Here’s what’s happening across the border: Pakistan and China film industries partner for a movie on CPEC; Bengalis in Pakistan face identity crisis before elections.
Social media outraged by Imran Khan’s remark on feminism
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairperson Imran Khan finds himself at the receiving end of a social media backlash after telling a private TV channel that he disagreed with the “West’s feminist movement”, reported The Express Tribune Sunday.
The feminism movement in the West has 'degraded' the role of a mother Imran Khan? Really?! #PTI pic.twitter.com/UwIpEeADil
— Bilal Farooqi (@bilalfqi) June 17, 2018
“I completely disagree with this western concept, this feminist movement that has started. This has degraded the role of a mother,” Khan had said.
Social media users were quick to hit back, and criticised Khan for his lack of knowledge about the movement that, among other things, helped secure paid maternity leave for working women.
Pakistan’s Bengalis face an identity question
A vast number of Bengalis residing in Karachi will not be able to vote in the upcoming general elections because they do not possess a Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC), reported Dawn. CNIC is Pakistan’s equivalent of the Aadhaar card. The Election Act 2017 makes it mandatory for voters to have an identity card.
The guidelines of CNIC issuer NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority) state that a person can be given citizenship if he/she has been staying in Pakistan since before 1978, seven years after the erstwhile East Pakistan declared independence as Bangladesh.
According to the newspaper, social and political activists from the Bengali community estimated that around 1.2 million of Karachi’s estimated 2 million Bengalis either don’t hold the identity card or found it revoked on the suspicion that they were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Shaikh Mohammad Siraj, a community advocate and the chairman of the Action Committee for Pakistan Bengalis, said, “The parliament mainstreamed the Federally Administered Tribal Areas but the plight of Pakistani Bengalis gets no serious consideration.” “We will have to make renewed efforts to bring our case to attention when the next parliament is sworn in,” he added.
Pakistan to produce a feature film with China
Film-makers from China and Pakistan will be coming out with a feature film named The Journey, reported The Express Tribune, with the filming scheduled to begin in early 2019.
The movie will revolve around the Chinese businesses participating in the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“The intimate friendship of the people from the two countries will be highlighted in the film,” said Wang Haiping, director of the script-writing committee of the China Television Artists Association, at the first Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) film festival in Qingdao.
After Dawn’s refusal, India’s EPW publishes the latest article by Akbar Zaidi
After Dawn refused to publish political economist S. Akbar Zaidi’s articles due to “threats” from the army, Indian academic journal Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) has carried his latest, ‘The End of Democracy or a New Resurgence in Pakistan?’
In his piece, Zaidi has argued that democracy in Pakistan is growing and strengthening. He added that while it’s widely believed that a “soft” coup had already taken place, the people of Pakistan were more disenchanted with the army than ever.
Dawn reportedly faced “very serious” threats from the military after it published a controversial interview with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this May, in which he criticised the army.
Shujaat Bukhari’s killing: ‘Geopolitics trumps human rights’
In an article titled ‘Shujaat lives through the stories he told’, Imtiaz Gul of Daily Times paid a tribute to the Srinagar-based journalist who was recently assassinated by unidentified assailants. It said that Bukhari lived a life of courage and valour in a city “that has been under siege for decades”.
The article mentioned Bukhari’s role in the first-ever UN report on human rights in Kashmir, and said “finger-pointers don’t realise that maintaining contacts with military, militants, and even criminals, is a requirement of the profession”.
The author wondered whether the UN report had motivated the Ikhwans — a government-sponsored counter-insurgent group — to get rid of Bukhari. Gul concluded his piece by saying that geopolitics trumped human rights in the Valley, “with no end to atrocities”.
Sweet-celebrations did not happen due to ‘India’s repeated ceasefire violations’
Pakistan has cited “repeated ceasefire violations” by India as the reason why the exchange of sweets between border personnel didn’t happen this Eid, reported The Express Tribune.
“The repeated ceasefire violations carried out by the Indian forces have caused the death of many innocent people,” the report said, adding that Indian deputy high commissioner J.P. Singh was summoned by the Foreign Office in this regard earlier this week.
The successful healthcare programme PTI doesn’t talk about
The Sehat Sahulat Programme launched by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where it is in office, is now being expanded to cover 70 per cent of its population, said an opinion piece in Dawn.
The author called the programme a healthcare blueprint to be followed by the rest of the country as its benefits have “managed to reach the grassroots level, providing health equity to the poor”.
The programme, based on the Benazir Income Support Programme methodology, provides medical insurance that allows households treatment costing up to Rs 540,000 per year in public and private hospitals while also covering lost wages and providing travel allowance. The programme has also efficiently helped spend healthcare resources.
At the end, the author expressed shock at the PTI’s policy against mentioning the programme during its campaigns.
Contributors: Sharanya Munsi, Priyamvada Grover, Hansa Kapoor, Manisha Mondal, Alind Chauhan, Prateek Gupta and Rupanwita Bhattacharjee
Imran Khan should probably come to India and join the BJP-RSS. Despite being Muslim Pakistani, they will accept him with open arms. The languages of paternalism, sexism and misogyny are universal for bigots of all stripes.