| HelpCounts.org is an initiative to increase awareness and action towards improving the social welfare, justice, and human rights of citizens. The are currently collecting signatures for a petition for the restoration of the Constitution, and the freedom of Judiciary and Press in Pakistan. | 
|
Lets not forget these shameful images, they represent a problem far beyond (now civilian) Musharraf or the current state of emergency. Can innocent protesters in any civilized society be beaten like this by police? Can helpless females (who happened to be sisters of a national hero Imran Khan) be manhandled by male police officers in a civilized world?
The video continues to talk about how Imran Khan feared for his life in Jail and also interviews Jamima Khan in the middle. This should serve as a wakeup call for the Pakistani society. The worst part is that its not only Musharraf who could have ordered such brutality, but any person in power can unleash these uneducated police officers on the common man. What we need is not just freedom from the state of emergency and freedom from Musharraf, but we need to review the very definition of human rights in the country and then take measures to strictly enforce laws to protect basic human rights.
Musharraf took off his uniform today, and will start a new term as a civilian president tomorrow. The retirement of Musharraf as chief of army is the most significant development in Pakistan since the "first" coup of 1999. BBC News has a good summary of this development. Gen Kiyani takes over as the military's new top gun, a post that history has shown us to be more powerful than the President or the Prime Minister in Pakistan.
Jemima Khan was spotted (18th Nov) leading anti-emergency protests outside the Downing Street. Photo courtesy of a LUMS Alumni who was part of the demonstration.
This specific protest was also aimed at the release of, Pakistan's cricket legend turned politician, Imran Khan and other innocent lawyers and political workers being held up in jails. Imran Khan was released from jail some days back - don't know how much effect such protests had in his release, but every drop counts.
LUMS is involved in hosting the TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) business plan competition. The structure of the competition is similar to other business plan competitions, especially the famous MIT 100K competition. A total of USD 16k will be given out in awards. Although the deadline for submissions has passed for this year, but we still wanted to bring this exciting initiative to the notice of the LUMS family. TiE’s Lahore Chapter was established in 2002 by Syed Babar Ali and is housed at LUMS. For more details see businessplan.pk.
... and he thinks he will save us all - think again.
BBC News has this article, covering the (continued) student protests against emergency. These student protests have taken most people by surprise, as they were largely unexpected from what is seen as a young apolitical milieu. "Since Gen Musharraf imposed emergency rule, the LUMS students and campus have been at the forefront of anti-emergency protests." |
|
|
The LUMS Alumni Department is organizing some casual sports on the day after the homecoming i.e. Sunday December 16th. They are considering setting up volleyball and tennis matches in the afternoon. If you and your friends want to participate, confirm your interest at amnaa AT lums (edu and pk of course) latest by December 05, 2007. |
We talked about the LUMS Alumni Homecoming'07 a couple of weeks back. We recently heard that, the popular Pakistani band, Strings will perform on the homecoming. A Strings concert will definitely help in making the homecoming a success and we are looking forward to the event. Meanwhile, below is a video of "Najane Kyun" by Strings that was part of the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack.
This interesting commentary discusses how the democratic presidential candidates are slating new strategies for Pakistan and, more importantly, how they all have got their analysis flat wrong.
| The University of Bradford (UK) has launched a campaign to free its Chancellor, Imran Khan, from imprisonment in his home nation. | 
|
|
Umar Saif at LUMS is experimenting with a way to download large files faster by avoiding the Internet in developing regions. This research, dubbed "Poor Man's Broadband", recently got featured on the New Scientist. If you are in US, UK or Canada, you could probably get a copy off the shelf. This project was funded by Microsoft Research's Digital Inclusion Grant. |
| Sometimes the best way to get the "real" picture of what's going on is by listening to locals instead of watching news channels or reading newspapers. This is what BBC has tried to do by publishing this article, in which Pakistani readers describe what life is like under emergency rule. |
|
|
Fatima Bhutto, 25 years old niece of Benazir Bhutto, is getting some media coverage these days. She got interviewed on CNN yesterday and her article, highly critical of "the aunt", appeared in LA Times a few days back. She is a (badly needed) fresh face on the political scene of Pakistan and so far she has not given us any reason to hate her as such. She has officially not entered politics though, but is expected to do so soon. Keep an eye out for the young Bhutto, for starters she doesn't owe Pakistan $1.5 billion like her aunt. |
Altaf Hussain says in this video (if you can look past the dramatic/funny accent) that the partition of India was the biggest blunder ever.
| Benazir Bhutto is enjoying massive media coverage these days. Lets go back in time and see what was she famous for a decade back. |
|
| Well yes you guessed it right, the only way there could be a case study on Zardari is his corruption (apparently thats the only other significant thing he has done in his life apart from marrying Benazir Bhutto). On November 9, 1999, the US Senate released this report on investigations hearing on private banking and money laundering. |
|
Zardari is one of the four case studies (making us proud indeed).
They're using Zardari as a case study on bad banking practices and how people like him operate. This excerpt from the report (*.PDF), talks only about Zardari. Here are some interesting points from the report:
We have another issue with the husband of Ex-Prime Minister Bhutto of Pakistan. I do not yet understand the facts but I am inclined to think that we made a mistake. More reason than ever to rework our Private Bank."
Still want Benazir Bhutto as prime minister?
|
We recently talked about the media hype about Pakistan being the most dangerous country in the world. This post is going to present (and debunk) a related myth about Pakistan, which is floating around in the media these days.
"Implosion in Pakistan could lead to a Taliban regime with a nuclear arsenal." |
LUMS students continue their non-violent protests with hunger strikes and candlelight vigils.
| Newsweek recently published a cover story on how the most dangerous country in the world is Pakistan, not Iraq. Anyone who has ever lived in Pakistan or visited it or has friends who have lived there can easily see the media hype Newsweek was trying to generate out of this baseless cover story. What was refreshing to see however, was this article in BBC News that does a good job at giving some perspective on how absurd is the thought of "Pakistan is the most dangerous country". |
|
| The Harvard Law School has decided to award Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry its highest honor: The Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom. See this press release. The only way Mush can top Justice Chaudry now is by winning the Noble Peace Prize. What are the chances of that happening? | 
|
Check out this article, about depoliticized campuses stirring into action under emergency rule.
"The accounting majors at the elite Lahore University of Management Sciences have rarely demonstrated against anything."
These are not your ordinary Pakistani teens ...
These high school students, probably, belong to the "highest" strata of the Pakistani society and the police knows that. They are not manhandled or beaten up with sticks when pushed inside police vans. In Pakistan, the list of people the police can manhandle might include white-collar lawyers, but not these kids. There is considerable hesitance from the police in the beginning and looks like later on they got the green light from someone very high up to round up these kids. This is a scene you would not normally see in Pakistan, a country where some people are more equal than others and the Islamabadi elite definitely qualify for that.
This rounding up means that Musharraf and his close allies are willing to deal with pissed off high ranking government officials and businessmen on the detention of their kids, but they will not allow a small innocent protest by school children in the capital. A clear sign of desperation, which is only going to turn more and more people against him.
Kudos to these little souls who seem to have a better sense of civic duty than most of the people in the capital. The students were released after two hours, we are told. The youngest student rounded up was just 12 years old and they were detained even after they agreed to disperse and were on their way back home. A news story about this incident is here.
"Girti hui Deewar Ko, Eik Dhakka Aur do!"People at the back like myself couldn't properly hear what was being said in front, but happily responded:
(Give another push to an already falling wall).
"Nahin Chalay Gi, Nahin Chalay gi"to what was being said in the front.
(Will not be accepted, Will not be accepted)
"Sir, I have excellent footage of the whole protest, but if I put it up on YouTube with my name, I have heard that the intelligence will take me away. What do I do?"He said this such an innocent and urgent sense of concern and confusion, that my heart just melted. Furrukh said coordinate with other students who took videos and come up with a joint strategy. I suggested that students might black out very clearly visible faces, and upload the video under a name such as XYZ. And he nodded, repeated XYZ after me as if that was significant, and in a way that made it clear that he hadn't thought of a false name. I also said make sure you put good keywords in the title, like emergency, protests, LUMS. And again he just repeated after me -- he still seemed so overwhelmed with all that he had seen. I then told him that I am an alumni and many people in my batch are damn proud of you all, and eagerly waiting for more videos.
This (nicely done) video shows a sharp contrast between what we teach our children in school everyday and what is currently happening in the country.
The video features a poem that school children in Pakistan sing daily in the morning with added clips from the recent fall of judiciary. The content is in Urdu, but you don't really need to understand the lyrics to get the message.
| Looking at the recent posts it might look as if we, at the LUMS Alumni Blog, are explicitly supporting Imran Khan as the next political leader in the country. What we are rather promoting is the need for change - be it Imran Khan or any one else who has not yet been tried and tested in a position of high political power. |
|
Benazir Bhutto has been in office twice, first from Dec'88 to Aug'90 and the second time from July'93 to Nov'96, and both times she was brought down on charges of corruption.
Nawaz Sharif has also been in office twice, first from Nov'90 to July'93 and the second time from Feb'97 to Oct'99. His corruption record is far from being clear, but is not as bad as Benazir Bhutto. First time he was brought down due to internal power struggle with the then president and the second time he was brought down because of internal power struggle with the then chief of army staff Pervez Musharraf (who is still the army chief).
More than eight years after the first military coup by Musharraf one would think that the Pakistan's political picture would have changed since then, but that doesn't seem to be the case. PPP (Benazir's party) and PML-N (Nawaz's party) still seem to gather the largest political support in the country and the International media is hailing Benazir as the "political savior" (a fact which is disgusting to say the least).
How can any rational person refuse to see that both these individuals and their respective parties have been tried and tested multiple times and no progress would ever be made if we stick with these (corrupt and incompetent) leaders forever.
There is a dire need for change and yes Imran Khan is one strong candidate in our view. We have not consciously decided to explicitly support only him and we are open to any new face. What we have rather consciously decided is to NOT support the failures of the past.
Imran Khan appreciates the recent reaction from LUMS students ...
Imran Khan is currently hiding from police and in this interview (language is Urdu not English) he talks about various issues concerning the current political situation. Imran mentions LUMS in the interview and talks about how the reaction from the student body of an institution like LUMS symbolizes the forthcoming winds of change.
At one point in the interview he talks about how certain media policies were proving to be uncomfortable for the local population. These comments might seem odd coming from Imran Khan who is largely viewed as a liberal democrat and in fact there has been some criticism of these comments. What the viewers need to keep in mind is that he was not advocating media censorship, rather he was just advocating the responsibility of media to be sensitive to local cultures and to avoid offending them in any way.
| With the crackdown on print media, LUMS students have started an online publication - The Emergency Times - trying to create awareness and share stories. The 9th Nov 2007 version is available here (*.PDF). In general you can find an updated version here. |
|
An image from the LUMS protest (shown above) was on the front page of the New York Times for a while, and is now achieved here.
"Whether the government is right or wrong, the involvement of LUMS students in protests does reflect the opinion of an influential segment of society."
|
Will it work this time? All these protests, with all the risk they are taking – will it mean something? Will it be different this time? On one side people are saying that the recent events have changed the face of the top universities of Pakistan - that will not go away easily. The recent events have changed the upper middle class of Pakistan - that will not go away easily either. We hope that is the case, but ... |
|
|
LUMS will be hosting the Alumni Annual Homecoming on Saturday December 15, 2007. Registration forms are available here (*.doc). There has been some debate on the date of the homecoming with some alumni abroad feeling left out of the event. |
The "homecoming date debate" has been going on for around 2 years now. Basically the alumni abroad come to Pakistan typically in the dates between Dec 15th and Jan 15th and most people come for 2-3 weeks. Last year (2006) the homecoming was in November and most Alumni abroad missed it and then LUMS had to host a separate (small) event for them.
This year the situation is ironic as the date has (finally) been shifted to the appropriate time (Dec 15th - Jan 15th) but it is EXACTLY on Dec 15th and most of alumni abroad will land in Pakistan some days after Dec 15th.
LUMS side of the story is that keeping the homecoming in December provides a lot of operational problems (wedding season, internal clash with convocation) and this year Eid complicated things as well. We understand that the people at the homecoming department try their best to accommodate all of us and they get a lot of emails with each group stating their convenience, but maybe more importance should be given to the alumni abroad. The local alumni get to see each other more often to begin with and LUMS needs to foster it's international relations - for which the alumni abroad play a crucial role. Maybe from next year the alumni department can conduct a simple online survey before deciding on the date.
In any case the program for the evening sounds exciting (you know the drill) and is as follows:
| Date: | Saturday, December 15, 2007 |
| Time: | 7:00 pm |
| Program: | Group Photograph Welcome Addresses Dinner Concert |
| Venue: | LUMS, Library Lawn |
| Dress Code: | Formal/ Smart Casual |
We hope the homecoming is a success regardless of the date debate!
| Yale Law School has released an official statement denouncing, in the strongest terms, the recent assault on the rule of law in Pakistan. |
|
LUMS ex-faculty member Jeff Redding, who is currently a research fellow at Yale Law School, brought this release to our attention.
There is police outside LUMS gates demanding arrests of some students. News coverage by DAWN is here.
When the LUMS faculty members were released, we started debating the apolitical role of LUMS; thinking that maybe now the LUMS protests will (or maybe should) die down. Earlier, in trying to get the faculty released LUMS students held non-violent protests inside the LUMS campus and sent iReports to CNN. Apparently, local police identified around 15 students (maybe from the videos) and are demanding their arrest by gathering outside the LUMS gates. There are rumors of local police calling help from other authorities (possibly rangers and the army). This is a provocative act by the local authorities and the situation could easily escalate beyond control.
Imran Khan talks about the current "emergency crisis" in Pakistan.
|
While we encourage freedom of speech and open debate, LUMS - the institute - has always remained apolitical. Some alumni think that the decision to drag LUMS into politics (as evident by the official press release) is myopic, unwise and not strategic. Do you agree? |
These alumni think that LUMS should as a strategy remain an apolitical institution and stay above this all - even given the recent arrests of faculty. Politicizing the institution will in the long run be its undoing, similar to our past renowned educational institutions, which chose the same path. They think that its tragic that personal opinions and political actions of individuals/faculty are being endorsed by the institution. The decision of faculty members to protest against a dictatorship was their personal decision and not taken in representation of LUMS and thus LUMS cannot venture into politics in trying to protect them.
But where do we really draw the line between the institute and its members? Don't the members make up the institute to begin with? and can't we even issue an official condemnation of the arrest of faculty members? We would appreciate your views on this debate. Please keep in mind that the main point of these alumni is that do whatever you want on an individual basis, but don't drag anything "official" into it.
Video of Imran Khan talking (sense) on issues relating Pakistan - a broadcast by Dateline SBS TV (Australia) on Aug 16, 2007.
Why hasn't Imran (with his political party) emerged as the, badly needed, "right" leader in the eyes of people and media?
|
Social networking sites are playing an increasingly important role in the current emergency situation in Pakistan. Facebook - a social networking site - is helping people share news items, express views and even organize peaceful non-violent protests like "7.00 Vigil for Freedom". |
| All LUMS faculty arrested by the police has been released and they are back. Thanks to everyone who helped bringing attention to this event and who raised their voice against it. |  |
CNN featured the protest at LUMS against the detention of faculty members and declaration of emergency.
| LUMS has issued an official press release in connection with the arrest and detention of Dr. Ali Cheema and Mr. Bilal Minto. The press release is available on the LUMS website and also as a PDF file. |
|
On November 4th one of Pakistan's most notable economist Dr. Ali Cheema was arrested (shown in the picture) and detained by Musharraf's police forces. Prof. Cheema is a Professor and Head of Economics Department at LUMS, he is a Rhodes Scholar and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
He has been a consultant to the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and has served on high level Federal Government committees. This arrest has disturbed the entire LUMS family and has sparked strong condemnation by students and alumni both in and outside the country.
Up to 500 people have been arrested and detained as military ruler President Pervez Musharraf tries to stifle outcry over the emergency measures. The picture shows Asim Sajjad, a lecturer at LUMS, about to be arrested. These images have shocked the entire LUMS family.
You can watch the video of this event here.
