UN-appointed independent human rights experts have called for urgent action in India’s Jammu and Kashmir, amid concerns of ongoing abuses against civilians there.

Political leaders, media and human rights bodies condemn the abduction of the senior journalist   Herald Report   Islamabad: Journalist Matiullah Jan returned home late Tuesday night, nearly 12 hours after he was abducted from Sector G-6, a highly secured locality of the capital city in broad daylight, family sources said. Earlier on Tuesday, Matiullah Jan, known for his criticism …

Beware splashy corporate gestures when they leave existing power structures intact. by Helen Lewis Tumbrels are rattling through the streets of the internet. Over the past few years, online-led social movements have deposed gropers, exposed bullies—and, sometimes, ruined the lives of the innocent. Commentators warn of “mob justice,” while activists exult in their newfound power to change the world. Both groups …

By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar THERE are many in our land that falls into the category of what anti-colonial freedom fighter Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth”, such as the cauldron of injustice and tyranny that is contemporary Pakistan. The almost daily tribulations faced by the diverse group of confessional groups officially known as ‘religious minorities’ are second to …

Sajjad Ahmad   GILGIT-BALTISTAN will hold elections on Aug 18, 2020, for the Legislative Assembly’s 24 constituencies. The government’s five-year term ended on June 24. The Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order of 2009 divides the administration of the region into the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) and the Gilgit-Baltistan Council. The reform package grants some legislative powers to the Assembly but …

A new reliance on virtual life in the COVID-19 era has laid bare the lack of internet access for much of the country, write Shah Meer Baloch and Zafar Musyani in The Diplomat In a widely shared video posted to social media, more than half a dozen Pakistani police personnel are seen running after a girl and screaming, “Catch her! Catch her!” …

There is a lesson for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan to learn in the remarkable victory of a native American tribe against energy giants and state coercive policy of the Trump.  The indigenous people after years of struggle for their right to a safe, pollutant-free home, got two multi-billion-dollar oil and gas pipeline projects shut down.  Indigenous protesters of the Dakota Access …

Herald Report Islamabad: A digital rights watchdog has expressed concern at the difficulties being faced by students in attending online classes due to lack of Internet facilities in the rural area of Pakistan and mountainous regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir. The organisation has urged the government to provide an appropriate recourse for the students who are unable to access e-learning modules during …

Fayes T Kantawala on the link between crushing dissent and producing subpar leaders for policy-making   It’s perversely comforting to know that in the middle of a global pandemic, the largest financial crash in history and a worldwide cultural tipping point, Pakistan still thinks thinkers are its biggest problem. Professor Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy taught physics at Forman Christian College (FCC) …

Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian journalist and activist whose online work helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017, has been sentenced to death for his actions following what Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called a “grossly unfair” trial. A Revolutionary Court “considered that the 13 charges [against Zam] were the equivalent of the charge of spreading ‘corruption on earth’ and therefore passed the death …