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Literary
Reference
A literary
reference, which was the first of its kind, in the memory of former
prime minister of Pakistan and a popular political leader Benazir
Bhutto was held on January 8, 2008 in Islamabad. The reference was
jointly organized by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO)
and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). Mr. Iftikhar
Arif presided over the function.
Prominent poets
Iftikhar Arif, Harris Khalique, Alia Mirza, Ali Akbar Sial, Abrar
Mohammad and Tauqir Chughtai paid tribute to Benazir Bhutto in Urdu
and Pushto verse.
While inaugurating
the session, Dr. Abid Suleri from SDPI and Harris Khalique stated
that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is an attack on the already
weak democratic polity of Pakistan. To condemn this gruesome act of
violence you do not have to be a PPP supporter. A vast majority of
citizens have expressed their grief and shock on this incident.
There is a need to demilitarize Pakistan, curb extremism and ensure
the realization of civil, political, economic and social rights of
Pakistanis.
The participants
expressed their emotions in different ways including poetry,
narrations of personal encounters with Benazir Bhutto and statements
issued by Women’s Action Forum (WAF) and Insani Haqooq Ittehad.
Ahmad Saleem, Bilal
Naqeeb, Arshad Bhatti, Amjad Nazeer, Naeem Mirza and Gauhar Jamal
read from the works of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Habib Jalib, Munir Niazi,
Akhtar Hussain Jaferi and Anton Chekov.
Ambassador B. A.
Malik, Mr. Khadim Somroo and Nageen Hyat demanded deeper analysis of
the problems faced by Pakistan by the intelligentsia, writers,
artists and opinion makers.
Elections 2008
Strengthening
Participatory Organization launched its political education and
electoral process campaign to be run in 45 districts across Pakistan
at South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) media center in
Islamabad on December 19, 2007.
On this occasion
speakers including Ashfaq Saleem Mirza, Ghazala Minallah, Harris
Khalique and Dr. A. H. Nayyar debated the various aspects of
participating or boycotting the up coming elections.
Ashfaq Saleem Mirza,
adviser SAFMA, said that there is a need to transform the structure
of the society, which would result in impeding military adventurism
and political expediency. He argued that those who are taking part
in the elections and those who have boycotted it should contribute
towards the over throw of the old order in the country i.e. to fight
against tribalism, feudalism and religious extremism.
Ghazala Minallah,
law teacher and activist, said that without the restoration of
judiciary to pre November 3 position, no elections could have
legitimacy. She said it is for the first time in the history of the
country that 62 judges of the superior courts refused to take oath
under the PCO.
Harris Khalique,
writer, political analyst and Chief Executive of SPO, said that the
current civil society movement has to be celebrated but it can only
sustain itself if those fighting for civil and political rights
create a link with the ordinary citizens of Pakistan by expanding
this campaign to include the realization of economic and social
rights of the people. He was of the view that civil society should
grab any space that is created by the state even if it thinks that
the state is oppressive and the political process is not
transparent.
Dr. A. H. Nayyar,
Executive Director Developments in Literacy (DIL) and human rights
activist, challenged the very legitimacy of the elections and said
that Pakistan is going through one of the bleakest periods of its
history where the citizens should offer no support to a corrupt
political arrangement. He said that under military rule warlordism
such as that of Baitullah Mehsud, Mullah Fazlullah and Ghazi Rasheed
would flourish because marshal rule itself is a form of warlordism.
Bilal Naqeeb, head
of Research and Programme Outreach SPO, moderated the session and
summarized the discussion. Those who were prominent amongst the
participants included Mazhar Abbas, Secretary General Pakistan
Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Dr. Anwar Nasim, writer and
scientist, Mushir Anwar columnist and artist Fauzia Minallah.
In
advance of general elections expected in Pakistan in early 2008, SPO
is implementing the “Support for Free and Fair Elections in
Pakistan" programme with the support of The Asia Foundation (TAF).
SPO is covering fifteen districts in Punjab and Balochistan. These
districts are Bhakkar, Mianwali, Layyah, Rahim Yar Khan, Mandi
Bahaud Din, Lodhran, Bahawalnagar, Khanewal, Vehari and Pak Pattan
in Punjab and Turbat, Gawadar, Panjgur, Awaran and Noshki/Chagai in
Balochistan.
SPO is conducting voter education and mobilization activities in
assigned districts in the pre-election period in order to achieve
the following objectives:
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To
motivate female registered voters to become well-informed about the
election process and candidates in order to make meaningful
decisions about their elected representation
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To motivate men to enable female registered voters to participate in
the election process
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To motivate registered voters to become well-informed about the
election process and the candidates vying to represent them in
provincial and national assemblies so that voters can make
meaningful decisions about their elected representation
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To discuss with registered voters the challenges to free and fair
elections in Pakistan and the role of every citizen in addressing
those challenges
Attack on SPO D. I. Khan
and Battagram
Offices
In the backdrop of
the spiraling violence in the country, the D I Khan and Battagram
offices of SPO were attacked in September and October.
On September 25,
2007, at 2:00 am in the morning, unidentified armed men trespassed
the SPO D I Khan office by climbing over the walls. They took hold
of the security guard and tortured him after stripping him and tying
his hands and feet. They got hold of the keys of the office and
vehicles parked inside and damaged valuable office equipment. The
attackers took off in four SPO vehicles after loading them with
equipment that included cameras, computers, main server, printers,
multi-media system, projector, video cassette player, fax machine,
image scanner and telephone exchange. The estimate of damages in
this incident is approximately ten million rupees
In the early hours
of the morning on October 30, 2007 unidentified armed men bombed the
residential facility attached to Battagram office at 2:00 am in the
morning while the staff was asleep. The blast was of such intensity
that the iron gate of the office was completely destroyed and blown
away. All the doors and windows of the building came off from their
hinges and the building itself which was newly constructed suffered
huge cracks.
Two of the staff
members, Rafi Ullah and Anwar Sher, were critically wounded with
head injuries. They were initially shifted from Battagram to
Abottabad to the Ayub Medical Complex, Abottabad and later to Shifa
Hospital in Islamabad where Rafi Ullah had to undergo brain surgery.
Out of the other staff members, Ambreen Khan, Yousuf Ali Shah, Fawad
Khattak, Irfan Younas and Qamar uz Zaman also suffered injuries. The
staff has been evacuated from the office and operations have been
suspended.
No group or
individual has so far claimed responsibility for these acts of
terrorism
SPO Disaster Response report
Balochistan, NWFP and Sindh
Updated on
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Introduction
Pakistan had not yet recovered from the disastrous earthquake that
struck Northern Pakistan on 8th October 2005, when another
devastating disaster hit the South and Southwestern parts of the
country. On June 23rd and 24th, 2007, costal areas of Pakistan were
hit by tropical cyclone Yemyin. Packing winds of up to 80 miles per
hour (130 kmph) roared over the Arabian Sea to the south of Karachi
and hit the coast of the southwestern province of Balochistan,
dumping torrential rain over Balochistan and Sindh provinces. The
torrential rains and flash floods have played havoc in these areas
and numbers of casualties is rising day after day. There have been
no confirmed reports and assessments of the damages, as most of the
areas are still inaccessible due to continued bad weather and badly
damaged roads and other means of communications. Slowly and
gradually the rescue and relief operations by the line agencies and
NGOs are being carried out. However, these operations are limited
only to the areas where water level has receded. Since news about a
new weather system is developing, there is a looming threat of more
rains in these areas
The weather phenomena
developed due to this cyclone resulted into a huge loss of life,
livelihood and property. So far, an estimated 1.2 million people
across Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP have become homeless and have
been badly affected. Only in Balochistan this toll of affected
people has reached an estimated number of 0.8 million and is
continuously rising. Most parts of the province are still
inaccessible and roads are totally destroyed that has disrupted
large-scale rescue operations and relief work, which is being
undertaken. There is a severe shortage of food, clean drinking water
and medicines. SPO is continuously facilitating the rescue
operations in areas under water and continuing with the relief
operations in affected areas, where water has receded.
Most parts of Balochistan are still inundated
and are endangered by more rains and floods. The destruction level
in different districts across the three provinces can be categorized
as:
Worst
Affected Kech (Turbat), Gawadar, Jhal Magasi, Naseerabad/Jaffarabad,
Sibi, Bolan
and Thatta
Badly Affected Kharan, Washik, Noshki,
Khuzdar and Swat
Partially Affected Mustung, Dalbandin,
Qila Abdullah and Kalat
All these areas happen to be SPO partner clusters. SPO is operating
in all the above mentioned districts through approximately 350
partner organizations and 16 Civil Society Networks (CSNs).
Currently, SPO operations for relief are being managed through SPO
field offices situated in Kech (Turbat), Naseerabad and Sibi,
whereas, Hyderabad, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Islamabad offices
are undertaking planning, networking and coordination activities.
SPO has grown to
become the largest rights-based capacity building organization in
Pakistan, both in terms of outreach and scope as well as the impact
of work. Besides responding to emergencies, SPO’s core expertise
lies in community mobilization and development of community and
public interest institutions for the provision of municipal services
for all basic amenities including but not limited to primary health
care, basic education, water and sanitation. SPO has trained more
than 2000 community organizations in 72 districts of Pakistan and 45
district level Civil Society Networks (CSNs).
BALOCHISTAN:
Following is the
update of relief activities in Balochistan carried out by SPO Naseerabad and Sibi:
SPO Naseerabad
- Medical aid was provided to 2276 patients in 21 medical
camps during the last two weeks in district Nasirabad
- 132 shelters, 145600 water purification tablets and 710 reed
mats were distributed in various villages of district Nasirabad
SPO Sibi
- Damage assessment was done in six villages in district Sibi
and one village in district Bolan
- 119 food packets consisting of flour, rice, sugar, ghee, dry
milk, tea and biscuits were distributed in six villages of
district Sibi and 23 food packets were distributed in one
village of district Bolan
Flood Affected Districts of Balochistan & Sindh and Porposed
Implementing NGOs/CSOs
Click
here to see
list of NGOs/CSOs
Previous Updates:
Last updated
on Monday, July 23, 2007
Last updated
on Monday, July 16, 2007
Last updated on
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Last updated
on Monday, July 5, 2007
Last updated
on Monday, July 2, 2007
Note to Contributors:
Click
here
to see the list of contributors
Rehabilitation
As part of its
relief effort, SPO began a programme to provide emotional and
rehabilitative support to earthquake affected children in central
Muzaffarabad in November 2005. The programme, which initially covered about 100
children at a single site, had spread to five locations targeting
some 800 children up to 14 years of age by the end of 2006. The
initiative also helped SPO launch a one-year Save the Children-US
(SC-US) funded project in Batagram NWFP in early 2006 involving one
hundred safe play areas and temporary learning centers.
The programme in
Muzaffarabad was run solely through public donations, which helped
us cover volunteers’ stipend, transport, and food and activity items
for children. In recognition of this initiative, SPO received a
grant from Open Society Institute-George Soros Foundation early this
year (2007) for the continuation and expansion of its work in
Muzaffarabad (AJK) and Batagram (NWFP) districts.
Given the high
numbers of national and international organizations working in
Muzaffarabad town and after consultations with partners, SPO decided
to implement the programme in union council Hattian Bala, in the
Jehlum Valley, due to lack of any psychosocial work for children in
that area providing potential for work. In district Batagram, NWFP,
SPO will be working in union council Batamori, again a neglected
region.
Prior to shifting
its geographical focus, SPO conducted a workshop on inclusive
education and psycho-social care for teachers and volunteers from
schools around the Muzaffarabad town localities where the
organization had been working in through a local CBO, Al Falah
Society. The workshop synthesized SPO’s own approach to working with
children in post-emergency situations.
In addition to the
OSI supported initiative, SPO has also signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with Concern for Children Trust to establish a model
school and a maternal and child healthcare centre in village Bandi
Chaka, union council Chakhama, and district Muzaffarabad during 2007.
The two initiatives are expected to complement each other through
sharing of resources, technical expertise and institutional
learning.
With a child’s
complete personality in mind, the SPO/OSI programme seeks to provide
not only psychological support through counseling/activity-based
learning sessions but also address children’s health and hygiene and
education needs. While all children are equally important and have
equal rights regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion, there will
be a special focus on vulnerable children, including girls, minority
children, orphans and those with physical and/or mental
disabilities.
Primary and middle
school teachers from all public and private sector schools and at
least 50 community workers/volunteers will be trained in Hattian
Bala and Batagram over the course of the project in basic counseling
skills, inclusive education, child-centered and activity-based
learning. An advisory desk for teachers will be established at for
follow-up support and hand holding.
A medical camp will
be held in villages that do not have easy access to health
facilities at least twice a month where children and women could
seek medical advice and treatment for common ailments. Serious cases
will be referred to the nearest health facility. Arrangements will
be made for a psychiatrist to periodically visit these medical camps
and provide specialized counseling and treatment when need be.
SPO will work
closely with local communities to improve hygiene and physical
conditions in and around each of the target location as
environmental health has a strong bearing on children’s well-being.
Through locally identified volunteers, SPO will closely monitor
protection situation to minimize cases of abuse, corporal punishment
and discrimination.
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