Beenish Javed

Afghan refugees in Pakistan have expressed a mixed reaction to the takeover of their country by the Taliban. Some of them are hopeful that the Taliban will bring peace to the war-torn country. Many are worried of the strict implementation of laws and a crackdown on the freedom that women enjoy.. 45-year-old Hassan Khela is cooking a meal for her family of nine. The steam from the kettle further heats her already hot and humid kitchen. She doesn't know what her family will eat tomorrow. Her husband is a laborer and earns a daily wage if he gets work. In the evening he sells potato chips but the small venture is hardly profitable. The family lives in abject poverty in an Afghan refugee settlement in Peshawar, Pakistan. Dirty alleys, clogged sideways with garbage, clothes hanging outside as a covering on the rundown doors is how Hassan Khela’s street looked. Many of her neighbors like her are living with meager incomes. Khela is an Afghan citizen. Nine months ago her son who was an A...

Feshta Karim (25) “My education is in public policy and that’s why I want to work in Afghanistan.” Freshta Karim is 25 years old. She is from Kabul, Afghanistan. Her family moved to Pakistan after the Taliban took power but she remained in Afghanistan until 2002. Later she went to Britain to study. She recently returned to her homeland after graduating from Oxford University with a degree in Public Policy. She studied at this prestigious institute thanks to a Chevening Scholarship. She is one of the few Afghans to want to come back to this war-torn country after receiving an education. “My education is in public policy and that’s why I want to work in Afghanistan,” she told DW by phone from Kabul. “I understand why people leave but I do not want to. I have to stay here and improve the situation of my country.” In order to do this, Freshta launched a non-governmental organization last year. She wants to raise awareness about education and to...

Pakistan’s army has ordered an inquiry into a former spy chief for co-writing a book with the ex-chief of an intelligence agency from arch-rival India that has stirred controversy on a range of issues. With the election fast approaching, it is not business as usual in Pakistan’s electoral politics. Contrary to expectations it is not because for the second time in its history an elected government is passing on the baton to another. Unexpectedly the most stable mainstay of Pakistan’s real politic, the military, is for once not in the polity’s good books. In a tale of many firsts for the boys, the list of charges against the military is rapidly getting longer. It has been targeted by Pahtun Tahafuz Movement for killing and abduction of Pashtun population. It has been blamed for running a vicious campaign against the three time elected - and as many times ousted - former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The latest dagger in its side however has been thrust from within ...

Maleeha Lodhi is a well known expert on Pakistan and U.S. relations. I spoke to her about the complicated relationship between two countries and if she sees any improvement in ties among two countries. Beenish: Is the recent engagement between Pakistan and U.S. officials, especially the visit of Marc Grossman to Pakistan, has helped in improving ties between two countries or not? Maleeha:  The U.S. has not responded to many demands of Pakistan.  U.S has not offered an apology on Salala check post attacks, payments of Coalition Support Fund to Pakistan have not been made, and no agreement on drones have been made. The parliamentary recommendations are very clear on stopping drone attacks, but the U.S. has not agreed to stop them. I think it’s not only about opening up of NATO supply routes, the U.S. has not responded positively on what Pakistan wants. We have to see if the deadlock between two countries can be resolved or not? And whether the new terms of engagem...

Islamabad is a city of diplomats. The team at ARY NEWS noticed that there was no show covering diplomatic activities in the city. ARY NEWS came up with the idea to start a new show called, Diplomatic Enclave. This show has different segments. All the segments are named differently. The segment called, Diplomacy, has an interview with a diplomat or with the foreign office spokesperson. The segment, Saqafti Sargarmian (Cultural Activites), include some cultural events arranged by different embassies, mostly on their national days. The segment called Aalmi Naza( World view), include all important news covered by international media world wide in the current week. Here are links of the last week's segments that has already gone on air. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_HLAchEtTM&context=C318aa1bADOEgsToPDskJg2Dd05e1O8-BA00k7na3g  This segment includes a detailed analysis of Congressman Dana Rohrabecher's act of submitting a resolution in Congress, about separating Ba...

The third episode of Diplomatic Enclave went really well. This episode includes a quick roundup of last week's news. A great report on Iran's cultural aspects and a report explaining the importance of this week's Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Strategic Agreements. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLmuB81AROw For translation in English like the page http://www.facebook.com/pages/DiplomaticEnclave/168947873189364

Islamabad is a city of diplomats. The team at ARY NEWS noticed that there was no show covering diplomatic activities in the city. ARY NEWS came up with the idea to start a new show called, Diplomatic Enclave. This show has different segments. All the segments are named differently. The segment called, Diplomacy, has an interview with a diplomat or with the foreign office spokesperson. The segment, Saqafti Sargarmian (Cultural Activites), include some cultural events arranged by different embassies, mostly on their national days. The segment called Aalmi Naza( World view), include all important news covered by international media world wide in the current week. Here are links of the two segments that have already gone on air. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVAgyaQ_3hg&list=UUS_oMLaaEiM13_HBJjZueHw&index=2&feature=plcp&noredirect=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK6ttRM87Fw&feature=related

        Here's a small video clip of Mani Shankar's interview. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fSSQnsARGs&feature=youtu.be&a                    Mani Shankar Aiyar is a known member of Indian Parliament. He has also served as Indian counsel in Karachi for three years in early 90s. I was fortunate to talk to him on his recent visit to Pakistan. He came to Pakistan with 15 other Indian Parliamentarians including , film star turned politician, Shaturgan Sinha. This was the third round of Parliamentary dialogue between Parliamentarians from both India and Pakistan. For this session, the main topic of discussion was how to improve trade between the two countries. Parliamentarians from both countries have devised a set of recommendations, which they will present to their respective governments.                 T...

  I also made a news report on this topic for ARY NEWS, have a look at it   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvKx9BqR3P0&feature=g-all-u&context=G262098fFAAAAAAAAAAA                              Pakistan has seen decades of military rule, which understandably has created rivalry among Pakistan's military establishment and the civil government. It is obvious that there is huge trust deficit among Pakistan's present government and military. This trust deficit has become more apparent with the controversial memo case. We saw that while Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani was in China, Prime Minister gave an interview to Chinese newspaper, China Daily. PM stated in the interview that the affidavits presented directly to Supreme Court by DG ISI and the COAS for the memo case investigation were unconstitutional and illegal. This got a lot of attention on me...

                        Pakistan has a  history of  having difficult relations with the U.S. It has always been a relationship based on interests and that is the primary reason  for Pakistan not having a stable relationship with the U.S. But in past ten years, 2011 has been extremely tough for these two countries.                The biggest set back to this relationship in 2011, started with the Raymond Davis case. The CIA contractor had killed two Pakistani citizens in Lahore. It was this particular case which made the general population aware of CIA's presence in Pakistan. Although Raymond Davis case was resolved, but it highly ignited Anti-American sentiment in Pakistanis. The memory of this particular issue was still fresh among Pakistanis that an another devestating incident took pl...

                    Christmas celebrations are enjoyed world wide. I also was very eager to make some  reports on how christmas is celebrated in Pakistan. To fulfill my desire, I went to one of the oldest churches in Rawalpindi city, called the St. Pauls's Church, to cover a chruch service. This church service was organized almost fifteen days before christmas. The Pastor of church, Samuel Titus, told me that Christmas celebration start well before the actual Christmas date.                      During the Christmas service, Pastor prayed for the prosperity of Pakistan and asked the affluent christans to help the unprivileged Christan families, especially those who want to send their children to schools but don't have enough funds. Many carols were also sung in memeory and praise of Jesus...

Moti Bazar is one of the oldest bazars in Rawalpindi city. It is  hub of business activities, many people visit it but only few are aware of its interesting history. I was fortunate to get to know some interesting facts about this lively bazar. Almost, 200 years ago, Satti practice was common in India.  Like any vibrant society, there were a group of people who were against this practie. Mr. Moti Lal Nohri, a prominenet sikh from Rawalpindi was one who spoke against this practice openely. To help widowed women, Moti Lal opened a centre for these women. In this centre women who were afraid that there families or their in laws would  burn them to death after their husbands death, took protection in this centre. Women would stich clothes, do embriodery on clothes and sell them outside their centre. This provided them some money to feed themselves. After partition , this centre was closed and the building was alloted to a school. So, next time if you happen...

Malala Yousafzai is a fourteen year old girl of Swat, Pakistan. She has recently been awarded the first National Peace Award of Pakistan. The award in future will  be associated with Malala's name. Between 2007 and 2009,  there was a military operation going on in Swat against militants. Militants were bombing girls's schools throughout Swat, and killing people who were favoring the military and government of pakistan.This was the time when people were shifting to other cities, when people had hidden themselves in their homes. But Malala was brave enough to talk to national and international media. She openely talked about girls education, how harmful bombing girls schools would be. She became a part of Newyork Times documentaries , A school girl's odyessy , and A class dismissed in Swat . She also was a regular writer for BBC Urdu website. On 20th Decemeber 2011, she  recieved Pakistan's first peace award, in recognition of her services to raise awareness abou...

              I got a chance to interview Mark Stroh, spokesperson of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, for ARY NEWS. Following is the summary of the interview.              The U.S. says its not cutting the military aid of 700 million dollars nor it is freezing the aid to Pakistan. The senate has passed a defence authorisation bill, which bounds Pakistan to cooperate with the U.S. in combating the IED's, which have been a primary sources of deaths of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. If the defence departement of U.S. sends a report to the congress that Pakistan is cooperating than the aid money will go to Pakistan. This bill will most likely be soon signed by President Obama, and than Pakistan would be bound to control the flow of IED's to Afghanistan. Experts of International affairs, here in Islamabad have been talking about a clear shift in Pakistan's po...

We all know how hazardous can the plastic bags be to our environment. Burning them , releases poisonous gases, just throwing them away can cause sewage problems not only this, they can also be harmful for agricultural land. Yet plastic bags are commonly used in Pakistan and there is no proper mechanism to recycle them. On my recent visit to Muzaffarabad, I was pleasantly surprized to cover a project for ARY NEWS. This project is about utilising plastic bags to make useful household items. This project is sponsered by NGO,Idara e Taleem o Agahi, and the U.S. State department. Under this project, Tahir Alam, a school teacher, has guided girls of a local school of Muzaffarabad to weave plastic threads and make household items. By cutting the plastic bags in a certain way, the girls are able to get 9 yards of plastic thread. Girls have made useful items such as table mats, baskets, school bags and other decorative items by weaving plastic thead. The project head , Tahir Alam, says that th...

On Tuesday 21st Sep 2010 Sarah, my friend who also works as a news reporter called me to join her on a day trip to Swat. I was a bit reluctant to accept the invitation as I had taken three days off with the Eid holidays to attend quite an amazing wedding in Peshawar. But somehow she convinced me and I was ready for an adventurous trip. So early in the morning at around 7 we got in to a 20.5 million armored vehicle. This was World food program’s car.  We were traveling with them as media reporters to cover their projects in Swat. This seemed to be a cool, comfortable car and I was just excited to travel in an armored vehicleJ. Anyway we had a pretty good ride to Swat without any lunch break we went to a village where we met the WFP people, they served us food in a small village house. It was nice they served us fruit which they picked from the tree in their home. It was a very simple home, the women in that home couldn’t speak Urdu and the girls there had only stu...

GRANTING MFN STATUS TO INDIA Syed Asad Hussain is a leading economist of Pakistan and currently serving as Director SZABIST Islamabad. I had a discussion with him on what benefits Pakistan could achieve but giving India the status of most favourite nation or MFN. Here are some excerpts from the conversation.   No country in the world is self-sufficient in natural and technical resources. To share these resources it’s important that countries trade with each other and get rid of unnecessary trade barriers. Trade between regional economic blocs such as ASEAN and NAFTA have proven to be successful. The volume of trade between Far East Asian countries is almost 193 billion dollars annually. The trade between countries in European Union is approximately 2000 billion dollars annually. The trade among countries in South Asia is only 9 billion dollars. Mexico and Canada are both one of the biggest trading partners of U.S. Desp...

 Memorable trip to Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Muzafrabad is a beautiful city with great hospitable and beautiful  people. I feel lucky to have  travelled with staff of NGO Idara e Taleem o Agahi, Riffat and Sadia, to Muzafrabad. Riffat like me is a U.S State dept alumnui and since our last meeting I have done almost three reports with them.      The road to  Muzafrabad is with sharp turns so if you are like me who  gets sick while travelling to hilly areas than you must take some good medicine so the nausea doesnt spoil your trip. It took us about three and a half hours to reach Muzafrabad. Our first destination was Pilot High School. This school was established in 1924 during Dogra rule, which makes it the oldest school of Azad Kashmir.  President of AJK Raja Zulqarnain has been a student at the same school. Idarae Taleem o Agahi wanted us to cover a small ceremony organized at the school to highlight a project i...

This blog is about a small child Zeba who works as a domestic servant but is also a student at a loacl school in Islamabad.    Must watch this link and you can read the translation for better understanding.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMH6lv3slN0&context=C29836ADOEgsToPDskK24NyzohU1OEZsKaxmlWQB Translation: This is 12 year old girl Zeba. Because of poverty, she is forced to work at a home. As a child labor Zeba with her small hands sweeps, cleans the dishes and do other household chores. Despite working so hard at such a tender age, after cleaning she goes to a local school nearby her home run by NGO, Idara e Taleem o Aghai, where she doesnt have to pay any fee. . Zeba studies in grade 3. Zeba understands that only with proper education she can liberate herself from shackles of poverty and social injustices. Along with her studies she is also learning sewing so that in futre she is able to help her poor parents. ZEBA, "I want to study like ot...