Sindhis should join Imran Khan – Tehrik-e-Insaaf?

By Khalid Hashmani

There is a discussion on Sindhi e-lists! It is quite eloquent. However, much of what is being stated has very little to do whether or not Sindhis should vote for Imran Khan and his Taheek-e-Insaf party. The arguments about love, fear, freedom, and slavery are mere generalities that could support or oppose the subject. Although, the manifesto of Tahreek has been substantially generalized as it now appears on their website, I had written a note after visiting their website in May 2007.

I ask the proponents of the suggestion that is arguing that Sindhis should support Imran Khan to provide arguments as to how Tahreek-e-Insaf and Imran Khan have changed since May 2007 except that there now only talk in generalities and foster Pakistani identity. We should recognize the fact that his political party Pakistan Trek-i-Unsafe (PIT) does not have a Sindh-friendly manifesto and it doesn’t recognize historical rights of Sindhis within their existing national territory.

Courtesy » Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, December 13, 2011

Paradigm Shift

» YouTube

U.S lawmakers freeze $700 million to Pakistan

By Reuters

WASHINGTON: The leaders of a US House-Senate negotiating panel have agreed to freeze $700 million in US aid to Pakistan ….

Read more » The Express Tribune

An appeal to International Community – “We want to attend universities, not funerals” – Young Women of Balochistan

Below please see a letter from Young Women of Balochistan, forwarded by a friend who received it via email on Dec 10, 2011, Human Rights Day – a day commemorated around the country and dedicated to the people of Balochistan by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (See this report by Rabia Ali). Ironically and tragically, that very day, a young Baloch human rights activist, 35-year old Faisal Mengal, was gunned down in Karachi (details in this report). As Rabia Ali reports, from July 2010 to November 2011, around 300 dead bodies were found — some even of 14-year-olds, according to Tahir Hussain, Vice Chairperson of the HRCP’s Balochistan chapter. Those killed include two HRCP activists, while the number of people missing range from 5,000 to 6,000.  Read on for this brief appeal by the Young Women of Balochistan…

We are young women from Balochistan, belonging to Quetta, Pishin, Mastung, Khuzdaar, Lasbella, Sibi, and Qila Saifullah.

On International Human Rights day, we want to send forward our message.

Each of us has horror stories; each of us has lived through nightmares. We want to tell you our fears.

We want to tell you that we no longer sleep at night. Because we fear the midnight knock. We don’t sleep in the day either, because when men we love go out, we don’t know if they will ever come back or not.

We want to tell you that when our loved ones ‘disappear’, we don’t know what to pray for – whether we should pray for them to come back broken, tortured and maimed, or whether to pray for their quick and painless death. We know unharmed return is not a possibility.

We fear that our daily battles for dignity within our homes and communities will be lost; that our fight for equality and progress will vanish in our fight for survival as an ethnic group.

We fear our own blindness.

We fear the Frontier Constabulary, the army, the state, and the ‘unknown assailants’ that all FIRs record. We have now started to fear ourselves. We fear that years later, when others tell us ‘We didn’t know what was happening in Balochistan’, we will not be able to accept that.

We fear we will lose our capacity to forgive.

We need you to help us fight our fears.

We ask you to help us fight for our future. A future in which the FC and the army does not rule over our lives and deaths.

We want to attend universities, not funerals.

From: Young Women of Balochistan

Courtesy » Journeys To Democracy

http://beenasarwar.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/we-want-to-attend-universities-not-funerals-young-women-of-balochistan/

Jahrri athai mast jawani

REMIX

Courtesy: Sindhi music channel Kashish » YouTube

Credit goes to Jalal Chandio

Veena Malik: She’s Outspoken, Savvy, and Topless—and She’s Shaking Up Pakistan

By Asra Q. Nomani

With her racy magazine cover, Pakistani actress Veena Malik has inflamed her homeland. She says Pakistan needs to stop the extremism—and now the country’s ‘honor brigade’ is after her.

In this month’s issue of FHM India, a racy men’s magazine, a saucy Pakistani actress, Veena Malik, rocked the Indian subcontinent with a topless cover photo, wearing only an ammo belt, a crossed arm over her cleavage, a grenade in her teeth, and a bold tattoo on her left bicep, “ISI,” for Pakistani’s nefarious intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. The cover has been explosive. But while the West has viewed the furor with mild confusion or amusement, ….

Read more » The Daily Beast