THE BILL THAT GOT KILLED By Sherry Rehman           Politics has been known as the art of the possible. When the regime introduced its draft of a Women’s Bill in parliament, many progressive forces that had been pushing for repeal of the infamous Hudood Ordinances imposed by Ziaul Haq on Pakistan saw an opportunity

The Charter of Democracy signed in London on May 14 2006 between the two mainstream political parties and its leaders has, with the exception of the military regime and its cohorts, been well received by civil society and the media. Although its significance as a modern Magna Carta for army-ruledPakistantoday lies not just in its

BUSH AND THE NEW SOUTH ASIAN ORDER By Sherry Rehman   / March 4 ,2006  Despite the concessions made by Parvez Musharraf for Washington , President Bush’s approach to South Asia indicates very clearly a major shift in US policy, refracted most sharply by his visit to the region. Not only has US policy de-linked India

TWENTY REASONS TO REPEAL THE HUDOOD ORDINANCES By Sherry Rehman    What are the Hudood Ordinances? The Hudood Ordinances 1979, are a collection of five criminal laws, collectively known as the Hudood Ordinances. The Offences against Property Ord deals with the crime of theft and robbery. The Offence of Zina Ord relates to the crime

By Sherry Rehman   Garhi Dopatta used to be a bucolic village near Muzzafarabad where its simple mountain-folk lived by breeding livestock and growing subsistence grain. After October 8, this village has been transformed into a rubble-filled quake-pit, where the stench of disease, dust and death still hangs over the hamlet like a cloud. Three

When General Musharraf introduced the Local Government Ordinance in 2001, it was considered controversial to start with. The old LGO as it was known, was lumbered with structural, conceptual and poor delivery problems even though it was protected by the constitution in Article 268. One criticism leveled against it was that given the fraught experience

Democratising the Dialogue   Over the last two years, South Asian integration has become the flavour of the decade among security gurus from and about the region. Last month the Indian Delhi Policy Group run by Radha Kumar and Kanti Bajpai had sponsored a week long multi-city experts’ workshop to deliberate on modes of conflict

Sherry Rehman   March 2005   Islamabad   “Media is a double-edged sword. It can be a frightful weapon of violence also when it propagates messages of intolerance or disinformation that manipulate public sentiment. The inevitable manipulation of the media in war situations leads to greater polarization and fuels mistrust between populations in conflict”[1].