The Emergency Times Feb 3rd, 2007 1

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The Emergency Times

Quote of the Day

“To sin is a human business. To justify sins is a devilish business.”
- Leo Tolstoy

SAC Members brutally attacked at Punjab College, Lahore

Today, the true nature of the establishment was unleashed in full colors. As a sequel to yesterday's assault against a PU teacher and an
activist, both senior advisors for the Student Action Committee, by the Punjab College guards, today, the administration of the same
university detained and brutally beat up four people, representative of the Student Action Committee (Lahore) including one female.
A Punjab University faculty member, a Fast faculty member, two students and a seasoned female activist returned outside Punjab
College in the morning to distribute flyers amongst the students. While engaging with students, none were on college property but
were maintaining a distance by remaining on the green belt next to the Canal Road.
More than a dozen private guards, acting on the Principals orders grabbed them and without any hesitation, dragged all four of them,
including the lady, and a driver, through the school corridors, where students were witness to this disgraceful act. The female activist
was dragged so forcefully that she lost her balance and fell, only to be violently dragged up. These four SAC representatives and the
driver were locked in a room, without any justifications.
While in detention, the men were beaten up by the Punjab College faculty members, guards and those who seemed like hired thugs.
The assault was so severe that the PU faculty member on the receiving end was bleeding profusely. The other young man who was
also detained was mercilessly pounded upon by a dozen men, whereupon he lost consciousness and sustained respiratory loss and had
to be rushed to the Sheikh Zahid Hospital emergency.
Their personal belongings: cell phones and a valuable camera were also forcefully snatched from them, only to be returned after
external intervention.
While they were kept inside, a SAC member came to Punjab College to rescue them. More than ten guards threatened him, and
surrounded him, only to step back when he dialed 15 for police help.
After almost one hour of illegal imprisonment and harsh thrashing, the four were released.
When these SAC (Lahore) representatives were disrespectfully let out, the battered and bruised entourage proceeded to the Muslim
Town police station with hopes for legal retribution. At the station, they were interrogated repeatedly, yet no FIR was registered nor
was it in the offing.
After much convincing by lawyers and students, the SP decided that everyone should convene at the 'crime scene' for further
investigations. By this time, evening had fallen.
At Punjab College, the administration upon noticing the arrival of the four people they had earlier beaten up along with forty SAC
(Lahore) members, hid the guards responsible for the brutality earlier as to keep the police from interrogating them.
At the venue, the SAC members raised slogans asking for justice and student freedom when the DSP Rana Azeem showed up, instead
of the SP as was promised.
It would seem as Punjab College is owned by the District Nazim, the police was trying to play down the atrocities by the college and
its administration. After SAC convinced the police to conduct an investigation as legal procedure would dictate, the DSP accompanied
by the female activist who had been harassed at Punjab College earlier, her lawyers and a SAC member who was recording the
activist's narrative went inside the college premises to see the room where the four people were detained.
The Punjab College administration ordered the guards to barricade the way to the room, and locked the gates leading up to it. When
the lawyers and the female activist demanded to show the DSP the room, the Punjab College administration launched into baseless
conspiracy theories against the four SAC representatives they had beaten up.
After the faculty and administration shouted expletives and used extremely foul language, the lawyers, activist and the SAC
representative walked out, only to be apprehended at the gate. The SAC representative, a female, was accused of taking photographs
inside the college without permission. When she denied this, and showed she had no camera on her, more than a dozen men
surrounded her and threatened physically frisk her and confiscate her cell phone.
Finally both the females were let out, to a waiting SAC representation, which dispersed to the press club for further statements.
The Student Action Committee would also like to condemn the arrest of Aitzaz Ahsan who had been under house arrest for 90 days
and had been released a day before being re-arrested.
Disclaimer: This publication is not affiliated with or does not endorse any political party or social group.
It is a humble effort to inspire and make aware- for we together can make a difference in these
troubled times.
Write to us at theemergencytimes@gmail.com. Our online version is on
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com
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The rally at Nasser Bagh where Aitzaz addressed hundreds of people, from across the social spectrum, was testament to the fact that
Aitzaz is viewed as one of the forerunners of the movement to restore the judiciary.
Hamid Zaman (CCP), Hina Jillani (lawyer), Amir Jalal (SAC) and many other notable figures addressed the crowd and asked them to
stand united in this struggle to reinstate the pre Nov. 3rd judiciary which is viewed as the first step towards the restoration of
democracy.
The SAC (lahore) urges all citizens of Pakistan to come forth and take the control of the direction this nation is taking and help avert
further violations of our basic rights.
Tomorrow at 1 pm, at the press club, the Student Action Committee, along with other supporters will hold a protest against the
brutality of the Punjab College establishment.

Aitzaz and Justice (r) Tariq detained yet again

Pakistani authorities Saturday detained Aitzaz Ahsan again, a day after he was released from three months in detention. Ahsan was
first detained under emergency powers that Musharraf invoked on November 3. He was freed late Thursday in Lahore, but was again
placed under house arrest shortly after trying to fly to Benazir's home province of Sindh to express condolences over her assassination
to her husband, Asif Ali Zardari.

“Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan has been detained for 30 days,” a senior home ministry official in Lahore told Reuters. He did not give a reason for
the detention. Authorities renewed detention orders for senior opposition lawyer Tariq Mehmood and placed him under house arrest in
Islamabad. “These orders have no legal and constitutional justification. In fact, there is no law and constitution prevailing in the
country,” Mehmood said.

Nawaz to pursue Missing People’s Cases

(Courtesy DAWN)

LAHORE, Feb 2 (AP) Former premier Nawaz Sharif pledged Saturday to pursue the cases of hundreds of missing people and
prosecute those responsible if his party wins the February 18 parliamentary elections. “No government agency or official has a
mandate to keep people in illegal confinement,” Sharif told about 100 relatives of people missing and believed to be held illegally by
intelligence agencies. “They are accountable for their misdeeds before the court of law.”

The relatives, including women, children and elderly men, held placards and portraits of their loved ones as they gathered in a tent in
front of Sharif's residence in Lahore. Sharif told the relatives he was optimistic about his party’s chances in the February 18 balloting,
after which all the judges removed by Musharraf would be returned to the bench. “The first thing would be restoration of the
independent judiciary,” he said.

Pakistani Literati speak out against ongoing crisis

(Courtesy DAWN)

A meeting of writers and poets was held here this evening under the auspices of South Asia Policy Analysis Network (SAPANA) at
the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) media centre to discuss the role of writers in the present crisis through which the
country is passing.

The consensus of opinion agreed with poet Ahmad Faraz who was chairing the discussion that writers should actively participate in
the protest and that it was not just enough, as some writers thought, to express their defiance in their writings only.

Masud Mufti, poet Kishwar Naheed, writer Mansha Yaad and left ideologue Prof Yousaf Hassan were unanimous in their opposition to
the policies that have brought the country to this worst crisis of its existence.

Disclaimer: This publication is not affiliated with or does not endorse any political party or social group.
It is a humble effort to inspire and make aware- for we together can make a difference in these
troubled times.
Write to us at theemergencytimes@gmail.com. Our online version is on
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com
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Ahmad Faraz disagreed with the view that the crisis Pakistan was facing was part of the turbulent times the world was passing
through. He said Pakistan was one of those few countries where American interference had created a situation of destabilisation.

He said the writer could not be a passive spectator in a situation like the present one. He had to move with the time and lend his full
active support to the movement of the civil society.

In response to a point raised by a participant regarding social ostracising of writers who were in some way connected with the
establishment, he said one could be in government service and still keep his or her conscience alive and refuse to act unlawfully. He
said it was time the writer replaced the ink of his pen with blood.

Mansha Yaad said that societies which remained quiet and indifferent to injustice only helped prolong their misery. He said not only
the writer but all sections of society should rise against oppression.

He referred to one of his stories in which he had portrayed the consequences of social indifference.

Kishwar Nahid who was unwell and whom the doctor had told not to listen to news or watch TV and had suggested she retired to
some nearby jungle for solace, said she had told the doctor that was exactly where she was living and yet there was no peace.

She from a short essay the history of resistant literature and writers who suffered incarceration and all kinds of difficulties and even
torture as a result of their opposition to previous military regimes.

The writer could not escape his responsibility to stand up and join the stream of popular sentiment.

Masud Mufti cited instances from the history of intellectual resistance such as one saw in the example of Albert Camus, Jean- Paul
Sartre, Milan Kundera, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and others to illustrate the role writers had played in times of national crises and particularly
against oppression and injustice.

However he felt the absence of the writers from the current situation in Pakistan. They had no physical presence in the protest
activities. In fact foreign writers had a stronger voice against our establishment than the indigenous literati. He blamed this lack of
spirit on the influence of the literary bodies under government control.

Long Shadows
Dr. Murad Moosa Khan
‘When small men cast long shadows, the sun is going down’ - Venita Cravens

On the way to the Hawkes Bay and Sandspit beaches is the village of Grax. Many of us stop there to buy cold drinks and eatables from the
small cabins present on either side of road. As part of the Community Mental Health program of my university we hold a mental health
clinic there. Although by the standards of 'katchi abadis', Grax is better than many others, the village has many social, physical and civic
deprivations. During one of our visits, the community health worker expressed concern about a girl who appeared 'mentally disturbed'. She
lived about a mile from the centre. We went to visit her at her house.
A small cordoned off area with two small rooms, a tree in the courtyard- a buffalo tied to it, a small area for the kitchen, a toilet with open
drains constituted the 'house'. Seventy five square yards, perhaps a little more. The father of the girl, was unemployed, the elder brother
suffering from some sort of 'mental imbalance'. A number of semi-clad children were milling about- presumably brothers and sisters. Their
only source of income was the buffalo.
The health worker was right. The girl did appear unwell. 'For the past three years', her mother told us, 'since the birth of her son'. He died a
month after being born. The girl talked to imaginary voices, felt frightened of others, laughed to herself. She had run out the house many
Disclaimer: This publication is not affiliated with or does not endorse any political party or social group.
It is a humble effort to inspire and make aware- for we together can make a difference in these
troubled times.
Write to us at theemergencytimes@gmail.com. Our online version is on
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com
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times. Unable to afford medicines or have her treated on a regular basis, the family had to keep her tied to the tree. The result- badly
infected wounds with pus and blood oozing out from both ankles.
Long abandoned by her husband- older than her by many years, she now lay on a straw matting in the corner of one of the two small
rooms, where she spent most of her time. She spat frequently, oblivious to her surroundings and appeared not to have had a wash in weeks.
Her shaven head gave her a strange, almost alien-like look. I try to engage her in conversation but she looks past me and laughs to herself. I
am unable to penetrate her secret world. I ask the mother the girl's age. 'Fifteen....', she says, and the words echo in my ears.
While we read about the fabulous growth rate of 7% and higher, the Karachi Stock Exchange breaking through the 14,000 points
barrier, the Porsche showroom opening in Lahore and of the economic ‘miracle’ that is today’s Pakistan, the picture on the ground tells
us a different story. The story of the girl I relate above is illustrative of the lives of millions of Pakistanis today. Officially, a third of us
live below the poverty line. Another quarter probably live just above it. That makes more than half of 165 million living in poverty.
That is a very large number of people. We have become a country of marginalized and disenfranchised people ruled by a small but a
powerful coterie who have concentrated wealth and power around themselves.
We are a nation of huge contradictions. We are a nuclear power but cannot pick the garbage off our streets. We have one the largest
standing military forces in world, yet we cannot provide security to our own people. A report in this newspaper few weeks ago
informed us that Rs. 65 million was spent on the medical treatment of 18 government ‘bigwigs’. Yet there are villages in Punjab where
every other man is carrying a scar on the side of his abdomen, because they had to sell their kidneys to pay off their debts. We have
one of the highest rates of child mortality, hepatitis, rabies, depression and cardiovascular diseases. More than 30,000 women die in
childbirth and more than 6000 people commit suicide every year. Millions of our countrymen, women and children are deprived of
basic necessities like clean drinking water, housing, education and health care. They have no recourse to justice. They have no rights.
This, sadly, is state of the real Pakistan in 21st century. While many other nations of the world continue to progress in an upward
direction, we- for every step forward, take two back. And underlying all our problems is a serious crisis of governance. Today,
corruption in Pakistan is not only institutionalized but, more worryingly, it is internalized as well. We have no qualms in not paying
taxes or breaking traffic lights or asking for bribes. Lying, cheating, cutting corners, trampling on rights of others, breaking the law
and having no remorse afterwards is an accepted norm. Corruption has now become an integral part of our national and collective
psyche.
This is not only obscene but unethical and immoral.
It is immoral to let young mothers die in childbirth as it is to not provide clean drinking water in every house. It is unethical to force
people to sell their body parts to pay off debts, as it is to not address the social conditions that force people to commit suicide. And it is
obscene to buy yet another Lear jet or another glass tinted Mercedes for the use of Ministers while hundreds and thousands live in
abject poverty.
Is there a way out of this morass? Can the sinking ship of this country be saved? Can something be done to help the young girl in Grax
and countless other silent sufferers like her? Yes it can be and must be. We need to declare an emergency in the education and health
sector. We need to do away with the corrupt feudal system. The military must go back to the barracks. We need to have respect for the
law and the constitution. Nepotism, favoritism and cronyism should attract the heaviest punishment as should corruption in any form,
shape or size. And all our processes must be strongly anchored in integrity. We have no time to lose.
This country was bequeathed by the Quaid to honest, hard working, law abiding and decent Pakistanis and not to the crooked and
corrupt, who trample on our rights, who have no respect for the law or the constitution and consider law unto themselves. Pakistanis
deserve better than this. All we want is to live a decent and a peaceful life, where our life and property are safe, where our children can
go to proper schools and if they fall sick, receive good medical care. Surely that is not asking for too much?
Let not the long shadows of small men be cast upon us. Let not the sun go down on this beautiful country that has immense natural
and human resources. We have to reclaim it from the corrupt and the crooked. The time to stand on the sidelines for us has long past.
We are paying the price of our own impassiveness. We have to raise our collective voice, whether we are doctors or engineers or
teachers or lawyers or accountants or housewives or students or shopkeepers or businessmen. We have to respond to the immortal
words of Pablo Neruda who said ‘Rise up with me----against the organisation of misery’.

The author is a Professor of Psychiatry at Aga Khan University. He can be reached at muradmk@gmail.com

Students raise funds for Jan 10 Blast victims

1st Feb, Friday - Students belonging to LUMS and the Students Action Committee raised over Rs. 190,000 for the victims of the Jan
10 bomb blast outside GPO. Today, the money was delivered to Aftab Sultan, AIG Punjab Police, responsible for Finance and Welfare.

Disclaimer: This publication is not affiliated with or does not endorse any political party or social group.
It is a humble effort to inspire and make aware- for we together can make a difference in these
troubled times.
Write to us at theemergencytimes@gmail.com. Our online version is on
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com
The Emergency Times Feb 3rd, 2007 5
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The money will now be equally disbursed between the families of the 16 servicemen and 3 civilians who lost their lives at the Jan 10
bomb blast. Students expressed grief over the loss of lives of both policemen and civilians and urged all people to stand together in
trouble times. Officers of the Punjab police welcomed this gesture and said that they were deeply moved by it.

Background: In the immediate aftermath of the Jan 10 bomb blast, at the initiative of the Student Action Committee, a Fund was set up
to help out victims' families and to express solidarity will all victims. Around Rs. 194,000 were raised, primarily from the LUMS
community. This gesture is particularly meaningful when seen in the light of recent events. LUMS community, which remained at the
forefront of civil society's resistance to martial law, has recently been subjected to harassment by the state, ranging from unlawful
arrest of LUMS professors, siege of the campus on Nov 7, heavy police presence at the LUMS gate throughout November and lodging
of a false FIR against LUMS professors and the President of its Student Council.

Despite all this, LUMS students and faculty member chose to express solidarity and sympathy with the deceased, mostly policemen,
and to condemn illegal violence

The students reiterated that while they vehemently criticize acts of state oppression (like the assault on the judiciary, besieging their
campus and lodging false FIRs), they harbor no enmity against ordinary people compelled to follow orders by their need to earn a
living. Also, they condemn all illegal acts of violence against citizens and ask that, in these troubled times, people stand together.

Pictures from the Nasser Bagh Rally on Saturday

Disclaimer: This publication is not affiliated with or does not endorse any political party or social group.
It is a humble effort to inspire and make aware- for we together can make a difference in these
troubled times.
Write to us at theemergencytimes@gmail.com. Our online version is on
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com