Apart from representatives of press and media offices based in Islamabad, journalists from national news papers and leading regional news papers participated in the event and highlighted the problem areas and challenges they face. The federal minister for information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira was the chief guest and session was moderated by the Head of Delegation of the European Union, H.E. Excellency Jan de Kok.

Kaira has said that PPP government believes in freedom of press as free media guarantees sustainable democracy in the country.

With violence against media professionals constituting one of the greatest threats to freedom of expression today, a one minute silence was observed in remembrance of all the Pakistani reporters who lost their lives to capture the true meaning of journalism at the start of the programme.

Different aspects of media and the role a free press in streghtening democracies and fostering development were stressed upon by the panellists who also gave their respective recommendations in the light of current challenges faced by the local media.

In line to mark the importance of the day, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists carried out a rally and paid homage to the journalists who laid down their lives in the line of duty in various parts of the country. A recent report issued by Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists revealed that the year 2009-2010 was the worst year in the history of Pakistani media, in which 21 journalists lost their lives while performing their professional duties. The rally led by President Federal Union of Journalists, Pervez Shaukat started from Islamabad and culminated in Lahore, passing through various cities along the GT Road.

About PUSH:
Press United to Serve Humanity (PUSH) is a Pakistan-based non-profit, non-governmental, and non-sectarian consortium of journalists from the print, electronic and online media; that support freedom of the press and desire to offer their time, talents, and skills in selfless and meaningful way to serve the mankind through creating mass awareness.

Supported by the PFUJ (Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists), PUSH is determined to work together with other like-minded civil society organizations, media groups, activists and concern citizens worldwide by publicizing their news stories to global attention and to mobilize action for the implementation of the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For more details, please visit: http://push.pk or send email to: info@push.pk

Press United to Serve Humanity (PUSH), a Pakistan-based non-profit, non-governmental, and non-sectarian consortium of journalists working for freedom of press and protection of human rights while observing the day regrets that despite such campaigns the media and media persons in Pakistan are still to be facilitated with freedom of information and protection to carry their professional duties with freedom.

In a statement issued here on Monday, PUSH pointed out that the journalists in Pakistan face life threats for their courageous investigative reporting and working in militancy-hit areas.

For objective reporting journalists who search for facts face constant threats to their lives in form of veiled threats to their family members and themselves. In addition to such veiled threats, journalists run the risk of harassment, detention, arrest, assault and even murder from influential political, government and other quarters besides the security agencies.

Besides the main hurdle the media faces in Pakistan is inaccessibility to information from different departments including the government which is violating the right to free information, the statement added.

PUSH calls for easy access to information for Pakistani media, besides asking the media organisations to provide some kind of financial protection to journalists including some sort of insurance system for them and their families.

The organisation called upon the national and international organisations working for free media to arrange workshops for media persons so that they could determine effective methods through which individual journalists, journalists’ organisations and press clubs could monitor attacks on press freedom, and support journalists and media organisations that have been victimised

About PUSH:
P ress United to Serve Humanity (PUSH) is a Pakistan-based non-profit, non-governmental, and non-sectarian consortium of journalists from the print, electronic and online media; that support freedom of the press and desire to offer their time, talents, and skills in selfless and meaningful way to serve the mankind through creating mass awareness.

Supported by the PFUJ (Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists), PUSH is determined to work together with other like-minded civil society organizations, media groups, activists and concern citizens worldwide by publicizing their news stories to global attention and to mobilize action for the implementation of the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For more details, please visit: http://push.pk or send email to: info@push.pk

The journalist consortium, expressing sorrow and grave concern over the incident reported by a columnist of national daily, stressed on the organizations to refrain from adopting such methods of protest strikes which could lead to violation of basic human rights and right of an individual to live.

Last month when some media persons while fulfilling their professional responsibilities questioned the death of a woman patient at a government hospital, the matter turned ugly and the doctors announced a strike due to which hundreds of patients faced difficulties. One such patient was 12-year-old Nighat, who belonged to a poor family in Okara, a district of Punjab and after death of her parents she was diagnosed for high blood sugar disease. She was admitted to Government Hospital in Lahore and after three weeks she was discharged with an advice to regularly take injections for the high blood sugar. She was brought to the Lahore Hospital on March 30th but medical staff refused to treat her or provide her with the needed medicine due to doctors’ strike. After four days when doctors called off the strike, Nighat was admitted in the emergency ward but she could not survived because her sugar level had crossed redline.

“No doubt, the right to protest is a perceived human right arising out of a number of recognized human rights and it plays a vital role in the development of democratic society but such inhuman ways of protest which cost innocent lives are highly condemnable.” PUSH concluded.

Note to Editors:
This story was discussed by Mr. Ammar Chaudhary in his column published in Daily Express on April 26, 2010.

About PUSH:
Press United to Serve Humanity (PUSH) is a Pakistan-based non-profit, non-governmental, and non-sectarian consortium of journalists from the print, electronic and online media; that support freedom of the press and desire to offer their time, talents, and skills in selfless and meaningful way to serve the mankind through creating mass awareness.

Supported by the PFUJ (Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists), PUSH is determined to work together with other like-minded civil society organizations, media groups, activists and concern citizens worldwide by publicizing their news stories to global attention and to mobilize action for the implementation of the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For more details, please visit: http://push.pk or send email to: info@push.pk

Dear friends, as you complete yet another milestone in your academic career and prepare to embark on a new professional path, I would like to offer you hearty congratulations and best wishes. Your Institute’s environment and professors at IIM Kolkata must have provided you with both managerial skills and ethical values necessary to lead a life that will be professionally, socially and spiritually satisfying. However, the inputs imbibed here are only the starting point, and you will have to constantly question, assess and evolve your values and actions as you begin living in the real society. While I hope that you will take care of your professional skills, I want to share my thoughts with you about the challenges you will face on the social and spiritual aspects, the implication they will have for your professional choices, and how you could respond to them.

I will organize my thoughts by responding to some fundamental questions that arise in everyone’s mind:

(i) Who we are?
(ii) How can we become happy and satisfied individually?
(iii) What is the implication of seeking happiness for our professional choices and decisions?

Who we are?
To put it simplistically, we are social beings shaped by history of nature and life, and integrated in the web of nature, society and economy. To realize this we have to only look at three facts – (a) what scientists have understood about evolution of life and human society, (b) how economies work, and (c) what our present living experience says.

Living species have evolved over hundreds of millions years through a natural process of collective adaptation to environmental changes. While environmental changes are highly random, collective adaptation response of a population of a species at any point of time is partly random too. The collective response also depends on the capabilities of that species. A species’ capabilities themselves have been shaped by historical pathways of environmental changes and responses of that and other species. Even the evolution of humans as groups and societies in the past tens of thousands years is the story of how, under certain fortuitous circumstances, certain collective decisions were taken. To sum up, the set of phenomenal intellectual, psychological, cultural and physical capabilities that each one of us possesses as individual today is a product of collective decisions and actions taken in the past by populations of so many human societies and other species as responses to random environmental changes. And this is equally true of the set of unique capabilities that every species possesses.

Then, look at how the economies work. The regulated supply of money combined with the rules by which the market values various activities, determines how the money flows, from whom and to whom. Every individual is a consumer and a labourer. As a labourer he/she adds certain value to making of certain products or services. How much material wealth he/she gains depends on how much the markets value his/her skills relative to others’ skills. Hence some people end up accumulating material wealth at a rate higher than others, while some people at the other extreme may even end up being pauperized. The rules by which an economic governance structure values various skills and distributes material wealth among different sections of society are heavily influenced by who has the say in designing those rules. That is, who has greater lobbying power in the political structure. A less democratic political and economic structure will distribute wealth less equitably than a more democratic one.

Finally, look at our current living experience. Ask yourself and others a question, “What, in your experience, gives you lasting happiness?” While there will be disagreement on whether money or private ownership of property gives true happiness, there will be wide agreement on certain responses. Forming and sustaining mutually warm and friendly relations with others makes each one of us happy. In addition, we also feel happier if we have greater freedom to express and exercise our choices at the levels of relations with other individuals as well as relations with macro structures like the state and market. To sum up, mutually satisfying and harmonious relations at the micro level with our friends and at the macro level with the political and economic governing structures will make us happy. The condition of ‘mutuality’ is crucial as it demands that we, in order to freely exercise choices, do not harm others. It’s like saying that I will be happy in a relationship with a friend only if my friend is happy too. Extend this argument to larger society and it becomes obvious that we will be happier if all our co-citizens are happy too.

At the micro level of individual relations this demands that we become compassionate and sensitive towards others. At the macro level of relations with political and economic structures this demands that the structures are democratic, i.e. they provide enough space to every individual and community to express and exercise its concerns and choices irrespective of how underprivileged or privileged it is.

How can we become happy and satisfied individually?
Therefore the learning from our understanding of evolution of life, how economies work, and from our own living experience tells us that we are social beings. And that we will be happy and satisfied if we become more compassionate towards our people, other species and the rest of nature, and design political and economic governance structures that are more democratic.

Please note that money is just one of the means to achieve this end. Thus, our real challenge as economically privileged citizens is to influence the flow of money and materials in the economy so that our under-privileged co-citizens can gain as much access to resources and opportunities as we have. So that they too can lead a life of dignity.

If we work towards accumulating wealth mainly for our immediate family and organization, we will most likely ignore impact of our actions on the rest of the society and nature. In an inter-connected world, the result will be what we are witnessing already. Resources are being grabbed by the few corporations and individuals. Market is adding monetary value for the few and taking it away from the others. Most of privileged individuals are busy trying to make more money and accumulate more material assets for themselves.

Psychological disorders are increasing proportionately. Modernization is progressing at a fast pace. Big time corruption, not just in government but also in corporate world, is on the rise. At the same time tribals are being displaced from the forests in order to clear land for mining companies. Some tribals are, in turn, supporting Maoists in violent fight against the state’s armed forces. Small farmers and families are being displaced without proper rehabilitation to clear lands and rivers for SEZs, big dams and industries. The urban poor are being thrown out in order to erect shopping malls, posh offices and residential complexes. Crimes in cities are on the rise. Local communities everywhere are protesting at the snatching away of public resources like land, water and forests on which their survival depends. They are protesting at the helplessness of not having the right to exercise choices that will help them come out of poverty and lead a life of dignity. Simultaneously, severe environmental problems, both local pollution of air, water and soil, and global problems like climate change and ozone layer depletion, threaten our wellbeing.

We would be foolish to not see the obvious correlations between these trends.

The problem needs to be solved at both the macro and the micro levels. At the macro level, structures of political and economic governance need to be made more democratic and humane. Take the example of GDP which we use as the dominant measure of economic prosperity of a nation. There are so many problems with this. One, it does not capture non-materialistic aspects of happiness, like living in harmonious relations with other people and the rest of nature. Two, GDP and its growth rate are only ‘average’ measures of economic wellbeing. They do not even reflect the overall economic status of the people living in a country. Every engineering and management school teaches that the performance of a population must be measured by both the average and the variation. Ignoring variation will give only partial and probably incorrect picture of a phenomenon. If we look at the frequency distribution of household income in India it will become clear that it is highly skewed, with the majority of people falling in the very low-income range and the minority occupying the long high-income tail. These two sets of population are growing at vastly different rates. The growth rate of income of the majority of poor people is less than even the rate of inflation, implying their condition is actually worsening. This is the set that consists of landless people, small farmers, tribals, dalits, street vendors, daily wage labourers and urban slum dwellers.

What is the implication for our professional choices and decisions?
As individuals living in an inter-connected web of nature, society and economy, what therefore can we do professionally so that we simultaneously attain happiness and satisfaction? This is the question I want each one of you to ask yourself.

Whatever choices you make in your profession, whatever actions you take, what work you do and how you earn your income, how you allocate your time, how you participate in your immediate surroundings and community and in the larger society and economy.. All these are the questions that you must seek answers to. Your analysis and response to these questions will determine how much happiness you will attain and how much meaning you will find in life.

I do hope that you will build harmonious relations with your friends, relatives, colleagues and strangers – relations that will be a source of happiness to you and to others. I also hope that you will show a lot of compassions towards your underprivileged co-citizens and strive to build more democratic structures of polity and economy.

I sincerely wish you all a very satisfying life ahead. May you become prosperous, contribute to others’ prosperity, and in the process, derive lasting happiness – both socially and spiritually.

[Dr Sandeep Pandey is a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee (2002) for emergent leadership, member of National Presidium, People's Politics Front (PPF), heads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and did his PhD from University of California, Berkeley, USA. He taught at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur before devoting his life to strengthening people's movements in early 1990s. He can be contacted at: ashaashram@yahoo.com. Website: www.citizen-news.org]

Source: Media for Freedom

Addressing the concluding ceremony of three-day International Women Day Arts Contest here on Saturday, Chairman Human Rights Commission, Dr. Shahid Amin said that as Director General Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) Tauqeer Nasir has worked extensively for promotion of art and culture and opened doors of PNCA for younger generation, the practice which was not observed in the past.

He said that the International Human Rights Commission in collaboration with World Peace Organization and IHRC Relief Fund Trust announced International Women Day award but this year the award has been associated with the services of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.

He said that a seven-member committee of performing art decided name of Tauqeer Nasir especially for his performance in Television drama ‘Aan-sa-Ashiq’ in which his love for a woman was converted into divine love. “The way he has justified the role and respect for women is marvellous”, he remarked.

The contest was organized by Uks Creative in association with World Peace Mission Organization in the memory of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed at Pakistan National Council of the Arts.

Students and individuals displayed their creative art works and World Peace Mission Organization awarded them with certificates and prizes.

With the themes of `Women Vision for Art’ and `Art with Creativity and Vision’, the competition remembered the services of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto for the women of the nation and promoting young artists of the country.

The paintings of the competition carried the imagery that captures the rare glimpses of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed and her efforts for the sake of reviving democracy.

Source: The News

The Bar also urged the government of Pakistan should take steps for repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui and rejected her trial in America. It passed the resolution after Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, sister of Dr Aafia, delivered a speech at the LHCBA.

Dr Fauzia criticised the former rulers for handing over Aafia and her children to America to earn dollars. She said the whole family remained in a state of agony and annoyance for seven years as they had no clue about Aafiaís whereabouts. She said Aafia had been kept in detention without any cogent evidence against her. She called upon the Pakistani government that if Aafia was a culprit she should have been tried in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Activism Panel has announced to hold weekly protest across the country for the release of Dr Aafia and for demanding the United Nations and International Court of Justice to take up the matter/case in its own hand and hold a judicial inquiry into the circumstances that led to trial against Siddiqui.

JAP chairman Muhammad Azhar Siddique advocate made the announcement after a meeting with Dr Fauzia Siddiqui. He said the protest call had been given to mobilise people as the American court would announce punishment on May 8. He said the Pakistani government had failed to exert pressure on the US for a fair trial of Dr Aafia so Aafiaís case should be referred to any other country.

He said the trial of Dr Aafia Siddiqui had deviated the principles laid down in Magna Carta, Charter of United Nations, International Humanitarian Law, Humanitarian Rights and Human rights and International Committee of the Red Cross Humanitarian Rights, Human rights and Terrorism and Right of Self-Determination as Human Right.

Source: The News

In the presence of the diocesan bishop, Msgr. Joseph Coutts, and many priests and nuns, some 20 men and women, young and old, Christians and Muslims read poems focusing on ecology and environment, flowers, trees, seas, denouncing “the destruction wrought by ‘man’ and what can be done to “preserve” nature and “bring peace”.

Marking the 2010 Earth Day Pope Benedict XVI said that “if we want peace, we must preserve the environment.” All participants for the event have taken up the warning of the pontiff. In their poems they call on humanity to love the earth because “it is closely tied to man.” Mujeeb Shah, a Muslim scholar, spoke of the earth in relation to the words of Christ, that man is “the salt of the earth.” He then quoted a passage from the Koran, which states that “Allah is the light of earth and heaven has given its light to the earth” and anyone who spoils it is to be considered “his enemy”.

The poets were inspired by the texts and symbols of all religions, in which a clear call for peace and love towards the earth emerges. Fr. Nisar Barkat, Director of the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace, invited all to keep the environment clean and asked women not to throw domestic waste into the street. He also calls for “more trees” and for children to be taught to love the earth. “We are destroying it – the priest explains to AsiaNews – in many ways, this day is an invitation to everyone to change the way we behave.”

Fr. Khalid Rashid, vicar general of the diocese, says that “anything that the earth gives is a message of peace.” The priest repeats the words of Benedict XVI and says that today more than ever it is necessary to “change hearts if we want peace” and work to “make the world a better place.”

Source: Spero forum via Asia News

Addressing the participants of a seminar held to commemorate the 72nd death anniversary at the PML House, Mushahid said Iqbal had a strong conviction and faith in Islam and this very force gave him future enlightenment and foresight.

“Today, the Pakistani nation is fighting the emerging challenges with the force they have driven from the philosophy of Iqbal,” he said.

“We have taken up all the issues boldly and we are reflecting the aspirations of the entire nation. The way forward for Pakistan is linked with the PML who is working vigorously for the cause of the common man without the discrimination of language, caste or creed,” he asserted.

Secretary Finance Imtyaz Ranjha said no party, except the PML, had remembered the poet of the nation, Iqbal on his death anniversary.

Deputy Secretary Information Ghulam Mustafa Malik said irrespective of the fact that the country was facing challenges; the country had achieved a lot during the past 63 years.

Additional Secretary General Dr Mohammed Amjad said due to the achievements of Pakistan, the entire Muslim Ummah was looking towards Pakistan for guidance. Pir Fayyaz Shah, Arzoo Kazmi, Rizwan Sadiq, Fauzia Naz, Raja Imtiaz and Sardar Gulfraz also addressed the seminar.

Source: Daily Times

In an interview with French daily Le Figaro, Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan wanted a stable and prosperous Afghanistan, adding that the two countries had historical, cultural and geographical commonalities.

To a question about Pakistan’s role in ending the Afghan conflict and talks with Taliban, the prime minister said Pakistan was a part of the solution of the Afghan conflict as the leadership of both the countries wanted a homemade solution to the issue.

He said Pakistan did not interfere in the internal matters of Afghanistan, instead it wanted to support its neighbour. “Pakistan did not interfere in President Karzai’s elections,” he said.

Distinction: About the arrest of Mullah Baradar and other Taliban leaders, Gilani said there was no distinction between the good and bad Taliban.

“The terrorists have no religion, they are enemies of the humanity and we are against them,” he said.

The prime minister disagreed with a suggestion that Pakistan was not doing enough to crush terrorists. He said military operations in Swat, Malakand and South Waziristan had a lot of success stories.

About Pak-US objectives in the war against terrorism, the prime minister said, “We have common objectives, terrorism and extremism, and we want to work together with the US.”

About drone attacks and the transfer of technology, Gilani said Pakistan had conveyed its concern to the US as it wanted to isolate Taliban from the local tribes, adding that the US was looking into it.

Praise: About the nuclear programme and its security, the prime minister said Pakistan had a good image and the world had praised our nuclear programme and its security.

About nuclear cooperation, Prime Minister Gilani said, “I attended the recently held nuclear safety summit in Washington. More than 49 heads of states participated in it.”

About any deal with the US on civilian nuclear technology, the prime minister said, “Our discussion is still going on but at the moment we are just discussing it and there is nothing concrete.”

Anomalies: He said democratic forces had corrected the anomalies of dictatorial regimes, which was a great achievement.

Source: Daily Times