Monthly Archives: October 2016

Remember remember ? November

October 28, 2016Constitution, Defence and Disarmament, Guest Contributor, PoliticsZubeida Mustafa

By Rifaat Hamid Ghani

Pakistan’s democracy is an evolutionary process in which representative legislation derived from the popular electoral mandate moves in the direction of better governance. The electorate and the elected learn politically and self-correct. The mandates conferred in 2008 and 2013 may be viewed in that light: Government at the federal centre changed hands each time, and provincial mandates mutated. Tahirul Qadri’s PAT established an irrelevance within the electoral process; while Imran Khan’s PTI registered a significant though scattered national rise, and formed the government in KP. Given the PPP’s decline, Imran’s party emerged as a vibrant third force in the national parliamentary configuration. But the overall electoral outcome left Punjab in the grip of the PML(N) – where Imran tirelessly alleges massive rigging – and denied the PTI a high profile in urban Sindh.

Setting aside what the party may or may not have established about its ability to govern by the standards it demands in others; what example has its oppositional mode offered in terms of federal politics – which — as Pakistan is a federal republic – has acute relevance for each one of its citizens. Continue reading Remember remember ? November →

Miracle of the wind

October 28, 2016Development and Poverty, Economy, Environment, Nuclear weaponsZubeida Mustafa

By Zubeida Mustafa

KARACHI has been abundantly endowed with one of nature’s riches — wind. Located on the Arabian Sea coast, the city cannot complain of being stifled by desultory stillness. Before the city’s horizon changed drastically with the emergence of high-rise buildings, Karachiites had always enjoyed the luxury of cool breezes during summer evenings. The breeze is still there, but has been trapped by concrete and steel structures. Now the breeze has been left only in poetic idiom to give us solace. Faiz Ahmed Faiz captured its beauty in this line, “Jaise seheraon mein haule se chale baad-i-naseem…” (Like the morning breeze in the desert) Continue reading Miracle of the wind →

Days with Herpes Zoster (shingles)

October 18, 2016General, Guest Contributor, HealthZubeida Mustafa

By Dr Zeba Hisam

TEN days ago I started feeling a peculiar pain in the scapular region of my back. It was localised at one point and was constant. It didn’t seem to be the routine muscular pain that I get after vigorous home chores. I took an analgesic but it didn’t go away. I was perplexed as to what it could be.

The mystery was solved after four days when some papular rashes appeared in a line at the same site. I made my diagnosis. It was Herpes Zoster which is termed Shingles in popular parlance. Yet I went to the skin ward of the Karachi Civil Hospital to confirm my diagnosis. And the doctors there endorsed it and put me on antiviral acyclovir tablets five times a day.

I am not going to college where I teach. Neither do I attend my clinics at the hospital where I work. Continue reading Days with Herpes Zoster (shingles) →

Exploring New York 31 years on

October 17, 2016Culture and the Arts, Guest Contributor, Social Issues, View from AbroadZubeida Mustafa

Strand Book Store, New York: 18 miles of books

By Zeenat Hisam

29 July 2016: Today is my first day of exploring New York. It rained last night. And the morning is bright, the air crispy, the weather pleasant. The heat has subsided. Manhattan is 30-minute subway train ride away from the place in Brooklyn we are staying in. Well, not a bad bargain for a low-budget traveller.

All the way from Stony Brook to New York I saw America shining and prospering: well-maintained infrastructure looking almost new; a lot of construction/repair work in progress; highways filled with big, gleaming cars. In New York the subway stations and the carriages all looked new. So far I have not detected anything that looked dilapidated, worn out or shabby. Continue reading Exploring New York 31 years on →

Changing Lives

October 14, 2016Books, Children and Youth, Culture and the Arts, Education, Human Rights, Library, WomenZubeida Mustafa

Official launch with Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland.- Photo by GWL

By Zubeida Mustafa

WOULD you expect to see Qurratulain Hyder’s Aag ka Darya on the shelf of a public library in Glasgow? Probably not. But I actually found Annie Apa, as she was fondly called, in the Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL). The discovery was made more exciting by the fact that the library was a distinguished one as only a feminist library can be.

Set up in 1991, the GWL has grown and never looked back. In 2015, it celebrated the 25th year of its existence. Containing 30,000 books on women or by women (about 20,000 writers), the GWL is distinct from other libraries by the feminist ownership shown by those who manage it and those who use it. Continue reading Changing Lives →

The Glasgow Women’s Library

October 13, 2016GeneralZubeida Mustafa

Story Cafe at the library,--Photo by GWL — Story Cafe at the library,–Photo by GWL

By Zubeida Mustafa

As you approach the stately Glasgow Women’s Library at Bridgeton (Glasgow) there is no way you can miss it. A large name plaque in black announces its presence.

The “extraordinariness” of the library is visible in the mural painted on a fence across the road in front of the building. It depicts the struggle of an Inuit girl, Sedna, who resists the brutality of her father who wants her to marry a man she doesn’t want to. He pushes her into the sea and chops off her fingers when she clings to the boat to save herself. She is later declared by her people the Goddess of the Sea. The most distant planet of the solar system is also named after Sedna. Continue reading The Glasgow Women’s Library →