Blogging Sites Banned in Pakistan...Again

The Emergency Times is reporting that popular free blogging sites like Blogspot/Blogger and WordPress have been banned in Pakistan. That means those URLs have been blocked at the Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE), which is the only point of contact that almost all Pakistanis have with the 'net since all ISPs are required to route their traffic through it. For more on this, check out the Wikipedia article: Internet Censorship in Pakistan.

Of course, as anyone who is familiar with the Internet knows, blocking (or filtering) URLs in that way is pretty much useless. There are always workarounds. In fact, The Emergency Times lists two:

And there are many, many more. Just search for "anonymizer" on any search engine.

Two Good Articles on Pakistan: Fisk, Hamid

I came across two good articles on Pakistan today.

The first, 'They don't blame al-Qa'ida. They blame Musharraf' by Robert Fisk (thanks, Ayesha) talks about the ISI (i.e. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) and about how:
...Yesterday, our television warriors informed us the PPP members shouting that Musharraf was a "murderer" were complaining he had not provided sufficient security for Benazir. Wrong. They were shouting this because they believe he killed her.

The second, 'It's Troubled, But It's Home' by Mohsin Hamid,is completely different. It's a much more personal article, written from the perspective of a Pakistani expatriate:
...As my wife and I board our flight from London to Lahore, evident all around us is a longing for home -- for the friends and family who are central to Pakistani culture in a way that many foreigners find so remarkable. (As an admiring American roommate of mine once said, "All you guys do is hang out.") This duality of Pakistan as a place both troubled and normal, a place capable of producing a large diaspora while also affectionately tugging at those who have left, is often lost on the world's media. International news outlets tend to cast Pakistan as the one-dimensional villain of a horror film, a kind of Jason or Freddie whose only role is to frighten. Scant attention is paid to the hospitality, the love for music and dance, or the simple ordinariness of 164 million people going about their daily lives.

Which then ends on a positive note:
In the United States, there will be newspaper columns and television talk shows dedicated to "loose nukes" and the "war on terror." Here in Pakistan, one can see signs of people coming together. Scare stories notwithstanding, it is possible (although by no means certain) that out of this tragedy the world's sixth-largest nation may succeed in finding its voice -- and with that the chance for a better future.

If you get the chance, do read both of them.

A Little Perspective: Defending Musharraf

Jonathan Power wrote a really good article in the Toronto Star yesterday in which he rightly defended President Musharraf:
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf gets a bad press; Benazir Bhutto a too kind one. Which of them is the real rogue?

When Musharraf, as Pakistan's top army commander, tried to engineer war with India over Kashmir in 1999, he demonstrated his roguish side. Yet even many of his opponents in Pakistan will concede that since he deposed Nawaz Sharif and assumed power he has been largely a benevolent dictator.

Read the whole article; Power makes a good point. Though, really, most of us Pakistanis didn't expect much "democracy" from Bhutto anyway. Her post-herself PPP succession plan being the ultimate case in point.

And we have no problems in conceding that Musharraf has been good for the country. I mean, can you imagine what life would have been like under anyone else? Present circumstances excepted, of course. Though, if you think about it, it's all those good years that make the present situation seem that much worse don't they? For example, had we not had a totally free press for the last five years, would we have missed not having one now? And had things not been so good in the last five years, would college students from across the nation have known enough or cared enough to actually protest the Emergency? Heck, had things not been better for the country, at least half of those students would have been in the US anyway!

My point is: all this is worth thinking about before we completely dismiss Musharraf and, in a catastrophic error of judgement, let the crooks back into the country and into a position of power. I hate to say it but, for now at least, the only way that I see us getting out of this mess is to keep Musharraf on as President. Without him -- and, really, without the military providing a constant threat and counterbalance -- our mostly corrupt and mostly useless politicians will, yet again, screw the country over and we'll be back to square one. Again.

And if not that, the only other way out is via a provisional government and the restoration of the judiciary. The real, honest, and just judiciary; not the sham one they've got in there right now. That's the key, though, isn't it? The Rule of Law. We've never really had it -- not in the last 4,000 years at least -- and until we get it and keep it for at least three generations, we'll never actually break away from our feudal, kingly, and dictatorial past.

Spiraling Downwards...

Speaking of the situation in Pakistan, things seem to be getting only worse. The Asian Human Rights Commission just published a statement on the how Asma Jehangir's daughters were assaulted and threatened that you should read [Via The Emergency Times].

The AHRC has also published a good overview on the fundamentals of what is happening on in Pakistan these days. And though it comes across as sounding a little sensationalist:
This is what Pakistan has become. It is a draconian military state and uses anti terrorism as a pretext to strengthen itself and to oust the rule of law. In essence it is a lawless place where any act of cruelty to any person at all, be it a leading politician or a chief justice, can be done with impunity. Those are the conditions under which the ordinary Pakistanis have to live and must adjusted themselves to.

Everything that the article says is, unfortunately, true.

Higher Education in Pakistan

A couple of months ago I wrote about how, as it turns out, things in Pakistan aren't going as well as we thought they were. Pervez Hoodbhoy, one of Pakistan's leading scientists recently wrote an article in Dawn that dispels the myth the the Government of Pakistan is actually fixing up our higher education system. It's an excellent two-part article of which this is the first part. I'll post a link to part two when it gets published.

(Note: You can find some of Hoodbhoy's other articles in Chowk.)

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated...

I can't think of anything to say. Besides, everyone else is already saying it -- and saying it much better than I ever could.

All political ramifications aside, though, my thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes go out to Bhutto's family. I know how hard it is to lose a loved one; especially a mother. And the more public that person is, the harder it must be for close family since any sendoff that you might want to give your loved one is inevitably hijacked by everyone else. I hope her family -- especially her children -- are hanging in there.

Farhat Haq Weighs in on the Emergency

As I mentioned earlier on this blog, an FIR [1] was recently lodged against Farhat Haq, a professor of political science at Monmouth College, Illinois. She has been charged with "writing inappropriate things about the government" with chalk on a wall in Lahore. Had the government actually checked before issuing the FIR, they might have noticed that Haq was actually in Illinois at the time of the alleged misdemeanour. Haq wrote an article about this in Dawn and it's been posted on The Emergency Times blog.

[1] FIR = First Investigation Report. Basically, the first step in a police investigation since this officially opens a police investigation.

Amanullah, Other Activists Arrested

As the protests against martial law continue across Pakistan, ten people were arrested outside Justice Shahid Siddiqui's house in Lahore on Thursday. These people, among many others, have been staging a peaceful sit-in outside Justice Siddiqui's house because he, along with the other judges who refused to sign the PCO, have been forcibly "retired" and asked to vacate their official residences. Many other people have been arrested, baton-charged, threatened, harassed, and released over the last few weeks, of course, but this group is of particular interest to me since, among the people arrested, are Amanullah Kariapper, a good friend and a classmate from LUMS, and Saima Khwaja, a LUMS faculty member.

You can follow the full story on the FASTRising and other blogs but, basically, they were charged -- without their lawyers being present with them in court, of course -- with disturbing the peace and have been remanded to two weeks in jail. They have since been removed from the jail and detained at a different location but they have been allowed to phone home and talk to their families. Their bail application hearing, meanwhile, is scheduled for this morning in the Lahore Cantonment civil courts before Magistrate Farhan Nabi. Protests for their release also continued over the weekend.

I've been out of touch recently -- I'd logged off from the wired world as I took a couple of days off after my exams -- but I'll keep updating this blog with, er, updates as I get them.

Dammit...

Here I am, working in my Negotiations take-home exam when what I would really rather be doing is protesting alongside my friends, family, and fellow activists in Islamabad.

They protested, over a thousand-strong, at Aabpara Chowk yesterday. After the usual games with the police, things turned a little ugly when the police started targeting female protestors. The crowd retaliated and there was a scuffle but, fortunately, things didn't get very much out of hand. You can read about it in the eyewitness account on the Emergency Times blog. You can also find photos from the protest there.

Meanwhile, LUMS has been surrounded by police who have barricaded the front entrance and are checking everyone who goes in or out. All that in an attempt to keep students from attending the Student Action Committee protest meeting at the Press Club in Lahore.

And in the usual, funny twist of events that occurs in situations such as these, the police issued FIRs [1] against LUMS students and faculty members, most of which are quite funny (again) as reported by the Emergency Times.

And while all this is going on back home, I am here working out strategies for collaborative negotiation.

Dammit.

[1] FIR = First Investigation Report. Basically, the first step in a police investigation since this officially opens a police investigation.

Blogs About Pakistan

With the situation in Pakistan being what it is, Pakistani blogs are becoming increasingly important both to people living in Pakistan and to those of us who are stuck outside. I've already written about a couple of these blogs. This here is a more comprehensive roundup of those two and some more useful blogs. Thanks in particular to Aman from bringing some of these to my notice.

First off we have four student blogs:

  • LUMS Blog: Written by LUMS alumni about things concerning Pakistan and LUMS. I haven't contributed to this blog yet but this is the one that I'm associated with.

  • FAST Rising: The excellent FAST-NU resistance blog.

  • The Emergency Times: An independent student initiative that provides updates on the emergency situation and publishes a newsletter by the same name.

  • ALE Xpressed!: This is a personal blog that doesn't "report" on events but approaches them from a personal perspective.


Then we have the two I talked about earlier:

  • All Things Pakistan (Pakistaniat.com): The intention of this blog is to "talk about [Pakistan's] problems constructively and to celebrate enthusiastically that which deserves to be celebrated". It's not a news blog, but an excellent views blog.

  • Watan Dost: This is both a news and opinion blog but is particularly good for news about Pakistan from all perspectives and from many, many sources.


And finally, we have the Metroblogging sites (the first two have more coverage than the third):

Oh, another useful thing to do is to create a Google Alert with the search phrase "Pakistan" that sends you a daily e-mail with all news, blog, web, and video entries posted about Pakistan over the previous 24 hours. You can, of course, narrow your search term down to "Pakistan emergency" or something.

UPDATE

A few more resources have come my way:

Statement by Yale Law School

As statements go, the one made by Yale Law School regarding the rule of law in Pakistan (or lack thereof) kicks ass:
We, the undersigned lawyers, deans, professors, law students, and law school administration and staff denounce in the strongest terms General Pervez Musharraf's recent assault on the rule of law in Pakistan. By suspending the Constitution; dissolving the Supreme Court and the provincial High Courts and replacing them with judges of his own choosing; engaging in arbitrary and unprovoked arrests of thousands of opposition leaders, journalists, and other law-abiding citizens; and violently suppressing protests by hundreds of lawyers who were acting in the highest tradition of our profession, General Musharraf is trampling upon the very system of law that alone can justify a ruler’s power over his people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow lawyers and the democratic values that they represent, and we urge an early restoration of legality and legitimate authority in Pakistan.

And boy is that "undersigned" list a long one!

[Via the LUMSBlog]

Perspective on the Pakistan Situation

Dr. Muqtedar Khan posted a really good article on the Pakistan situation on altmuslim yesterday. He makes a number of interesting points and gives a good overview of what's going on. Especially this bit (which relates to my earlier post on the situation):
Even some of the secular elite who have supported Musharraf's undemocratic ways are becoming wary of his high-handedness. They appreciated his enlightened approach to Islam and saw him as a force that while subverting democracy minimally (only at the top, since the rest of Pakistan's governments, local and national, were elected), nurtured a degree of secularity and religious freedom necessary against the rising tide of Taliban-style Islamism. But what they have finally ended up with is more Islamic militancy with extremist violence, and less and less democracy.

And he makes a good point that didn't occur to me:
[Pakistan's] ability to retain liberal political institutions even under military dictatorship is an important characteristic that we must keep in mind as we watch the current spiraling sequence of political disasters in Pakistan.

Let's see how his conclusion pans out, though:
Washington cannot and will not abandon Musharraf. Indeed his move, which brings Pakistan closer to collapse, basically forces Washington to stand behind him more firmly, albeit unhappily. In the end, the current crisis can be diffused if an early rapprochement between Musharraf and the Pakistani Supreme Court can be arranged. It is here that Benazir Bhutto can play a role and reestablish herself as a major player both at home and in the eyes of the US.

Here's hoping things work out sooner rather than later.

Bush Gives Musharraf Tips on Eliminating Democracy

Andy Borowitz wrote a really funny "news report" for the Huffington Post yesterday. In it he says:
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Mr. Bush said that while he commended General Musharraf's impulse to eliminate democratic institutions, he felt that the military strongman was going about it the wrong way: "When you're getting rid of democracy, the last thing you want to do is tell people you're doing it."

Mr. Bush said that eliminating such things as privacy, freedom of speech and the constitution had to be done "very quietly and stealthy-like."

It's good to be able to laugh at a time like this. Actually, it's good to be able to laugh at any time.

LUMS Professors Arrested

Two faculty members from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), from where I did my undergrad, were arrested as part of the government's crackdown on whoever "opposes" them. They were attending a meeting at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) when the police came a-knockin' an' arrestin'.

Here's a PDF of the press release issued by LUMS (482kB PDF). The arrests are also the main story on the HRCP's website today.