Erstwhile coup-making general and former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf was indicted on murder charges Tuesday in connection with the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. While the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi had named Musharraf in the case in early 2011, and declared he was a proclaimed offender in August of that year, today’s indictment marks the first time that a former …
Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf has been indicted on three charges over the 2007 assassination of the country’s opposition leader and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Prosecutors say that he is accused of murder, criminal conspiracy to murder and facilitation of murder. The offence carries the death penalty or life imprisonment. Ms. Farahnaz Ispahani, a Pakistani politician and Public Policy Scholar …
For the last few days, Pakistan‘s capital has been on high alert due to the threat of a possible terrorist attack. Police and military vehicles have paraded around the city, commandos and snipers have been posted on Islamabad‘s picturesque Margalla Hills, and Pakistan’s Navy has been deployed to protect a city that is 915 miles away from the sea. But …
Published on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 Pakistan’s religious minorities are widely viewed as embattled or under attack. This paper undertakes a comprehensive analysis of Pakistan’s policies towards its religious minority populations, both Muslim as well as non-Muslim. It is not only Pakistan where Muslim as well as non-Muslim minorities are under attack. Rather, this is a phenomenon which is …
Farahnaz Ispahani Public Policy Scholar Asia Program CONTACT INFORMATION: [email protected] T (202) 691-4396 // F (202) 691-4001 EXPERTISE: Democracy; Democracy Promotion; Democratic Transition; Gender; Gender Equality; Human Rights; Pakistan; South Asia; Middle East and North Africa;Egypt AFFILIATION: Former Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. Politician, Writer, Women & Minority Rights advocate WILSON CENTER PROJECT(S): “Protecting Religious Minorities in Pakistan & other Muslim Majority Nations” TERM: Farahnaz Ispahani …
The leaked report of the panel set up to look into the 2011 Osama bin Laden incident in Pakistan skips many hard questions including how the nation came to acquire a jihadi mindset Hours after U.S. Navy SEALs found and killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, the Pakistan President, Asif Ali Zardari, held a meeting with the …
By Farahnaz Ispahani On Sunday, former military dictator Pervez Musharraf was at last given permission to run in the parliamentary elections scheduled for May 11, but only in the northern district of Chitral. Two other districts rejected his nomination papers, and his application in Islamabad is still pending. Elections officials in Pakistan, acting under directives of the country’s Supreme …
Farahnaz Ispahani As Pakistan approaches its next general elections, scheduled for 11 May, questions have arisen once again about the fairness of the electoral process. The problem stems from Pakistan’s long history of meddling in politics by unelected institutions of state, euphemistically referred to as “the establishment.” In addition to direct military rule for half its life as an independent …
By Farahnaz Ispahani Every year on the 4th of April all Pakistani democrats take a moment to remember Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Dubbed ‘Black Day,’ it is the anniversary of one of the most tragic political murders in the country’s history, albeit one conducted with judicial approval. Bhutto was Pakistan’s first popularly elected democratic politician. He is still mourned today …
The unique moment of a civilian government completing its full term is in danger of being undermined by the failure of political parties to reach consensus on a caretaker government Pakistan is scheduled to go to the polls on May 11. These would be the first democratic elections in our history coming at the end of the completion of an …