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Thursday, November 5, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: A Chance to Reach ‘Missing’ Persons
Of several local issues bound to get an international airing during the World Social Forum that opens here on Friday, most deserving is the case of persons gone 'missing' as a result of this country's deep involvement in the 'war on terror' prosecuted by the United States, in neighbouring Afghanistan.PAKISTAN: Free at Last, From Generations of Bonded Labour
Just 22, Jai Kumar, a teacher, knows what he wants for his students at the informal school for 'freed' bonded labour near this southern Pakistani city. ''I'm going to make sure that none of them ever end up working at the young age I was forced to. Each one of them will enroll in the government school once I'm through with them,'' he asserts.PAKISTAN: Veiled but Women More Visible After Quake
On a bitter cold afternoon, late January, about 600 women, quite a few with eyes barely showing through veils, trooped into a huge marquee to make their feelings known about the poor progress of rehabilitation after the devastating Oct. 8 earthquake.PAKISTAN: Old Railway in the Running for Rapid Transit Plan
Transport authorities in this port city, that will host the Asian chapter of this year's polycentric World Social Forum (WSF) in March, are looking at reviving a disused railway system, rather than building more concrete flyovers and underpasses, to ease congestion on the roads that has reduced traffic to a permanent crawl.PAKISTAN: Islamic Banking Is Microcredit Too
When Shamim Akhtar's 20-year-old daughter developed an acute case of ulcers, last year, and had to be hospitalised, she had little choice but to approach a neighbourhood moneylender and borrow Rs 20,000 (330 US dollars). Akhtar's husband was unemployed at that time.WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Temblor Causes Shaky Start to Asian Meet
Of the many disruptions caused by the Oct. 8 temblor, that killed 87,000 people and left 3.5 million homeless, one was the postponement of the Karachi chapter of this year's polycentric World Social Forum (WSF).RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Women Fall Prey to Coerced Conversions
When Pakistani cricketer Yousuf Youhana, the only Christian in the national team, announced that he had embraced Islam to become Mohammad Yousuf last September, the conversion hit the headlines everywhere.PAKISTAN: Rape Victim Turns Women’s Rights Icon
Quiet dignity envelopes her slender frame, downcast eyes and nearly inaudible speech. But the more Mukhtaran Mai withdraws into her self, the more she becomes the woman of steel who dared take on the might of the Pakistani state and extreme patriarchal attitudes.PAKISTAN: Focus Shifts to Quake Children
''The beautiful thing about children, in any emergency situation, is their resilience, both mentally and physically, that stands them in good stead to survive, and this, I never fail to marvel,'' says Stephen Matthews of the World Vision (WV) Global Rapid Response Team.PAKISTAN: Self-Help Best for Quake Reconstruction
Aqeel Bilgrami's biggest worry these days is how to ensure that the government does not get led away by people trying to make money out of reconstruction efforts, now underway for the survivors of the Oct.8 earthquake, with inappropriate materials and technology.PAKISTAN: Tents Not Sole Solution for Quake Victims
A fortnight after the devastating October 8 temblor hit the Kashmir region, the survivors are huddled down under plastic sheeting, cardboard or rocky overhangs, sheltering as best they can against a mercilessly cold and wet Himalayan winter.PAKISTAN: Tents Not Sole Solution for Quake Victims
A fortnight after the devastating October 8 temblor hit the Kashmir region, the survivors are huddled down under plastic sheeting, cardboard or rocky overhangs, sheltering as best they can against a mercilessly cold and wet Himalayan winter.PAKISTAN: Quake Leaves Kashmir Region Awash in Water Woes
Ask 60-year old earthquake survivor Haji Hanif, a shopkeeper in Balakot in the Hazara division of Pakistan, if people in his town need water, clean water, to drink or to wash up or for any other purpose-and his response will be in the negative.PAKISTAN: Need for Girls’ Education Felt but Schools are Missing
Ghazala Bibi, 21, considers herself privileged to be studying for a bachelors degree even though she has to do it privately and from her home, a two-hour drive into the hills north-east of the national capital.POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Taliban-Style Law, Another Blow for Liberals
Liberal-minded people in this country are concerned at the 'Hasba Bill' passed in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) assembly that seeks to severely restrict women's rights and institute a 'moral police' in the territory that borders Afghanistan.ENVIRONMENT: Pollution Swamping Pakistani Lake People
A kaleidoscope of a thousand scenes passes by, each as different from the other, as our narrow wooden 'batelo' lazily ferries past residents going about their daily lives, disturbing the peace with the whirr of its motor.WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Where Dreams Are Shattered in a Garbage Heap
''Can the poor ever look happy?'' counters 70-year old Raheema, without looking up. She is bent double, rummaging through the garbage with her bare hands, looking for old rusted iron nails, scrap metal, animal bones, plastic and broken glass.HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Risks to Motherhood Can Be Deadly
Writhing in pain and cringing deeper into the ‘charpoy', a bed made from rope, to hide the shame and her labour, she finally gave birth to a beautiful daughter out in the wilderness.ENVIRONMENT-PAKISTAN: It Feels Like Plastic, But It Isn’t
It feels and 'acts' like plastic, is slippery and is smooth to touch. But unlike real plastic, it will not clog your drains, choke marine life or hang forever on trees and electric wires. Once used and disposed of, it disintegrates.RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Old Islamic Laws Trigger New Round of Debate
Age-old discriminatory customs are not uncommon in Pakistan, where a three-man village jury can allow a landlord to rape a woman to take revenge, and a whole tribe can be forced to flee its village if a woman dares to marry outside the tribe.RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Abandoned Babies Find a Home
She calls her youngest, three-year-old Bakhtawar, a godsend, the luckiest thing that has ever happened to her. To think Bakhtawar is not even her own flesh and blood. Walking past a garbage dump on her way to work one morning three years ago, Zarina, a middle-aged divorced mother of four and a masseuse by profession, saw a slight movement in a sack.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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