pakistan – SEDAA – Our Voices

Is Imran Khan’s ‘Medina state’ founded on Osama Bin Laden’s Islam?

5th July 2020 admin

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid Last week, reminiscences of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden sprung up in two unlikely arenas: Elland Road and the National Assembly of Pakistan. A Leeds United fan had sent Bin Laden’s image to the football club to be put on their allocated seat in an empty Elland Road, presumably as a prank, as English football resumed behind closed doors earlier this month. Meanwhile, in the Pakistani Parliament, Prime Minister Imran Khan eulogised the jihadist leader as a ‘martyr’ in the June 25 session, in what is…

A new day for Pakistan? The Asia Bibi Verdict

31st October 201814th November 2018 admin

By Saima Baig A strange thing has happened in the land of the pure, the bastion of Islam that is Pakistan. A woman imprisoned for almost nine years and who was on death row for blasphemy has been acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The reason I call this strange is that in Pakistan — it is. The country’s infamous blasphemy laws are used willy-nilly to settle personal scores and it is very difficult to be absolved of this ridiculous crime. Plenty of people are languishing in jail…

Blasphemy: Pakistan’s curse

2nd September 201831st October 2018 admin

By Saima Baig India’s British rulers first codified offences against religion in 1860, which were then expanded in 1927. When Pakistan become a separate country, it inherited these laws; and decided to keep them. In the 1980s, Zia ul Haq added more clauses to this ridiculous and frankly unnecessary law. Over the years, this law been used to put people in jail (Aasia Bibi has now been acquitted by a Pakistani court after being in jail for over seven years, with a death sentence hanging over her head). The…

Pakistan and the new East India Company

20th June 2018 admin

By Saima Baig “In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state,” said Charles de Montesquieu. This is certainly true for Pakistan where one particular institution, or at least its successive doyens, have played nine pins with every chief the country has had after the first decade of its existence. In the early days the army controlled the country blatantly through martial law, of which we have had plenty. It started to look as though that we had…

Pakistan: Whither freedoms and whither rights?

13th October 201631st October 2018 admin

By Saima Baig On October 7, 2016, an article appeared in Pakistan’s Dawn Newspaper, alleging that in a civil military leadership meeting, the Government (prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his brother and other senior officials were present) had told the military representatives that if they did not make more efforts to go after terrorists, Pakistan will be isolated. Journalist Cyril Almeida, one of the newspaper’s senior writers, had reported that an argument had taken place between members of the Pakistani government and the army over lack of action against militant groups,…

Women like Qandeel Baloch must not die in vain

18th July 20168th May 2017 admin

By Iram Ramzan Yet another woman’s life has prematurely been taken in an ‘honour killing’. Pakistani internet sensation Qandeel Baloch was strangled by her brother on Friday night while at her family home in Multan, Punjab. After going on the run, her brother Waseem was later arrested. In his confession video, he expressed no regret. “I am proud of what I did. I drugged her first, then I killed her,” said Waseem.”She was bringing dishonor to our family.” Qandeel’s posts were considered to be controversial in Pakistan. She rose to fame…

The Muslim Council of Britain needs to accept Ahmadis as their own.

8th April 20168th May 2017 admin

By Shamila Ghyas Asad Shah was what one would use as an example for a good human being. The humble shopkeeper from Glasgow was loved by his whole community — Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Well — except a few. We live in a world where it is the loud, violent people like Anjem Choudary who go around telling and trying to convince everyone that all ‘Kaafirs’ [non believers] deserve to die. A world in which popular scholars like Zakir Naik preach that it is “haram” [forbidden] to even wish a Christian ‘Merry…

Terror attacks in Lahore

29th March 20168th May 2017 admin

By Iram Ramzan There is a phrase in Punjabi, which roughly translates as, “The one who has not yet seen Lahore, has not been born.” I certainly felt alive whenever I visited this vibrant capital city of the Punjab in Pakistan. In the past, I have visited my grandparents’ village in Kashmir several times. There was nothing to do, nothing to see, no one with whom I could speak . I felt suffocated, itching for the chance to get out of there as soon as I could. That feeling of misery and boredom would…

Inopportune defensiveness about Islam

24th March 20168th May 2017 admin

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid This is a cross-post from The Nation Two very significant recent events have evoked identically counter-productive, nay self-defeating, reactions from Pakistani and global Muslims respectively. The Jamaat-e-Islaami led religious parties’ meeting in Mansoora unanimously condemned the Women Protection Act as ‘un-Islamic’ last week, while the Brussels attacks on Tuesday killed 34 people and injured over 200. Both events exhibit the ugliest shades of Islamism, and both were met with defensiveness about Islam from various sections. As has become the norm, every global act of jihadist terrorism…