Missing in Pakistan is a short documentary written and directed by Ziad Zafar, an independent journalist and filmmaker. It was shot in February and March 2007 and highlights one of the key causes of the judicial and political crisis in Musharraf’s Pakistan: the extra-legal disappearances of ordinary citizens at the hands of Military Intelligence. It reveals, as well, that the average Pakistani citizen can easily draw a stark connection between US ideals and policy with the realities in Pakistan. It is time we did the same here.
The documentary was to be screened at FAST-NU in Lahore. The screening was halted by the administration of the University at the behest of the government. Please read this account by students at FAST-NU to get the details. [via]
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truly said in the video
“You will see the power of the powerless soon”
And once again , the same story, diffrent counntry…
That is an astounding figure–again, 50,000 brothers, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons.
There’s much categorical reasoning about who disappears and why, and while here the government is not held up as the big bad bogey with a Gulag, there remains still a mystery attending each and every one of those lost souls.
It may be easier in the nature of things to account for fear and mistrust, especially where assessing information is concerned. Politically motivated agitation and propagand, censorship, and intimidation leaves new media viewers and old fashioned readers alike searching for verifiable reportage, and where it’s not to be found or a public has found that it has been misinformed, trust both in language and in people decays.
I wish I knew more about the development of common cause and trust across complex societies, especially as politicians and others develop power by siezing on and increasing the polarization between their positions, which they may do largely through suggestion and by making much of trivial differences between people.
Mobs don’t keep records but governments do, and over time the truth comes out in old memos, orders, purchase receipts, and rosters; where such do not come to light, one need not overestimate the powers of the state.