Pakistan's First Oscar - Cheers for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy wins Pakistan's first Oscar
By Amna Nawaz, NBC News Pakistan correspondent, Feb 27, 2012

It's being called "Pakistan's Oscar," but 33-year-old filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will be the one bringing the award home.

The Karachi native's latest film, "Saving Face," which chronicles the lives of acid attacks victims in Pakistan and the doctor working to help them, made history Sunday night at the 84th Academy Awards by winning Pakistan's first Oscar ever. The film was co-directed by American filmmaker Daniel Junge, and will air on HBO on March 8th.

Obaid-Chinoy accepted the award for Documentary Short Subject on stage and dedicated it to "all the women in Pakistan who are working for change – don't give up on your dreams."

Award for all Pakistanis

In an interview with NBC News in Karachi before leaving for the awards in Los Angeles, Obaid-Chinoy said she felt the support of the entire nation, and hoped she could make Pakistan proud by bringing home an Oscar. Some of her fans' reactions confirm she's done just that.

Immediately following her win, proud Pakistanis – watching early-morning satellite feeds of the awards ceremony halfway across the world – took to the web to share their glee and congratulate their fellow countryman. For a brief moment, "Saving Face" became one of the top ten trends, worldwide, on Twitter.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Visit : http://sharmeenobaidfilms.com/
2011: Five Pakistani Cultural Events You Might Have Missed - By Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Asia Society
Interview: Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the First Pakistani Oscar Nominee - By Nadia Rasul, Asia Society
Pakistan announces civil award for Chinoy - Dawn
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: One of a kind - Express Tribune
Iranian, Pakistani Filmmakers Win Oscars - Radio Free Europe

Understanding Political Parties of Pakistan !

Source: http://hasanayesha.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/info-graph-political-parties-pakistan/

Muslim States and Human Rights Issues: A Commendable Initiative

Global Human Rights Group Aims to Bridge Gap Between Islam and West
Ismira Lutfia | February 21, 2012, Jakarta Globe

Jakarta played host on Monday to the inaugural meeting of the human rights commission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an event that the commission said carried “profound historical significance.”

Indonesia’s deputy foreign minister, Wardana, said the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission of the OIC was expected to bridge the growing divide between the Muslim world and the West on the issue of human rights.

“Our hope is that this commission will be the engine that drives the reform process to transform the OIC into an organization that can effectively address the challenges facing the Muslim world,” he said.

“We also hope it can address the misunderstandings in both the Muslim world and the West about the compatibility between Islam, human rights and democracy.”

The IPHRC, agreed upon at a summit of OIC foreign ministers last June, has 18 commissioners, six each from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Four of them are women, including the Indonesian representative, Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin, and those from Malaysia, Afghanistan and Sudan.

The commission will serve in an advisory role and promote human rights in the OIC member states, which have a combined population of 1.3 billion Muslims.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the group’s secretary general, said the establishment of the rights commission was testament to the “moderation and modernization” of the OIC in the face of global challenges.

“This is a moment of profound historical significance,” he said.

Ihsanoglu said misconceptions about Muslim communities failing to respect human rights were feeding a rising Islamophobia worldwide and leading to greater discrimination against Muslims.

“While no country in the world can claim a perfect human rights record, there always is room for improvement, including in the OIC member states,” Ihsanoglu said.

“There is a motivated campaign at portraying Islam as inherently incompatible with international human rights norms and standards. I am of a firm belief that the case is exactly the opposite. Islam is not incompatible with human rights standards.”

He added that the human rights framework offered the “most plausible avenue of structured engagement” to address these misconceptions.

“An engagement geared toward removing misconceptions and promoting interfaith harmony. An engagement that could underwrite global peace,” he said.
For complete article, click here

Pakistan: Its Trials, Tribulations and its Beauty

Pakistan: Its Trials, Tribulations and its Beauty
As Pakistan's political crisis deepens, Anwar Akhtar, an expert in south Asian politics and culture, looks at everyday life in the tumultous country - and picks his top ten observations.
Channel 4, 14 February 2012

1 - Pakistan is not poor, despite the best efforts of some of the people running this country to make it so. It takes five hours to drive from Multan to Lahore, another four to then go to Islamabad, as far as the eye can see are the lush fields of the fertile Punjab agriculture belt, full of wheat, cotton, sugar cane, mangoes, and more citrus fruit then I can list.

There are massive opportunities for wider agricultural diversity and investment - Pakistan could be self-sufficient in food production but instead millions live in poverty, whilst feudal landlords export food on a mass scale to the Arab Gulf States.

2 - Travelling to visit relatives in Multan, Bahawlphur and remote villages near Ahmed Pur East, life is very different from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Some places seem unaffected by the 21st century power struggles of oil, gas pipelines and conflicts between rival clerical conglomerates - some USA backed, some not.

Villages I last visited over a decade ago have not changed since.

3 - The military, religious, feudal and political elites that run this country are either in denial or apathy regarding the severity of the multiple crises Pakistan faces. They display a shocking lack of regard for the welfare of the people. Pakistan’s problems are vast and well documented, but there is also an extraordinary resilience of the people here, both in the cities and the villages.

Despite sectarian tensions and troubles, Karachi is an adrenalin-fuelled economic engine - a mega-city port of huge potential. There are countless civil society organisations, small and large businesses, a mind-boggling array of media organisations, TV channels, bloggers, campaigning journalists, young film makers, welfare and charitable networks.

There are both small and mini welfare states such as the Edhi Foundation, The Citizen's Foundation, Human Rights Commission Pakistan, Simorgh Women's Welfare Project and many educational and cultural institutions doing amazing work. The gravity defying logic of this is the subject of countless books, articles and academic papers, but it's there for any visitor to Pakistan to see for themselves.

For complete article, click here

Book Launch in New York: Aboard the Democracy Train in Pakistan

Pakistan: Choosing Between Democracy and Dictatorship ?

Pakistani Meltdown: Choosing Between Democracy and Dictatorship

CNP discussion with Hassan Abbas, Shuja Nawaz and Moeed Yusuf

Centre for National Policy, Washington DC,  February 7, 2012

The high stakes struggle for power between the civilian, military and intelligence institutions in Pakistan has significant implications for the future of US-Pakistani relations. CNP President Scott Bates and a panel of experts discussed what the constitutional crisis in Pakistan means for the war in Afghanistan, regional stability, nuclear security and the struggle against Al Qaeda.

For video of the event, click here

Crisis in Baluchistan and the US-Pakistan Relations

Excerpts
US Congressional hearing may spell trouble for Pakistan
Malik Siraj Akbar, Dawn, February 6, 2012

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Washington DC and the author of The Redefined Dimensions of the Baloch Nationalist Movement

The United States (US) Committee on Foreign Affairs is set to convene a congressional hearing on Wednesday (February 8), for an exclusive discussion on Balochistan.

The extraordinary event has generated great interest among followers of Pakistan-US relations, as the allies’ mutual relationship seems to be deteriorating. The powerful House of Representatives committee oversees America’s foreign assistance programs and experts believe it can recommend halting US assistance to Pakistan over human rights violation in Balochistan.

Calls for ‘independence’While Islamabad has strictly treated Balochistan as an internal matter, the debate on such a divisive topic by the powerful committee has highlighted the level of American interest in Balochistan and its support, if any, for the nationalist movement. On its part, Pakistan has kept Washington at arm’s length on the Balochistan issue, by refusing to grant it permission to open a consulate in Quetta.

A Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who recently co-authored an article with Congressman Louie Gohmert expressing support for an independent Balochistan, will chair the hearing.
“Perhaps we should even consider support for a Balochistan carved out of Pakistan to diminish radical power there (in Pakistan),” Rohrabacher wrote in his piece.

According to Asia-Pacific Reporting Blog, “it is expected that the hearing will tackle issues related to whether or not the US Congress should tie human rights issues in Balochistan to Pakistani aid.”

Witness box
Another area of interest is of the controversial witnesses who will testify before the committee. The three-member panel comprises of defence analyst Ralph Peters, Georgetown assistant professor, C. Christine Fair and Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan Director of the Human Rights Watch.
Ironically, the panel on Balochistan does not include a Baloch representative, an issue which has disappointed the Baloch diaspora in the United States, who fear the misinterpretation of their stance by people they view as unfamiliar with the Baloch conflict.

.......

Routine matter
Hassan Abbas, a scholar based in Washington DC who until recently was Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor at Columbia University in New York, seriously doubts if the US will officially support Baloch nationalists at this time as this will complicate US-Pakistan relations.

“I think the hearing is a routine matter as all security related issues in Pakistan are being analysed in the policy world with keen interest as well as concern. The hearing will discuss human rights issue as well as politics,” says Abbas, who is also a Senior Advisor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, “but the hearing itself will not create any serious diplomatic row. The US Congress must listen and understand that there is a variety of perspectives on the subject.”

Dr Ahmed, meanwhile, attributes the deepening crisis in Balochistan to Islamabad’s failure to understand that time is running out for it.

“The leaders of Pakistan are so focussed on the power struggles in Islamabad that they seem to have little will or imagination to deal with the urgent issues that concern the country’s largest province of Balochistan.”

How will Islamabad respond to the hearing?
“Pakistan’s establishment is quite sensitive about the Balochistan crisis and they will follow the hearings closely and sceptically,” says Hassan Abbas, whose book Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism was published in 2005.

According to Abbas, hawkish elements in Pakistani media are likely to create a lot of hue and cry over the hearing. Yet he cautions, “They will serve Pakistan better by focussing on projecting the concerns of the ordinary Baloch people, who are disenfranchised, distressed and increasingly getting disenchanted.” ......

For complete article, click here