Obituary: Karachi will always miss its Abidi factor on December 31, 2018If you are a Pakistani twitter user, you must have come across a highly opinionated twitter handle called @abidifactor. Syed Ali Raza Abidi, who has died aged 46, was a seasoned MQM worker who was the face of the party in a time where association with the Tehreek meant to invite either humiliation or victimisation. […]
The regime of disinformation on May 23, 2018On May 9, students from various communities, including Pakistanis, Kashmiris and Palestinians organised a teach-in at the School of Oriental and African Studies (popularly known as SOAS) in London, on the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM). Teach-ins are mostly informal, quasi-academic and open to contribution from participants. Though the Pakistani media was invited, only a few […]
The PTM media trial on March 28, 2018Those who assume that Rao Anwar’s surrender would end the historic Pakhtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), are misguided. Anwar’s arrest was just one part of PTM’s demands, because the fact of the matter is that Anwar’s arrest will not end the problem of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances of tribal Pakhtuns. PTM is likely to hold […]
Pakistan’s spiral of silence — I on March 2, 2018In the last week of January, a progressive activist from Karachi was approached by men claiming to be from military intelligence and warned him to give up on his political activism. On 22nd January, just after a reference for deceased Professor Hasan Zafar Arif, a young journalist, Fawad Hassan, was forcefully taken into custody by […]
Ethnic bias against Pashtuns on January 20, 2018On January 16th, a bullet-ridden body was found in Karachi. It was the body of Naseemullah Mahsood, also known as Naqeebullah Mahsood, who was killed by police in an ‘encounter’. He hailed from South Waziristan and came Karachi in 2008 in the wake of military operation in his hometown. He owned a clothing shop and […]
Breaking the panopticon on October 30, 2017A few days ago, a group of Pakistani activists convened a meeting in London and we were discussing possible strategies to run a human rights campaign in Pakistan. The main concern of our discussion was to ensure safety and security of activists. As always, many of us were of the view that we need to […]
Dictators, not welcome! on August 27, 2017Pervez Musharaf has been barred from addressing students in an event that was due on 24th of August at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. It was unprecedented. A few months ago, Mark Regev, Israel ambassador in UK, came SOAS to address Jewish students. There was a huge campaign by students and academics […]