, shaping world history and events. Over several months a crew from Swedish Television has been following the secretive media network and its work behind the scenes. The result is a one hour feature documentary that tells the story behind the story. A documentary by Swedish television