Monthly Archives: August 2009

Lessons from Lockerbie

International Politics

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

Remember Lockerbie? Yes the Scottish town that made headlines when a PanAm aircraft exploded in mid-air in 1988 killing 270 people.

It was said to have been blown up by a bomb planted in a passenger`s luggage. Lockerbie is making news again. Last Thursday the Libyan convicted of planting that fateful bomb, Abdel baset Ali al-Megrahi, was released from a Scottish prison and sent home to die. This was done ostensibly on compassionate grounds as the man has terminal cancer and doctors believe he has just three months to live.
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A plea for Sarabjit Singh

Foreign Policy of Pakistan, War and Peace

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

At an informal meeting between a group of Indians and Pakistanis in the Swiss village of Caux, the venue of the second forum of human security in July 2009, one suggestion put forward was for the governments in New Delhi and Islamabad to abolish capital punishment.

It was argued that it would help improve relations between the two neighbours. Yes it would, if this suggestion were to be taken seriously.
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Fighting Kidney Tourism in Pakistan

Health, Human Rights, , ,

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: The WIP

A few years ago, Pakistan’s newspapers and magazines were awash with pictures of shirtless men displaying scars on their torsos indicating they were organ donors. There were villages where practically every male adult claimed to have sold a kidney to earn extra money to repay his debts.

The Taliban and music

Culture and the Arts, Islamisation

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

IN her latest book, The Case for God, Karen Armstrong describes music as `the limit of reason`. She finds it inseparable from religious expression when religion is at `its best`.

We do not get the best demonstration of this connection in the Taliban brand of Islam. The faith practised by the Sufis, however, shows an intrinsic link between the two.
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