Last week target killers were again at work in Karachi in an alleged attempt to silence academic debate. This time the victims were a 40 year old human rights activist named Sabeen Mahmud, shot dead by motorcycle assassins and her mother Mahenaz Mahmud who was seriously injured. Mahmud had bravely opened up her community space at T2F for discussion on the situation in Balochistan inviting a well-known Baloch campaigner Mama Qadeer to participate along with others. As Deutsche Welle recently reported,

“Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is rich in oil, gas, and minerals, yet it remains Pakistan’s poorest province. Rebel groups have waged a separatist insurgency in the province for decades, complaining that the central government in Islamabad and the richer Punjab province unfairly exploit their resources. In 2005, Islamabad reacted to the insurgency by launching a military operation in the province.”

This ongoing situation has led to thousands of “disappeared” persons and alleged human rights abuses by the military with a Human Rights Report (HWR, 2011) calling for Pakistan to end “widespread disappearances of suspected militants and activists by the military, intelligence agencies, and the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the south-western province of Balochistan”.

Sabeen Mahmud offered her facility to Mama Qadeer who led a Long March within Pakistan to highlight the “disappeared” after LUMS a university in Lahore declined to go ahead with hosting a discussion on “Unsilencing Balochistan” after coming under pressure from the government.

As human rights activist Marvi Sirmed stated in DAWN, “Pakistan is defamed because of the murder of Sabeen not because of the seminar on Balochistan,” Silencing Sabeen has had the effect of drawing far greater national and international attention to the issues surrounding the region than Sabeen and Mama Qadeer could have hoped for and sparked protests and condemnation across the country.

There must now be an inquiry into Sabeen’s death however 77% of people polled in Dawn do not feel Sabeen Mahmud’s killers will be brought to justice.

Following the murder of Sabeen, a letter has now emerged allegedly from the Government of the Punjab Higher Education Department dated 27th March to All Vice-Chancellors/Rectors appearing to once again stifle academic freedom. It reads as follows,

Subject.. Anti-Pakistan and Anti-Cultural Research Topics’Studies in Universities of the Punjab

I am directed to refer to the subject and inform that it has been pointed out by various Security Agencies that Research Topics being given to the students in the Universities of the Punjab that are of anti-Pakistan and anti-Cultural in nature.

2. The Competent Authority has taken a serious notice of this situation and desired that the Academia should play a constructive role in nurturing nationalism amongst the youth of this country. It has further been desired that the concerned quarters may be sensitized to avoid incubation of anti-cultural and anti-Pakistan sentiment amongst the students by giving such topics for debate and research.

3 I am further directed to request you to comply with the directions of the Competent Authority in letter and spirit.

(Isthiaq Ahmad)

SECTION OFFICER (UNIV)

cc

1 PS to Secretary Higher Education Department

 2 PS to Additional Secretary (Academics), Higher Education Department

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First of all how do authorities define what is anti- Pakistan and anti-Cultural? Where are the guidelines? Is this something which will be legally enforced…. is Nationalism to be made a legal requirement within Pakistan? A good researcher always declares any bias and conflict of interest as no research is without some bias for the fact that researchers are human. This can be seen by through textual analysis, which quotes and references are used for example.

Driving a topic underground can stir anger and create a negative effect. Debate is healthy in society and banning a subject often suggests that those doing the banning have something to hide themselves. Being open in discussion can help develop alternative narratives and find solutions to difficult issues. Banning free speech will only result in promoting underground forums where the seeds of resentment can grow, flourish and spread much further afield.

Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad.  She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.