International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Response Forced Doctors Onto a Hunger Strike

Ammar Ali Jan — 2020-05-06T06:43:18Z

Pakistani authorities made a bad start to the coronavirus response, using the crisis to push through an IMF agenda of hospital privatization. Faced with protests by health professionals, the government immediately opted for repression — showing that it considers health care for the masses mere unnecessary spending.

- IV544 - May 2020 / Pakistan, Covid-19 Pandemic

“We the (Seditious) People”: Repression and Revolution in South Asia

Ammar Ali Jan — 2020-01-23T07:20:16Z

Colonial-era sedition laws used to criminalize dissent to protect imperial sovereignty. Now that “The People are sovereign” in independent India and Pakistan, why are they still being charged with sedition?

- IV540 - January 2020 / Pakistan

Pakistan: Capitalism and climate change

Ammar Ali Jan — 2019-09-20T07:43:23Z

The week from September 20 till September 27 has been designated as the week of the â€˜Climate Strike'. It is an unprecedented event in its ambition to disrupt business as usual.

- IV536 - September 2019 / Ecology and the Environment, Pakistan

India: The meaning of Kashmir

Ammar Ali Jan — 2019-08-14T08:01:13Z

Modi's decision to revoke Article 35-A and Article 370 of the Indian constitution has fulfilled one of the cornerstones of Hindutva ideology – the forceful assimilation of Kashmir. The audacity of ambition combined with unprecedented secrecy amplified the menacing character of this event. Couching the operation as part of the fight against terror, arresting the entire political leadership of Kashmir, and cutting off communications throughout the valley indicates the colossal nature of the legal and political rupture taking place in the region.

- iV535 - August 2019 / India, Kashmir

Fear and dissent in Okara

Ammar Ali Jan — 2016-06-06T13:07:36Z

The widespread use of exceptional legal and administrative measures to intervene in social conflicts, particularly in the aftermath of the National Action Plan [1], is radically altering legal and political conceptions of citizenship in Pakistan. While many have considered the legal aspects of this seemingly permanent state of emergency, there is a need to debate how this environment is (re)defining acceptable political dissent and notions of a legitimate political community.

- IV497 - June 2016 / Pakistan, Farmers/peasants/land