There's a good piece of analysis in the New York Times making the obvious point that if the enactment of martial law was to help crack down on terrorism, diverting thousands of police to arrest lawyers, NGO workers, human rights workers and opposition political party workers is a funny way to do it. And although I do think there are some ( Read more... )

NOV 6thWord is that the rest of the HRCP detainees have been released on bail... but rumours are they were charged under the Terrorism Act (we don't know the specific charges yet). We have also heard that over a thousand lawyers who have been arrested have also been charged under the Terrorism Act but have not yet been released ( Read more... )

Hey, I heard there was a coup on Saturday. Yeah, General Musharraf overthrew President Musharraf.

Saturday there was a suicide attack on the media and the judiciary. The targets died, the attacker survived.

(When a bunch of exhausted friends discuss throwing a "martial law" party) Hey everyone, let's party like it's 1999 ( Read more... )

We received some bad news about the people that Devin was detained with. Although an agreement had been negotiated to release them today, there was some complication or change in the plan and they're now being sent to Kot Lokhpat, one of the city jails. The rumor is that the detainees were being brought before a magistrate and that one or two ( Read more... )

While Devin and I are safe at home, the arrests continue. Hundreds of lawyers and others were arrested both Lahore and Islamabad this morning as they gathered, attempting a protest. Apparently the police didn't arrest many (any?) students as a majority were from LUMS, a prestigious school likely to have students from powerful families. Some of ( Read more... )

Note: this entry will be made friends-only within a short while...

LISTEN: Democracy Now (28 MB .mp3), Devin was interviewed on today's show about 12 minutes into the broadcast; FSRN (12 MB .mp3 - D's feature is after the headlines ( Read more... )

wow, i just read some comments on the bbc's website asking for reader opinions regarding the situation in pakistan. i was astonished and angered to see how many westerners see this as a) a good thing and, b) some kind of bizarre continuation of the transition to democracy (????? yes, i always saw martial law, suspension of basic rights, expulsion ( Read more... )

(UPDATE: By evening -- reports that hundreds of preventative detentions are taking place including many human rights actvists were detained today upon simply meeting privately to discuss the situation.)

According to reports this morning, a number of prominent lawyers and journalists have been detained, including my (D's) boss at the Human Rights ( Read more... )

It was a typical, quiet Saturday evening. We just got home from a shopping trip to pick up a few housewares. Devin loaded BBC to see what's going on in the world and, low and behold, discovers that emergency rule has been declared in Pakistan. We turned on the television to get the breaking news, but all new stations except for the state run ( Read more... )

We've all heard it before: Bay Watch and Jerry Springer are exported around the planet and played ad nauseum on global cable channels. As highly salient cultural ambassadors, such media perpetuates skewed versions of American culture (all vapid titillation and dysfunctional drama, all the time)... so the argument goes. I can't count the times I' ( Read more... )