By Friday Focus
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The podcast currently has 12 episodes available.
In this Friday Focus episode, three Pakistani women Gul Bukhari, Gulalai Ismail and Annie Zaman discussed three issues.
1. Criminalisation of Criticism on Armed Forces
2. Imran Khan comments about Rape
The uproar was swift. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent group, demanded that Mr. Khan apologize for his remarks, which it called “unacceptable behavior on the part of a public leader.” “Not only does this betray a baffling ignorance of where, why, and how rape occurs, but it also lays the blame on rape survivors,” the group said.
3. Blasphemy Campaing against Amar Jaleel
Sarmad Sultan is a historian and a social media activist, he has been missing for the past 24 hours, and his Twitter Account has been deactivated. His family says that he has gone out of town, however, the speculations are that he has been picked up by security/intelligence agencies.
Friday Focus is a weekly podcast of three Pakistani women in which talk about politics and human rights. In today's podcast Gulalai Ismail and Gul Bukhari talked about the ongoing protest in Jani Khel, Bannu against the murder of four boys and about the NAB postponement of Maryam's appearance of 26th March.
LAKKI MARWAT: The residents of Janikhel area of Bannu on Monday placed the bodies of four teenage boys in front of the local police station to protest their brutal murder.Locals had recovered the bullet-riddled bodies of the teenagers from a field the other day and shifted them to the district headquarters hospital. The deceased had been missing for last three weeks. “The boys aged between 13 to 17 years had gone on hunting birds about three weeks ago, but they did not return to their homes,” a relative of the victims told Dawn. He said the relatives had launched a search for them but failed to find their whereabouts. On Sunday, a shepherd was grazing cattle in the fields when his dogs started scratching a place with their paws. He got suspicious and informed the locals, including the victim boys’ relatives, who later dug out the bodies. he victims were identified as Ahmadullah, Mohammad Rahim, Razamullah and Atifullah. According to the residents of Janikhel, the four boys were fond of hunting birds and wild hare in the area. A relative of the deceased said they received the bodies from the hospital and then along with tribesmen took the coffins to the Janikhel police station to stage a sit-in there. He said the families of the deceased had no enmity with anyone.The police said they had registered a case against unknown killers and were investigating the murders. Speaking at the protest demonstration, the tribal elders said the brutal killing of four boys had proved that miscreants and anti-state elements were free to sabotage peace and harmony in the area.They asked the authorities to trace the perpetrators behind the incident. They also asked the government to take measures for restoration of peace in Janikhel and announce Shuhada Package for the victims’ families. (DAWN News, 23rd March 2021)
General Bajwa's statement about peace with India and cracks in PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement)
Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa on Thursday made a strong pitch for peace with India and sought the world’s help in ending the conflict between the two South Asian nuclear armed rivals.
“We feel that it is time to bury the past and move forward,” the army chief said on the second day of the Islamabad Security Dialogue.
Gen Bajwa, while proposing peace with India, echoed Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had at the inaugural session called for resolving the outstanding disputes through dialogue and establishing ‘civilised neighbours’ like relations.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who spoke after Gen Bajwa, too said that Pakistan was desirous of “co-existence and win-win cooperation”. He called for shedding zero-sum perspectives and preferring cooperation over confrontation.
Army chief says it is time to bury the past and move forward
The emphasis on peaceful ties with India by the civil and military leadership is part of what is being described by the government as a shift towards exploiting the economic potential of the country and reshaping its international image battered by the conflict and violence in the region.
Gen Bajwa explained that the policy decision taken by Pakistan in this regard was a “deliberate” one based on “rationality”. He made it clear that Islamabad had chosen this path not because of “pressure”, but out of “sincere desire” to reframe Pakistan’s image as a “peace-loving nation” and a “useful member” of the international community.
Emphasising the need for peace in the highly tense South Asian environment, the army chief said conflicts because of unsettled disputes were causing huge expenditure on security at the cost of human development, impeding regional connectivity and ultimately preventing the unlocking of the potential of the region.
He underscored that the disputes between the neighbours had to be resolved through “dialogue in a dignified and peaceful manner”. He said Pakistan’s offer of marching towards a “new future” needed to be reciprocated by India.
FM Qureshi too struck a similar tone saying that Pakistan needed a willing partner “that is ready to engage in good faith, that is prepared to eschew belligerence, and that is committed to meaningfully address the factors that have bedeviled peace and security in South Asia for decades.”
The army chief sought the world’s support in making peace with India and said that “a major contribution is to be made by the global players through their cooperation”. He expressed the hope that the Biden administration too would play a role in transforming “the traditional contestation into a gainful economic win-win for the world in general and the region in particular”.
He also dwelt at length on the broader contours of Pakistan’s external policy, especially with regards to China, the United States and Afghanistan.
Both Gen Bajwa and FM Qureshi recalled Pakistan’s contributions to peace in Afghanistan and reaffirmed commitment to support the peace process.
The army chief said Pakistan would continue to emphasise a sustained and inclusive peace process for the betterment of the people of Afghanistan and regional peace.
He mentioned the steps taken by Pakistan for enhancing Afghanistan’s trade and connectivity, including re-energising the Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement, improving economic and trade environment along the Pak-Afghan border by establishing border markets and development of infrastructure, making Afghanistan part of energy and trade corridors binding Central, South and West Asia through land routes and inviting Afghanistan to be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2021
In this episode of #FridayFocus, Gul Bukhari, Annie Zaman, and Gulalai Ismail discuss the importance of Aurat March in Pakistan, the change it is bringing, and the resistance and backlash it is facing from the conservative sections of the society. Every year on 8th March, women organise in different parts of Pakistan and march for their rights. This year's March was focused on women's right to health, the burden of care-related work, patriarchal violence against women, and economic opportunities for women.
Aurat March 2021 has faced immense backlash with some viewing the slogans raised as an attempt to impose “western debauchery” in Pakistan with the religious clergy also deeming it to be un-Islamic. A plethora of videos and posts, which have gone viral, aim to smear the organinc women rights movement.
Images purportedly showing the French flag brandished at the Aurat March in Islamabad with social media users accusing them of subscribing to a "foreign agenda" also went viral. However, the claim is false as the French flag has blue, white and red stripes. Whereas, participants held a flag with red, white and purple stripes, the banner of the Women Democratic Front, which is the main organisers of the marches in various cities.
In the weekly podcast, Gul Bukhari, Annie Zaman and Gulalai Ismail speculates about what will happen in the vote of confidence of Imran Khan, why Imran Khan felt the need to take vote of confidence and what's next in the political landscape of Pakistan.
In this episode, Gul Bukhari, Annie Zaman, and Gulalai Ismail discussed the Senate Elections of Pakistan 2021, explored the question of the military establishment has become neutral in the Senate Elections, discussed the ECP decision for re-polling and suspension of senior officers allegedly responsible for the mismanagement on the Bi-Election Day. We talked about the Senate Elections, the progress of Punjab Assembly in electing Senators, and the Presidential reference in the Supreme Court.
In this episode, we talked about the NAB ordinance of Pakistan introduced by General Parvez Musharaf for the victimization of politicians, assessed the Ordinance and unconstitutional components of the ordinance, shed light on the angle of human rights violations by the NAB, and shared names of people who have died in the custody of NAB.
In this podcast, we talked about the new trend of court-martials of civilians in the military courts of Pakistan and the issue of enforced disappearanes.
On 13 November 2019, human rights defender Idris Khattak was forcibly disappeared in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by an unidentified group. For nearly seven months there was no information regarding his fate or whereabouts, until 16 June 2020, when it was revealed that the defender was in the custody of the Pakistan military. A year since his enforced disappearance, the defender continues to be detained incommunicado in an unknown location and is the subject of a military trial under the Official Secrets Act. To date, there is no information shared on the place of detention, and he is denied access to independent legal counsel for the ongoing trial. The treatment of Idris Khattak, is in direct violation of fundamental human rights norms and due process rights, recognized nationally and espoused internationally by the State of Pakistan.
Idris Khattak is a human rights defender whose work includes documenting and advocating against human rights violations in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He has been at the forefront of the human rights movement in the region and has been particularly outspoken on issues minority rights and freedoms.
In the second segment of the Episode we talked about the persecution of the parents of PTM leader Gulalai Ismail for human rights activism, which is unprecedented example of transnational repression of a Pakistani citizen in exile.
In this episode, we have talked about the upcoming Senate Elections of Pakistan, the Presidential Reference in the Supreme Court and the PTI-led govt's attempts to subvert the Constitution of Pakistan.
The podcast currently has 12 episodes available.