All posts by Raza Jaffri

Whither model university?

Foreign Policy of Pakistan

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

THE model university ordinance has generated a lot of heat on the campuses all over the country. Although the draft of the ordinance has not been released, the structure it proposes is believed to be based on the report of the steering committee on higher education, which has been under discussion for the past several months.

What comes as a matter of serious concern is that the two sides are locked in a confrontation, which will not take them very far. The government will find it impossible to enforce an ordinance, which does not enjoy the support of the faculty. The continuing agitation by the teachers will destroy the public sector universities by interrupting academic activities.
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After the polls in Kashmir

Foreign Policy of Pakistan

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

AS attention in Pakistan was focused on the elections held in the country last Thursday, it was inevitable that the results of the polls held next door in the disputed Indian-occupied Kashmir, which came in the same day, were all but ignored. This was partly because our own electoral exercise was on and left little time and even lesser interest in what was emerging on the political stage across the Line of Control.
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The paradox of elections

Women

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

AS polling day approaches, the polarization in the public perceptions of the election scene is amazing. There are some who are vocal about the deep apathy and cynicism of the voters, and on that basis alone they confidently predict a low turn-out on October 10.

Others vehemently deny that electioneering is in a low key. They point to the corner meetings and the party workers’ drive to mobilize the voters — as much as they can within the restrictions imposed on them by the administration.
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A cry in the wilderness?

Book Reviews, War and Peace

Reviewed By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

Men wage wars but the chief victims of war are invariably women. The truth of this has been so clearly established in Kashmir, which has been in the grip of an insurgency for the last 13 years. Yet surprisingly one doesn’t get to read much about how violence has impacted on the lives of women in that unhappy valley, which many years ago claimed to be the spot where “the world ended and paradise began”.
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How we can help the Kashmiris

Foreign Policy of Pakistan

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

AS the war clouds on the South Asian horizon thicken and thin out in a cyclical pattern, the peacemakers on the political front have stepped up their efforts to bring about a modicum of normalization between India and Pakistan.

True, incidents, such as the recent skirmishes in the Gultari sector on the LoC, come as a rude reminder that the armies on the two sides continue to be in an eyeball-to-eyeball state of mobilization. War cannot be ruled out. But mercifully the focus has shifted to the political/diplomatic dimension of Kashmir.
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