This is a guest post by Taimur Khan, who's previously contributed to SAJAforum (Newshour reports from Pakistan). If you have any sites we should know about, please add to the comments section.
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In Pakistan, citizen journalism is flourishing when it's needed most. To fill the information void left by Musharraf's media blackout, a group of anonymous Pakistani student activists have created The Emergency Times, a blog they describe as "an independent Pakistani student initiative against injustice and oppression." In addition to its ardent calls to action, the site provides daily multimedia updates on the latest developments in Pakistan and features eyewitness accounts and photos of student protests, posts from other news websites and blogs, information on upcoming direct actions, and even motivational poems for Pakistan's embattled democracy movement.
While The Emergency Times may have more at stake than most, it's certainly not the only blog in blogistan. Many other blogs also cover Pakistan's complex political dynamics under the emergency situation and provide a much-needed supplement to the sometimes stale updates from American news sources.
Teeth Maestro - run by Dr. Awab Alvi, a dentist in Karachi - outlines the implications of the recent amendments to the Pakistan Army Act of 1952:
According to sources within the Pakistani security forces, amendments have been made to the Army act of 1952 and any civilian can be arrested under the act and tried in military courts while hoarders and profiteers are to be tried in special courts. The revised act also states that attacks on armed forces are now an offense under the new act.
Metroblogging Karachi provides running multimedia updates of the most current anti-emergency protests in the city. The blog also discusses a large and unprecedented get-together of photo-bloggers who met on the Karachi Metroblogging Flickr group and have been documenting protests and life under martial law. Metroblogging Lahore recently discussed a less vociferous tactic in support of the lawyers and judges opposing the emergency:
Just saw a Justice who had refused to take the new oath speaking on GEO this morning--he had tears in his eyes as he spoke. A handful of people had left flowers outside his gate. And the news anchor was saying that it is a pity that so few had done so--yes it is hard to withstand a baton charge or a tear gas attack, but leaving a few flowers is not hard. Perhaps you can use your network to encourage people to leave flowers outside the houses of the justices and the bar association officials--just leave them as far as the police will let them go. This would also be a way of catching the attention of the international media.
Democracy and Freedom and Pak Lawyer both focus on the judicial and legal activism that has come to define the opposition to Musharraf's policies. Law blogger Anil Kalhan (a good friend of SAJAforum) has also announced a rally in New York City on Tuesday November 13 that is being organized by the NYC Bar Association among other groups, as an act of solidarity with Pakistan's beleaguered lawyers.
iFaqeer - run by SAJAforum contributor Sabahat Ashraf - speaks of the solace and inspiration that South Asia's Urdu poetry provides. Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the revered Pakistani poet, wrote many of his greatest works in prison, a fact not lost on Adil Najam at All Things Pakistan (aka Pakistaniat.com):
The words of Faiz certainly cut deeper than anything I can say. They are an invitation to action. But they are also an invitation to thought. An invitation to responsibility. An invitation to continuing the struggle no matter what. An invitation to keep moving onwards despite the odds. An invitation to celebrate the spirit of defiance of those who will not give up.
Acknowledging the role of the United States in Pakistan's current state, Chapati Mystery asks readers in the U.S. to make the emergency a campaign issue at home:
Remember that the over 2000 people currently under arrest are being terrorized with military hardware that comes from us and with the political clout that comes from us. This is not some abstract, far away land, where Oriental despots do what is their wont. This is our Oriental despot. He is wearing our tax paid threads.
Perhaps to keep from crying, Chapati Mystery never forgets his sense of humor ("In Pakistan, a popular way of showing support is to wear a black arm-band. I would go buy a black suit but I think I might break some Pakistan Bar Association or Johnny Cash Appreciation Society rule. So, in the meantime, just more news"), and posts some pretty hilarious artwork as well.
The Global Voices blog at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society has an entire page dedicated to the Pakistan emergency. Aside from their own blog entries, Global Voices aggregates posts from Pakistani bloggers as well as del.icio.us entries from a diversity of sources.
--Taimur Khan
Have any more blogs to add to this list? Please post in the comments section below. But stick to Pakistani or Emergency-related sites.
Earlier on SAJAforum:
