Courtesy: → SZS → YouTube
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Protest rally held against the human rights violations in Balochistan at the 18th session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
- PRESS RELEASE: A peaceful demonstration was held at the 18th session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) and the Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC), on Thursday 15 September 2011 in Geneva , Plais des Nations ‘ Broken Chair Square’ to protest against the increasing number of human rights violations in Balochistan.
The demonstration was aimed to raise awareness of alarming number of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions that have been reported by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Human Rights commission of Pakistan and prompt the international community to act. Baloch delegates from London, Europe and Scandinavia and other human rights activists took part in the event.
A parallel event took place entitled ‘Climate of Fear: Enforced Disappearances, Extrajudicial Killings & Arbitrary Detention in Balochistan’ between 12 to 2 pm at Plais des Nations in Room 23.
A Must Watch Film
New theatrical trailer of upcoming movie from nine zero production. Staring Altaf Bhai in a melodious movie that grossed a loss of a million dollar yet entertained millions.
→ YouTube
Baba ji predicting about President Zardari!
MQM CHIEF ALTAF BHAI’S WARNING TO AZHAR JAVED
Devastation in Sindh and the Role of the Media: A Journalist’s Anguish
- by Aijaz Ahmed
… The media houses either from Karachi, Lahore or elsewhere, rushed whenever a calamity hits the catchment area of the Establishment i.e certain part of KPK, Kashmir or Punjab, but unfortunately when 70% of Sindh is devastated or destroyed nobody bothered because these poor Sindhis don’t matter in decision making, and additionally negative campaign is started to stop the international help without which the loss can not be recovered. …
Read more → Indus Herald
Mirza Under Fire; May be Arrested
- By Aijaz Ahmed
Islamabad: The sayings that ‘there are no permanent friends or foes in politics’ and that the ‘politics has no heart’ have been proven true so many times in the history, specially in the recent history of Pakistan. The same is happening in Pakistan currently as erstwhile friends have turned into foes in the Zulfiqar Mirza case.
What if the party is weakened or if the government is considered as anti people? The party stalwarts don’t worry about that. The only problem they see today is Zulfiqar Mirza and they want to defeat him and stop any further damage from his revelations. It may sound unbelievable but the PPP leaders are trying to fix him up through the civilian and military intelligence agencies.
Mirza is one of the dearest friends of President Zardari, the fact that he has always mentioned prominently whenever he has spoken after August 28, and probably he is the only one for whom the president himself physically fought with some people in Hyderabad in his youth days; perhaps for this sole reason some PPP stalwarts had a grudge against Mirza and now they have got an opportunity to not only break this relationship, but also to settle their old scores with him. Some of the party stalwarts, against whom Mirza spoke with courage, have adopted the methodology, which is not rare, rather it is the old style of using intelligence agencies to settle the old scores.
The sources placed in high government ranks have revealed that the IB and some army intelligence agencies have been asked by federal interior minister Rehman Malik as also desired by few ministers from Sindh cabinet and some federal ministers, that the record of the licenses Mirza issued during his tenure as home minister of Sindh and his other activities particularly in Lyari and against the MQM must be provided so that they could seek permission from the president for a legal action against him.
The agencies, according to the sources have gathered some record, which reportedly suggests that Mirza had visited Panama during his recent visit to the United States. A report is also being prepared to conclude that Mirza was building a private militia with the help of Uzair Baloch of Peoples Amn Committee and some other PPP workers from Lyari. The latter has reportedly moved to Iran ever since the operation started. This information is yet to be confirmed as it was revealed by Rehman Malik and who will believe him after what Mirza said about him?
The agencies will not only prepare a report, but will recommend an action against Mirza on the basis of which legal proceedings will be initiated, sources maintained adding that an arrest of former home minister Sindh may not be ruled out as the present lot of the PPP stalwarts who are at helm of the affairs can go to any extent against a person like Mirza who not only damaged their position, but also made their future gloomy, and mind it ‘politics has no heart’ and there are no permanent foes or friends in the politics.
Courtesy: → Indus Herald
Pashato Ghzal Kafir Dy Shama
Haroon Bacha singing a ghzal in Virgina USA at Abdul Baree House, Record by Rahman Bunairee.
Source: → YouTube
Sindh: Joint Investigation Report (GIT) reveals the name of the Incharge of Target Killers
The language of the talk show is urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: → DAWN NEWS (News night with Talat, 9th September 2011-1)
→ YouTube
Who Killed 185 Police Officers in Karachi, Sindh?
The language of the video clip is urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: Duniya Tv with Mehar Bokhari → YouTube
Renowned Sindhi story writer Vishnu Bhatia passes away
Mumbai, India: Renowned Sindhi story writer of Sindh and India, passed away on 15 September 2011 at Mulund Colony Mumabi due to complications of diabetes. He was 68.
He was born on April 21, 1941, in Karachi, Sindh. He was author of 11 Collections of short stories, 4 novels, and 1 on essay. Most significant amongst them are: Darda Bhari Dil (Painful heart), 1963, Dil Ji Basti (Dwelling of heart), Short Stories Collection, 1965, Chandermukhi, Short Stories Collection, 1965, Sawal (Question), Novel, 1976, Rishtan Jo Ant (End of relationship), 2001. Vishnu Bhatia was Sr. Sub-Editor, Hindustan Sindhi Daily Newspaper & Hindvasi, a Weekly Sindhi Magazine. Also he was columnist of Sindhi magazines Koonj, Sipoon, and Rachna.
Vishnu Bhatia had also written the following Radio Plays: Bebu O Bebu, Akh Pharke, Dil Dharke (Twinkle in Eye Beating of Heart), Inam (Reward), Nind Na Kar Nandan (Do Not Oversleep). Vishnu was basically a creative writer. He turned to journalism comparatively at later stage, when he joined Hindustan Daily in mid-seventies. some of his short stories have been translated in other Indian (south Asian) languages, such as Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telgu, Malyalam and English.
1995 he had won Lifetime Achievement Award, (At Mumbai by Akhil Bharat Sindhi Boli Ain Sahit Sabha).
Help promote Sindhi, Siraiki and other languages!
The National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) at the University of Maryland is a research institute dedicated to promoting communication within the United States in languages other than English. We are currently working on a project that provides adult language learners with interactive online tools to reinforce their foreign language skills. We focus on less commonly taught languages. We are currently looking for several individuals to help us launch projects in the following languages (Parsio-Arabic script): Brahvi, Hindko (Southern), Punjabi (Western), Pothohari, Sindhi, Siraiki.
Minimum Requirements: Native, or near-native, proficiency in the target language
English proficiency: Ability to conduct Internet research and submit Word documents and/or audio files
Desired Qualifications: Knowledge of ILR scale of language proficiency
Specifically, we need educated native speakers of these languages (or individuals with equivalent proficiency levels) to review online activities and cultural notes for online foreign language learning modules for their native language using software we provide. In addition, we are looking for speakers to find authentic reading and audio passages, to record audio files, and to perform various editing tasks in these languages.
The work is part-time, contractual, and most of the work can be done from your home computer. All candidates must have permission to work in the United States.
If you are interested in working with us, or if you know a qualified candidate who would be interested in working with us, please contact the NFLC via email at recruitment@nflc.org. Submit your current resume and include the language(s) you speak in the subject line. Thank you!
Amy Menjivar
Program Coordinator, National Foreign Language Center
University of Maryland
amenjivar@nflc.org
http://www.nflc.org
Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, 16 Sept 2011
Drivers of social change & mass awareness
by Waseem Altaf
The social media is now impacting the political scene in Pakistan too. The press conference of Zulfiqar Mirza and the recent speech of Altaf Hussain are thoroughly being discussed on the social media. Earlier the murder of Governor Salaman Taseer turned Facebook into a battleground between his supporters and opponents
Earlier civilizations relied on the oral tradition to pass on advice and knowledge from one generation to the next. The human development took a giant leap when man developed writing systems around 3200 BC. Human experience could now be preserved to be transmitted to posterity in a more organized and systematic manner. However handwritten material was restricted to a privileged class with tremendous influence of the clergy on the content. …
Read more → ViewPoint
New Rear Video, MQM (Altaf) killing citizens of Sindh, Pakistan
PAKISTAN: Floods in Sindh-the ‘untouchables’ waiting to get a touch of relief efforts
- An article by Fizza Hassan published by the Asian Human Rights Commission
As Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) predicts more monsoon rains in the coming days, the worst victims of rains and breaches in a monsoon-swollen Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) in Badin district — the Pakistani low caste Hindus (Dalits) of the districts were denied to get in to relief camps for being ‘untouchables.’
In the last five weeks when monsoon-swollen drains and LBOD burst its banks and caused recent history’s worst ever catastrophic disaster, the so-called traditional bigotry continued to run deeper than the floodwaters.
Despite torrential rains majority of these Hindu Dalits in Badin district continue to live in open sky as they were not allowed accommodation in the private/self-built relief camps of Muslims.
What added to the tragedy was the federal government’s ban on NGOs and international donors to work in these areas for ‘security reasons.’ As the government itself initiated relief operation much later, the religious extremist organizations that started relief operation in Badin have completely ignored these Dalits or Harijan, which means ‘Children of God’.
Cahnesar Bheel, a Dalit farmer and resident of Goth Gomando Bheel, Taluka Golarchi [Shaheed Fazil Rahu] is one of around 700 Dalits of his village who have no choice but to live in their submerged village with his nine children.
‘Our village is between the two drains and during rains both burst and inundated our village from either side, so we rushed to a nearby relief camps set inside a government school but the tenants did not allow us to live inside the camp, so we came here and started living under open sky,’ Bheel told media.
Bheel said the people living inside the camps had said them that they are Shudra, so they are not allowed to live with Muslims. His village comprises on 80 households with 700 population and all are Dalits.
A civil society activist, Ameer Mandhro sharing his views said, ‘This is not the only village of Dalits in the district that have no roof on their heads but there are countless other Dalit villages including villages on Khoski road, Seerani, Lonwari Shrief and other areas where Dalits are living this way because they are not allowed a place in the relief camps.’
Same happened with Pibhu Kolhi and 50 other residents of his village, who rushed to a relief camp set inside a government school in Tando Bagho, were not allowed to live in the camp after heavy rains.
However, humanity in still prevails within some hearts as a man inside a camp allotted one isolated class room to a few Dalit flood victims. As Kolhi said, ”The isolated class room is away from the main building where only two families are living while the rest of the village is living in open despite continued heavy rains.” He said some philanthropists came to provide food in the relief camp, but they were not given, so despite rain they are cooking food in open sky.
In the emergency situation the role of the minister for minorities affairs Mohan Lal Kohistani seeks attention. Kohistani, despite such a large number of the Hindu population being a part of flood victims, has not done anything so far for their relief. ….
Read more → Asian Human Rights Commission
Are the Sindh nationalists easy target for PPP government, what the detention of Jeay Sindh Chairman Bashir Qureshi prove?
- JSQM’s 3-day strike against Qureshi’s arrest announced
SIDNH – KARACHI: Vice chairman Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Akash Mallah on Thursday announced a three-day shutter-down strike from Friday (today) across Sindh against the arrest of his party chief Bashir Khan Qureshi.
“The strike will be peaceful,” he said while addressing a press conference along with central party leaders Dr Niaz Kalani, Sagar Burdi and Naeem Mandhro at JSQM Markaz in Hyderabad.
Mallah further said Rangers had arrested his party chairman while returning from Thatto after distributing relief goods in flood-hit areas. He claimed that the deployment of Rangers personnel in Malir, especially in the locality of Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Pipri, Sindhi Goths and Ghagar was a bias with Sindhis and a bid to press them.
Meanwhile, JSQM leader Asif Baladi said that the state was forcing them to lift arms and become a part of the violence like other parties but such bid would not be allowed to happen because their struggle was based on the non-violence policy given of GM Syed.
Sindh Save Committee Convener Jalal Mehmood Shah, Syed Shah Mohammad Shah, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chief Dr Qadir Magsi have strongly condemned the arrest of Qureshi and demanded his immediate release.
As soon as the news of Qureshi’s arrest spread through media, the business and social life was suspended in main cities of Sindh that included Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Dadu, Larkano, Thatto, Gharo, Khairpur, Padidan, Shahdadkot, Sukkur, Daherki, Faiz Ganj, Moro, Qazi Ahmad, Sakrand and Daoor. The residents of Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Sardar Ahmad, Njeebullah, Sikandar Karim and Nazar Ali while talking to Daily Times claimed that Rangers had banned political activities in their area. They said the residents could even not take out a protest rally against load shedding. ….
Read more → Daily Times
Break PAKISTAN – SAYS PIR MAZHAR UL HAQ, EDUCATION MINISTER OF SINDH
“We Don’t Belong To Pakistan, Pak Army Is Not Ours. We Want Separate Sindh” – Pir Mazhar Ul Haq
PIR MAZHAR is talking about Pakistan’s disintegration – Instigating Sindhis to break Pakistan. Sindh has never witnessed such a h——-. He exploited genuine Sindhi sentiment for a sovereign and prosperous Sindh. He is a senior minister now, dreaming to be the next chief minister with MQM support. The language of the video clip is Sindhi & urdu (Hindi).
Stupid propaganda in favor of controversial Kalabagh dam
- by Gul Agha
Stupid propaganda resumes.. now some clowns are claiming that another mega-dam (KBD) would have spared flooding! How can a dam upstream hundreds of miles away provide safety from the monsoon rains? The dams already built have devastated forests in the floodplains removing trees which help soil absorb water and reduce flooding. Time to tear the dams down and let the river recreate land and regenerate forests through seasonal flooding.
Courtesy: Adopted from Facebook.
Jeay Sindh leader Bashir Qureshi arrested by Pakistan Rangers
- JSQM chief Bashir Qureshi arrested
SINDH – KARACHI: Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi along with his four accomplices has been arrested from Gulshan-e-Hadeed area by the Rangers and shifted to some unknown place, correspondent Khurshid Abbasi reported.
Courtesy: → The News
Rain disaster in Sindh
Rain disaster in Sindh.
→ YouTeube
MQM’s Target Killer on Geo News
Sindh – American Flood Assistance Already at Work
- More than 50,000 families reached in Sindh
Islamabad, September 13, 2011 (press release)– In response to the Government of Pakistan’s disaster declaration on September 9, the United States has immediately begun providing a broad range of assistance to Sindh communities affected by this year’s floods, including food supplies for more than 50,000 families, and safe drinking water, shelter, sanitation and hygiene supplies, and basic health care for thousands more.
“Assistance provided by the United States will help thousands of flood-affected families attend to their immediate needs over the next few weeks,” said Andrew Sisson, Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development Mission.
This support is part of the broader U.S. Government commitment to assisting the people of Pakistan by supporting long-term development in times of immediate crisis. It will be delivered by local and international organizations specializing in relief work.
Already, USAID-funded food packages have reached 23,000 families in seven districts of Sindh (Badin, Mirpurkhas, Tando Muhammed Khan, Tando Allah Yar, Tharparker, Umarkot, and Hyderabad). This assistance was delivered by the International Organization for Migration. USAID also paid for nearly 60 trucks to deliver relief to affected areas and 1,000 plastic tarpaulins for shelter, and is financing other efforts to coordinate relief activities.
In the coming days, U.S.-funded relief supplies, including shelter materials, drinking water, sanitation and hygiene provisions will be provided through the Rural Support Programs Network, a Pakistani non-governmental organization. The United States is also contributing funding for 26,000 food packages to be distributed by the World Food Program.
The U.S. has also provided funding to the Agha Khan University’s mobile health unit, which is providing health care to affected communities in to Badin District. Additional U.S.-sponsored medical teams will begin working in other heavily flooded areas within the next several days. These health services are crucial in preventing and treating diarrhea, malaria, and other diseases that typically follow floods.
Courtesy- Information Office, Public Affairs Section, U.S. Embassy Islamabad, Pakistan
http://islamabad.usembassy.gov/
Via → Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, September 13, 2011.
Join Sindhi Americans (SAPAC’s) Dinner Dedicated to 2011 Flood Victims
- Four members of Congress to speak at SAPAC’s Second Anniversary Banquet Dinner
Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2011 – Congressman Brad Sherman and Congressman Dan Burton, co-chairs of the Congressional Sindh Caucus, Congressman Adam Schiff, first member of the Congressional Sindh Caucus, and Senator Robert Menendez will be special guest speakers at the Sindhi American Political Action Committee (SAPAC) Second Anniversary Banquet Dinner, dedicated to victims of the 2011 floods in Sindh, at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington D.C. at 7:00 P.M. on October 13, 2011. Other special guest speakers will include Dr. Gul Agha, professor at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and Dr. Harold Gould, visiting scholar at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Virginia.
SAPAC’s Second Anniversary Banquet Dinner will bring Sindhi Americans throughout the nation together to discuss topics relating to Sindhi Americans and issues within the Sindh region. Topics will include the state of U.S. relations with Pakistan, countering militancy through indigenous Sufi beliefs, Sindhi language programming on the Voice of America, Advancement of Women’s health and education in Sindh, Protecting religious minorities from state persecution and terrorism, recent flooding in Sindh, and the history, journey and present status of African Sindhis.
Dinner for the event is $75 per guest with all proceeds going directly to SAPAC and its continuing efforts on behalf of advancing the cause of Sindhis. If interested in attending, please RSVP by September 19th to Mr. Munawar Laghari, SAPAC Executive Director, by phone at (202) 496-5300 or by e-mail at sapac.sindh@gmail.com. Space is limited.
Federal Law requires that all contributions to SAPAC must be from United States citizens or permanent residents only. Contributions from Federal Employees are strictly prohibited. We cannot accept corporate or business checks.
Afghan gunfight: Kabul police battle insurgents
- Afghan and international security forces have been battling a multi-pronged attack by insurgents targeting the US embassy, Nato headquarters and police buildings in Kabul.
Police are still exchanging fire with at least one gunman holed up in an unfinished high-rise building overlooking the diplomatic quarter. Six people have been killed and 16 injured, Kabul’s police chief said.
The Taliban said they were behind the violence.
At least one attacker remains on one of the upper floors of the building, says the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville, in Kabul.
Afghan intelligence officials are already going through the lower floors, gathering evidence about the way the attack was planned and carried out.
Two of them told the BBC they found rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), heavy machine guns and hand grenades, as well as biscuits and energy drinks.
“They had planned a long battle,” one official said.
Counter-terrorism officials said they recovered three mobile phone Sim cards from the bodies of attackers killed earlier in the day. The records showed the numbers had been used for calls to and from Pakistan, they told the BBC.
Read more → BBC
How China kept lid on Ramadan
- In the aftermath of violent protests by Uighurs, a Muslim minority in China’s far northwest, authorities deepened their campaign against religious practices.
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Beijing — At a teachers college in far northwestern China, students were irritated to find that their professors were escorting them to lunch last month — an odd occurrence since they were more than capable of finding the cafeteria themselves.
There was an ulterior motive, students told travelers who recently visited the city of Kashgar: The college wanted to make sure that the students, most of them Muslims, were eating rather than fasting in daylight hours during the holy month of Ramadan.
Courtesy: → Los Angeles Times
MQM: a neo fascist organization
- By: Farooq Tariq
I started visiting Karachi in the mid-1990s after the Labor Party established a group there. Whenever I came to speak to a public meeting, comrades advised me to avoid verbal attacks on the MQM. “We have to live here” was the usual justification.
After the National Trade Union Federation was formed in 1998, I was one of the key speakers at the annual May Day rallies in Karachi. And whenever I ignored the advice and called the MQM a neo-fascist organization, I received maximum applause. It seemed that among the Karachi working class there was tremendous antagonism against the MQM, but not many were prepared to speak publically against this organization.
On 10th September 2011, speaking on GEO television, Mustafa Kamal, the former mayor of Karachi, responded to the criticism of some who talked to Hamid Mir by commenting, in coded language, of retaliation against those who dare to be critical. He falsely compared Bangladesh’s struggle for independence struggle with the situation of Karachi. One was a struggle by an exploited nationality against the atrocious treatment of the West Pakistan civilian and military establishment while in Karachi today there is a struggle to break the shackles of the neo-fascists, who have attempted to strangle working people for over three decades.
I distinctly remember 12 May 2007, when I was going to speak at a peasant rally in Punjab. I received several calls from Karachi, one from Azra Perveen, a female activist of the Labour Party. She had been part of a group organized by LPP to go to a rally at the airport and welcome the chief justice. Shots rang out while buses were still arriving. The main victims were ANP activists, whose bus had to stop and let the passengers rush to find safe places. Azra, whose white dress was drenched in blood, was forced to hide behind a pole as she tried to help the wounded.
I tried to contact Eidhi, the BBC and other media to aid activists encircled by MQM thugs. Earlier in the morning, I was informed that all the transport arranged by LPP had been withdrawn on the instructions of the MQM. No one was willing to risk their transport. In fact the previous day, even commercial painters refused to prepare the LPP banners because of the fear of retaliation by MQM. Nevertheless brave activists of the LPP, ANP and some other parties attempted to get the airport. They found containers blocking the roads and were fired on at several places.
On 10th September 2011 night, I was very angry to hear Mustafa Kamal denying that the MQM played a role in shedding blood in May 2007. Earlier in the press conference from his exile cage, Altaf Hussain, the “leader” accepted the MQM the “negligence” by the local chapter of MQM. And what a negligence, over 50 were killed, chief justice was unable to come out from the airport, all the main roads were blocked by the heavy containers and so on. This was an act of fascism. MQM believes in fascist philosophy that means the physical elimination of political opponents.
It was no accident that when Benazir Bhutto visited our bookstall in Lahore in 1992, she bought all fifty copies of a booklet “FASCISM What It Is and How To Fight It.” The booklet was written by Leon Trotsky and translated in Urdu by Dr. Khalid Javed Jan. Benazir Bhutto must have felt the need to arm the activists of PPP with this booklet. And what a historical paradox that her husband Asif Ali Zardari is trying his best to go along with this terrorist organization instead of fighting it in an effort to win a “peace” in Karachi and other cities of Sindh.
You cannot have peace by compromising with the fascists. That is a lesson evident from studying the political history of the fascism. All the social democrats and even the communists who tried to compromise with Hitler, Mussolini, and Franc, the fascist leaders of Germany, Italy and Spain, became their victims. Fascists are not democrats. They do not believe in democracy. For them democracy is just an opportunity to spread their influence.
What is fascism? It is a system of government characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship, forcible suppression of the opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized governmental control, belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism. It is a mass movement, with its leaders employing a great deal of socialist demagogy. Its base is the petty bourgeoisie, the middle class.
The capital of Sindh, Karachi has been in the grip of a one-party dictatorship for long time. The MQM talks of revolution, instead of Socialist demagogy. It has always had close links with the military establishment; they always make efforts to smooth over any differences. The MQM gave full support to General Musharaf.
MQM has always used the race issue to unite the groups around it. Racism may be defined as the hatred of one person or group by another because of skin, color, language, customs, place of birth or any other factor. This reveals the belief that one is less than human establishes an unequal power relationship that is perpetuated through wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes.
In order to popularize its message, the MQM propagated the “discriminated” attitude of the Sindhis, Punjabis, Pushtoons and Baluchs against Urdu-speaking migrants. It uses the racist card to divide the working class in Karachi, the main industrial city of Sindh, Pakistan. MQM members make jokes about the native Balucies and Sindhies, revealing a contemptuous attitude that these people are not “civilized” enough to be equal to other people.
When journalist Hamid Mir asked a question Hyder Abbas Rizvi, a MQM representative of MQM, why the party pressurized the AAJ television channel to sack Nusarat Javed, one of the channel’s main anchor people who was sacked during a programme when he was criticizing MQM fascist tactics, , he responded by denying the charges, stating that no one from MQM called the AAJ owners. That may be so, but the sheer fear of MQM retaliation might have forced the owners to sack this reputed journalist.
What had Nusrat Javed said? He simply reacted to the three-hour press conference by Altaf Hussain, the chief of MQM by stating the whole nation was kept hostage for five hours. Yet the MQM representative slyly remarked that the MQM did not force the media to broad the entire conference but only gave out a press release announcing the conference. Yet it is the fear of retaliation by MQM that forced all the media to carry the entire the press conference live for over 5 hours.
Recent developments have forced the neo-fascist MQM retreat from their ambitious plan to expand nationally. All their sloganeering against feudalism is rolled back to their original political stand that to maintain their base among the Muhajirs, taking refuge in Karachi.
The case of the MQM exposes the failure of Pakistani state to address the question of racism and fascism. In fact, the Pakistani state is deeply rooted in religious bigotry and racist superiority where some nationalities are dominant and others are oppressed. It has tried to impose the Urdu language on the Bengalis as early as 1948. Sindhies have had to wage a struggle for their linguistic rights. The emergence of the MQM in the mid-1980, with the help of the military dictator General Zia Ul Haq was mainly based on the supposed superiority of the Urdu language. Different institutions of the state played vital role in bringing this monster up in the air and the MQM has very cleverly used this attitude against all other local, indigenous and other languages.
Today the MQM-PPP alliance reveals a crisis of bourgeoisie democracy. The PPP government is facing one of the most real crises it has faced so far during the three and half year of power. It is both the crisis of the system and the leadership. The so-called clever, smart, witty, intelligent, gifted and chic leadership of Asif Ali Zaradari has to confront one of his most trusted handpicked Zulfiqar Mirza. The crisis has weakened the grip of PPP leadership from its own apparatus. It has weakened their basis in Sindh. That is a result of their policies of conciliations with the neo-fascists MQM. You can never gain by allying with your own enemies.
The working class must not have any illusions in Zulfiqar Mirza’s fight against the fascists. He wants to reap the anger of the working people of Sindh against MQM and put it back to PPP or to the military establishment but he cannot wage a serious fight against the fascists.
What is the way forward? It is revealed in the current struggle of the workers at Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) for jobs and against privatization. Here we see the MQM and the PPP united to crush the heroic struggle of the KESC trade union with state repression. We must support this struggle and demand an immediate release of the workers, organizing strike support actions. Building the working-class movement in Karachi is the answer to the present crisis.
It is with the present political scenario that the forces of the Left can expose the real nature of the neo-fascist forces and the danger it presents for the working class in Pakistan. At different times religious fundamentalists or the neo-fascist MQM have been promoted by state institutions and bourgeoisie in order to divide and conquer and thus maintain rotten capitalism. Both, along their master, deserve rejection by the working people of Pakistan.
About the writer – Farooq Tariq is spokesperson of the Labour Party Pakistan
Courtesy: → SocialistPakistan, September 12, 2011
via → Indus Herald
Sindhi Sammellan in Ahmedabad 2011
- 18th International Sindhi Sammelan, 16th, 17th, & 18th Dec 2011.
Once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the entire world wide community in the beautiful environment of Ahmedabad. It’s all going to be happening from 16th – 18th December 2011.
It is my honour and privilege to welcome you to the 18th International Sindhi Sammelan 2011. This mega event is hosted by Sindhi Council of India – A Global Umbrella Organisation of Sindhis of India in collaboration with Alliance of Sindhi Associations of Americas Inc., which had organized seventeen Sammelans in USA, UK, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Barbados etc, since 1992.
Sindhis have blazed their success trail in many regions of the world as entrepreneurs and professionals. However, in the process of adapting to their new homes, many Sindhis have lost touch with their roots of the language, literature, culture, cuisine, traditions and rituals of their ancestral homeland.
The objective of the conference is rekindle the spirit of Sindhiyat, the linguistic and cultural bond between Sindhis that transcends geographical distances, through this Sammelan & it’s cultural programs related to sindhi traditions.
We have invited scholors from India and all over the World to present delibrations on Sindhyat. You may enroll as delegate. Refer the details in brochure / Registration form.
I sincerely desire your participation on this memorable event.
AMAR DOULATANI
Chairman, 18th International Sindhi Sammelan 2011
National President Sindhi Council of India
Director, Alliance of Sindhi Associations of Americas, Inc
Courtesy: → http://sindhisammelanabad2011.org/
A killing machine called CIA
By Brian Cloughley
IN an interview for an article about the machinations of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) one of the Washington Post’s sources described it as “one helluva killing machine”.
Then, according to the reporter, he “blanched” at his words and altered them to “one hell of an operational tool”. I think we’ll stick with the ‘killing machine’ depiction. ….
Read more → DAWN.COM
The Journalist and the Spies: The murder of a reporter who exposed Pakistan’s secrets.
- by Dexter Filkins
On May 30th, as the sun beat down on the plains of eastern Pakistan, a laborer named Muhammad Shafiq walked along the top of a dam on the Upper Jhelum Canal to begin his morning routine of clearing grass and trash that had drifted into the intake grates overnight. The water flow seemed normal, but when he started removing the debris with a crane the machinery seized up. He looked down and saw, trapped in the grates, a human form. ….
Read more → NewYorker
via → Wichaar
Feel Good, sad Pakistanis
- by Nadeem F. Paracha
Furry Factoid #5: We have gallons and gallons of oil and tons and tons of coal and gas in the grounds of Balochistan. We can become a rich country but only if the Baloch people stop their occupation of Balochistan.
The Pakistani state and forces have been fighting a bloody war with the occupiers of one of the richest provinces of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan: Balochistan.
This province whose grounds are rumbling with natural wealth and resources has been under the yoke and occupation of the Baloch people.
Some might ask who else this province would be under if not the Baloch people. That’s a valid point. But then do mountains, deserts or cactus have a language or ethnicity? Do oil, coal or gas? No, they don’t. But they do have a religion.
If there can be an ‘Islamic bomb,’ why can’t there be an Islamic coal mine, or an Islamic oil rig or an Islamic gas pipeline, aye? And anything Islamic must have something to do with Pakistan, right? Right.
Thus, what does this brilliant logic make the Baloch people? It makes them invaders and occupiers!
Once they are driven out, we will drive in and become a rich country – a new Saudi Arabia! *goose bumps* …
Read more → DAWN.COM
Feel-good facts for bad feeling Pakistanis
- by Nadeem F. Paracha
Furry Factoid #1: Muslims walked on the moon centuries before the Americans did.
How ironic it is that for decades Muslim children have been taught that it was an American astronaut, Neil Armstrong, who was the first man to walk on the moon (in 1969).
Though Armstrong did walk on the moon, he was NOT the first man to do so. Surprised? Of course you are, because after all we have been taught history written by biased Orientalists.
We have forgotten that it was actually a Muslim warrior, Muhammad Bin Qasim, who was the first man to walk on the moon. And he did so in the 8th century AD!
Just before he conquered Sindh in the subcontinent, Qasim was a young camel expert and amateur astronomer (all before he turned five). At age 15, he succeeded in breeding a special kind of Arab camel that could run faster than the speed of light and also fly.
Qasim then told the governor of Baghdad that he was ready to conquer not only the whole world but the moon too. However, the governor was a tad short-sighted and wanted him to stick to just conquering Sindh.
Qasim blasted his camel and men towards Sindh, but overshot it by, say, a few million miles, and ended up on the surface of the moon.
Being a wily astronomer, he had also invented the world’s first ever astronaut suit and helmet made from, yup, you guessed it, camel skin and bones.
Nevertheless, finding the moon to be a somewhat boring place with little gravity and all and absolutely no date palms, Qasim shot back and this time finally landed in Sindh. Unfortunately his camel died on impact and was buried in what is today Hyderabad in the Qasim Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
After Qasim’s death (from rotten vegetarian food that he was given by Sindh’s scheming Hindus), Muslims lost all the know-how and technology invented by Captain Qasim.
Then in 1960, American CIA agents masquerading as archeologists, dug up the remains of Qasim’s camel in Hyderabad and used its skeleton to build the very rocket (Apollo 11) that took Armstrong to the moon.
Captain Qasim’s miraculous feat was all but forgotten in the mist of Orientalist history, Western propaganda and some bad hip-hop music. Shame. ….
Read more → DAWN.COM
SINDHI SONG – HEKAR JE GADDJAN TA CHAWAN
→ YouTube
MQM in the way of plot against Pakistan: Altaf
- By Azfar-ul-Ashfaque
Excerpt;
…. The gist of the press conference was that Western powers were plotting the dismemberment of Pakistan, but the Muttahida had resolved to foil the design.
Repeated assurances were made to the armed forces, the Inter-Services Intelligence as well as the nation that the MQM was against conspiracies being hatched against the country.
Mr Hussain chose not to answer the serious allegations levelled by former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza against him and his party over the past fortnight, parrying a number of questions by reporters.
He concentrated on showing documents, maps and reports from the international media to strengthen his contention that international powers were working for the break-up of Pakistan.
Although he refused to pinpoint the international powers he was referring to, an allusion left no doubt: “The country which has the biggest influence in Pakistan is behind such conspiracies”. The MQM cannot fight such powers alone, Mr Hussain added. “There would have been no super power had the army, the ISI and the MQM got united.”
The MQM supremo accused the leadership of the Awami National Party of “misleading the Pukhtoons living in Karachi and Peshawar”. He even went to the extent of claiming that the United States had given millions of dollars to Asfandyar Wali for contesting the 2008 general election. ….
Read more → DAWN.COM
SINDH: MONSOON RAINS AFFECT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, UN LAUNCHES HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE
- PAKISTAN: MONSOON RAINS AFFECT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, UN LAUNCHES HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE
Press release – (Islamabad/Geneva/New York: 10 September 2011): Torrential monsoon rains have pounded southern Pakistan, triggering serious flooding affecting more than 5 million people, among them communities still recovering from last year’s extraordinary floods. The disaster has reportedly taken the lives of 199 people, and destroyed or damaged nearly one million houses, and flooded 4.2 million acres of land, prompting the Government of Pakistan to call for support from the United Nations.
The situation for those impacted by recent monsoons and subsequent floods is critical, with thousands of people in need of life-saving assistance due to the lack of food and safe drinking water and the loss of livelihoods and homes. In response the United Nations and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) undertook a joint field mission to see first hand the devastation and damage caused by fresh flooding. The NDMA Chairman and UN Humanitarian Coordinator held discussions with the Sindh Governor and Chief Minister. The joint mission team visited Thatta, Badin, T.M. Khan and Hyderabad districts, where they met with district officials and families displaced by floods. During the visit the Chairman and the UN Humanitarian Coordinator gained first hand information about the impact of the floods, which has made possible a rapid launch of the relief effort by the United Nations and other humanitarian partners to support the ongoing national relief efforts.
LEFT BANK OUTFALL DRAIN CARRYING TOXIC EFFLUENCE FROM PUNJAB TO SINDH – a massive wave of 20,000 cusecs of drain water is approaching
- Evacuation ordered as new breaches in dykes add to woes
By Hashim Bhurgari, Qamaruddin and Iqbal Khwaja
SINDH – BADIN / MIRPURKHAS / THATTA: The Badin administration issued a warning to people of 12 union councils to vacate their homes and water gushing from breaches in canals and drains entered Mirpurkhas town and several villages in Thatta on Sunday as there appeared no end in sight to devastation caused by heaviest ever rainfall in the province’s history.
In Badin, unhindered upstream water flow continued to increase pressure on the embankments of the overtopping Left Bank Outfall Drain, forcing the administration to issue a warning to the people of 12 union councils, including Shadi Large, Khoski, Pangrio and Malkani Sharif towns, for evacuation. The warning was given after Saturday midnight through loudspeakers.
Thousands of marooned families along the LBOD and Doro Puran faced an acute shortage of food, drinking water and medicines.
According to unofficial reports, more than 30 people have died in the area, because of outbreak of gastroenteritis and other diseases.
A large number of villagers erected tents along roads and on dunes and many others are living in open areas. …
Read more → DAWN.COM
Jeay Lateef, poetry in motion. Superb Sindhi song!
Courtesy: → Coke Studio, Produced by Rohail Hyatt → YouTube
