Things we still have to do / Some Signs of Success

Things we still have to do:


We have to reveal the locations of secret prisons being built in Pakistan to house prisoners that America does not want on its own soil because there these prisoners will have access to the American judicial system and that is why Bush never asked Musharraf to restore the dismissed Judges of Pakistan's Superior Courts,

We have to bring the unfairly dismissed Judges back,

We have to try and make Pakistan a socially just and independent country,

We have to ensure the freedom of the media,

We have to produce a sustained critique of ongoing authoritarianism,

We have to write books on how America's friendship has harmed the rule of civility in Pakistan,

We have to make documentaries on the effects of the Emergency,

We have to document the effects of skyrocketing prices of staple foods,

We have to resist the rule of one person's tempering with the Constitution according to his whims,

We have to produce poetry against oppression in Pakistan,

We have to introduce basic health care, unemployment benefits, social security for all people regardless of ethnicity, class, gender, provincial identity,

We have to have independently functional state institutions, free of nepotism, corruption and personal vendetta,

We have to produce an informed and passionate critique of hierarchical social structures in Pakistan,

We have to stop Pakistan from becoming another Guantanamo Bay because of its friendship with America.

Some signs of success emerging:

Today the Government of Pakistan has quietly released about 100 missing persons from its secret prisons. It means that all those who raised their voice against the use of brutal power of the jackboot have something to celebrate. It also means that we have to keep the pressure up, steadily and consistently.

Read the reports on the release of "Missing Persons" here and here.