Why no social security?

4 Comments | Posted on May 16, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

By Zubeida Mustafa

THERE was a time when it was widely believed that Karachi’s roads were paved with gold. Anyone who came here could make a fortune — even if it was a small one.

This may have been true to an extent when the pace of industrialisation was fast and urbanisation slow. The trickle of labour from the countryside was easily absorbed into the formal employment sector.

The situation has now changed totally. This stark reality emerged painfully at a conference held earlier this month in Karachi.

Jointly organised by the Pakistan Study Centre and Piler (Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research), the event was designed to commemorate three decades of Piler’s fine work for the rights of labour. Continue reading →

4 Comments| Posted in Development and Poverty, Economy, Human Rights, Labour, New |

Courage in Journalism Awards: IWMF Selects Outstanding 2012 Winners

1 Comment | Posted on May 11, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

An imprisoned Ethiopian newspaper columnist wrongly convicted of treason after criticizing the government, a Palestinian writer threatened and beaten for covering politics in Gaza and a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Azerbaijani investigative reporter targeted in a smear campaign after reporting on corruption are the IWMF’s 2012 Courage in Journalism Award winners.

Reeyot Alemu, 31, a columnist for the Ethiopian newspaper Feteh, is in prison for 14 years after being convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and participation in a terrorist organization. Asmaa al-Ghoul, 30, a Palestinian blogger and writer, regularly receives death threats and has been beaten by Hamas security forces while covering protests. Khadija Ismayilova, 35, a talk show host on RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service who covers corruption and abuse of power by the government elite, was threatened and had surveillance cameras planted in her apartment in an effort to silence her.

Pakistani media pioneer Zubeida Mustafa — the first woman reporter at Dawn English-language newspaper who promoted women’s equality in the newsroom — is the IWMF’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Continue reading →

1 Comment| Posted in Media, Women |

Award for former Dawn staffer

5 Comments | Posted on May 11, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

FORMER Dawn staffer Zubeida Mustafa has been awarded the International Women’s Media Foundation’s annual Lifetime Achievement Award. The IWMF’s announcement of this year’s winner came on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which was observed recently.

The Lifetime Achievement Award “recognises a woman journalist who has a pioneering spirit and whose determination has paved the way for women in the news media”. Continue reading →

5 Comments| Posted in Media, Women |

Zubeida Mustafa’s pen power praised

1 Comment | Posted on May 11, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

KARACHI, May 8: Friends and former colleagues paid rich tributes to senior journalist Zubeida Mustafa at a gathering held to celebrate the International Women’s Media Foundation’s (IWMF) annual Lifetime Achievement Award, which she was recently honoured with.

The programme organised by Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) on its premises on Tuesday included mention of the late journalist Razia Bhatti, who won the IWMF award for Courage in Journalism in 1994. Continue reading →

1 Comment| Posted in Media, Women |

The pleasure of reading

16 Comments | Posted on May 9, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

By Zubeida Mustafa

IN a country where a commonly voiced lament is that we are not a society of book readers, any effort to get people interested in literary pursuits is a feat in itself.

From time to time, the National Book Foundation (NBF) has made efforts to promote the reading habit. Its latest move — previously it had appointed ‘book ambassadors’ and honoured authors — has been to institute the Bibliophile of the Year award. For 2011, Ghazi Salahuddin, a senior and competent journalist and for many years my colleague at Dawn, has been named the winner. Continue reading →

16 Comments| Posted in Books, Education |

Physician, heal thyself

6 Comments | Posted on May 2, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

By Zubeida Mustafa

AS inflation spirals in Pakistan, the one most seriously affected is the common man. Decent healthcare is said to be beyond the reach of the overwhelming majority. But one man’s meat is another man’s poison and some are benefiting from the misery of the poor.

One beneficiary of this state of affairs is the pharmaceutical sector. The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) website describes its growth of the past decade as a “success story”. It goes on to add: “About half the population has no access to modern medicines. Clearly, this presents an opportunity.”

According to the PPMA, the value of pharmaceuticals sold in Pakistan was over $1.4bn in 2007 and is expected to exceed $2.3bn in 2012. Sixty-five per cent of this comes from private spending. Continue reading →

6 Comments| Posted in Development and Poverty, Economy, Health |

Policy Brief – The Continuing Biases in Our Textbooks

1 Comment | Posted on May 1, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

By Zubeida Mustafa

For decades the textbooks used in Pakistan’s educational institutions, especially the ones used in the public sector, have drawn serious criticism from experts and concerned citizens. Besides being shoddily produced, the textbooks lack creativity and fail to stimulate a child’s imagination. The most serious charge against them is that the content, wholly or partially, is biased, selective and inculcates in the child a parochial and subjective outlook. The charge is primarily levelled against the textbooks for the disciplines of History, Pakistan Studies and Islamiat, but is not confined to these subjects. For the most part the content of these textbooks seeks to stem analytical thinking and follows what some have described as the “curriculum of hatred”. In addition to creating a sense of nationhood grounded in religion, these textbooks have served to entrench denominational thinking that leads to religious bigotry. Continue reading →

1 Comment| Posted in Education |

Restless soul at rest

12 Comments | Posted on April 25, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

By Zubeida Mustafa

THE headline above is not mine. It is Murtaza Razvi’s, a colleague and friend from Dawn. I have borrowed it from the obituary he wrote of his mother, a writer, for Dawn’s Books & Authors when I was editing it.

Now, a decade later, it gives me a sense of sadness to use the same words for Murtaza whose life was cut short so brutally a week ago. It was January 2002. Murtaza’s mother Zaheena Tahir had passed away in Lahore. On his return after her funeral, he had resumed work. As I condoled with him, we talked about what mothers meant to their children even after they were no longer children. He told me about Zaheena Tahir and her writings. I was fascinated and asked him if he would like to write a piece on her literary work for me. He agreed. Continue reading →

12 Comments| Posted in Books, Culture and the Arts, Education, Media |

Education in a quandary

9 Comments | Posted on April 18, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

By Zubeida Mustafa

IN today’s age “of the one per cent, for the one per cent, and by the one per cent” (to quote Joseph Stiglitz) to seek equality — especially in education — amounts to looking for utopia.

Therefore the South Asian Forum for Educational Development, Idara-i-Taleem-o-Agahi (ITA), and other partners were brave to have ‘quality-inequality quandary’ as the theme of the regional seminar they organised in Lahore earlier this month. The idea was to get proposals to resolve this quandary. Continue reading →

9 Comments| Posted in Development and Poverty, Education, Human Rights |

A century of bookselling

13 Comments | Posted on April 11, 2012 by Raza Jaffri

Focal point for scholars: (l to r) Dr Noman Naqvi, Prof Patrick Laude, Habib Abbasi, Noman Baig-- Pix courtesy Patrick Laude

By Zubeida Mustafa

NOT many readers would have visited Juna Market, the commercial hub of Karachi where hardware and spices compete with halwa puri to find buyers.

In the ocean of commodities catering to hedonistic pleasures stands a lone modest-looking bookshop that seeks to nourish the mind. It has been doing that for 102 years, an anomaly among its worldly surroundings.

More fascinating than the Abbasi Kutubkhana is the man who sits behind the counter, Habib Husain Abbasi, whose maternal grandfather founded this shop in 1910. Continue reading →

13 Comments| Posted in Books, Culture and the Arts, Education, Library |