In this Friday Focus episode, three Pakistani women Gul Bukhari, Gulalai Ismail and Annie Zaman discussed three issues.  1. Criminalisation of Criticism on Armed Forces ISLAMABAD: A new amendment bill passed Wednesday by the National  Assembly Standing Committee on Interior mandates that anyone who  criticises the Pakistani forces may now land in prison for two years,  along with a fine worth Rs500,000 — or both. The new criminal law amendment bill was proposed and submitted by PTI lawmaker...

Sarmad Sultan is a historian and a social media activist, he has been missing for the past 24 hours, and his Twitter Account has been deactivated. His family says that he has gone out of town, however, the speculations are that he has been picked up by security/intelligence agencies. UN has sent a letter to Pakistan about the concerning press freedom situation in Pakistan and the persecution of journalists including Gul Bukhari, Asad Ali Toor, Absar Alam, Bilal Farooqi, Ajeeb Ali Lakho, Rana...

Friday Focus is a weekly podcast of three Pakistani women in which talk about politics and human rights. In today's podcast Gulalai Ismail and Gul Bukhari talked about the ongoing protest in Jani Khel, Bannu against the murder of four boys and about the NAB postponement of Maryam's appearance of 26th March. LAKKI MARWAT: The residents of Janikhel area of Bannu on Monday  placed the bodies of four teenage boys in front of the local police  station to protest their brutal murder.Locals had...

General Bajwa's statement about peace with India and cracks in PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa on Thursday made a strong pitch for peace with India and sought the world’s help in ending the conflict between the two South Asian nuclear armed rivals. “We feel that it is time to bury the past and move forward,” the army chief said on the second day of the Islamabad Security Dialogue. Gen Bajwa, while proposing peace with India, echoed Prime Minister Imran Khan,...

In this episode of #FridayFocus, Gul Bukhari, Annie Zaman, and Gulalai Ismail discuss the importance of Aurat March in Pakistan, the change it is bringing, and the resistance and backlash it is facing from the conservative sections of the society. Every year on 8th March, women organise in different parts of Pakistan and march for their rights. This year's March was focused on women's right to health, the burden of care-related work, patriarchal violence against women, and economic...

In the weekly podcast, Gul Bukhari, Annie Zaman and Gulalai Ismail speculates about what will happen in the vote of confidence of Imran Khan, why Imran Khan felt the need to take vote of confidence and what's next in the political landscape of Pakistan. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/friday-focus/support

In this episode, Gul Bukhari, Annie Zaman, and Gulalai Ismail discussed the Senate Elections of Pakistan 2021, explored the question of the military establishment has become neutral in the Senate Elections, discussed the ECP decision for re-polling and suspension of senior officers allegedly responsible for the mismanagement on the Bi-Election Day. We talked about the Senate Elections, the progress of Punjab Assembly in electing Senators, and the Presidential reference in the Supreme...

In this episode, we talked about the NAB ordinance of Pakistan introduced by General Parvez Musharaf for the victimization of politicians, assessed the Ordinance and unconstitutional components of the ordinance, shed light on the angle of human rights violations by the NAB, and shared names of people who have died in the custody of NAB. The show was originally posted on January 30th, 2021 on our YouTube Channel. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a...

In this podcast, we talked about the new trend of court-martials of civilians in the military courts of Pakistan and the issue of enforced disappearanes.  On 13 November 2019, human rights defender Idris Khattak was forcibly  disappeared in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by an unidentified group. For nearly  seven months there was no information regarding his fate or whereabouts,  until 16 June 2020, when it was revealed that the defender was in the  custody of the Pakistan military. A year since his...

In this episode, we have talked about the upcoming Senate Elections of Pakistan, the Presidential Reference in the Supreme Court and the PTI-led govt's attempts to subvert the Constitution of Pakistan. The purpose behind filing of the reference is to bypass the procedure of legislation, provided in Articles 70, 72, 238 and 239 of the  Constitution and the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of  Parliament, framed under Article 67 of the Constitution because the ruling party does not...

In this Episode of Friday Focus, Gul Bukhar, Annie Zaman, and Gulalai Ismail talk about the challenges to the Me Too Movement in Pakistan, the achievements of the movement, and the sexual harassment case of Meesha Shafi against Ali Zafar.  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/friday-focus/support

In this episode of Friday Spoke we discussed the Freedom House Report about TransNational Repression, "Out of Sight, Not out of Reach" with a special focus on similar risks faced by the exiled Pakistani activists.  Transnational Repression is governments reaching across borders to silence dissent among diasporas and exiles, including through assassinations, illegal deportations, abductions, digital threats, Interpol abuse, and family intimidation. It is a daily assault on civilians everywhere...