Lawyer. Interested in: protection of fundamental rights & freedoms - history - environmental protection. Support constitutional & civilian supremacy in Pakistan
Dec 16, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
50 years have passed since the #FallofDhaka on December 16, 1971.
In the tweets below, I've shared various threads I made over the past one year covering the following:
50 years ago (on December 3, 1971), Pakistan launched Operation Chengiz Khan which marked the official beginning of all-out war between India & Pakistan, culminating in the fall of Dhaka on December 16. Indian incursions into East Pakistan had already begun in late November 1971.
Pakistan's strategy for defense of East Pakistan called for offensive in the West, therefore the PAF launched pre-emptive strikes against several air bases in western India on the evening of December 3, and soon after the Pakistan Army began offensive all along the western front.
Jun 13, 2021 • 23 tweets • 6 min read
50 years ago (on June 13, 1971), Anthony Mascarenhas' famous newspaper report titled 'Genocide' was published in the UK's Sunday Times. It exposed the brutal nature of the military operation in E. Pakistan, which had been cut off from the world since March bbc.com/news/world-asi…
Foreign journalists had been expelled from E. Pakistan when Op Searchlight was launched on the night of March 25, 1971 (Further info on Op Searchlight:
"Whatever might have been the reason for the breaking down of the negotiations, it does appear to us that not only the nature of the action that was taken to suppress the movement of Awami League (contd.)
...on the midnight of the 25th of March, 1971, but also the manner of its execution was extremely unwise, lacking in political foresight and one that was inevitably to seal the doom of East Pakistan... the Yahya Khan regime, in its design to maintain itself in power, (contd.)
Mar 25, 2021 • 63 tweets • 18 min read
50 years ago (on the night of March 25, 1971), Operation Searchlight was launched in erstwhile East Pakistan by the military regime led by Gen. Yahya Khan. The operation triggered a civil war in E. Pakistan which continued for 9 months & culminated in the creation of Bangladesh.
The immediate aim of Op Searchlight was to crush the civil disobedience movement launched by the Awami League in E. Pakistan, in response to President Yahya Khan's decision to indefinitely postpone the inaugural session of the National Assembly elected through the 1970 elections.
Dec 27, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Can't forget the day when #BenazirBhutto was assassinated. I was studying at LUMS & was serving as General Secretary (GS) of Law & Politics Society (LPS). LPS had invited BB to deliver a talk on the future of democracy in Pakistan, which was scheduled in first week of Jan, 2008.
The overall context of the talk was important. Pakistan had recently been subjected to emergency rule by Gen. Musharraf, the Lawyers Movement was raging and the 2008 Elections were just around the corner. BB had returned from self exile & was leading a spirited election campaign.
Dec 7, 2020 • 30 tweets • 10 min read
50 years ago, Pakistan held its first general elections (on December 7, 1970). These were the first direct national elections to be ever held in Pakistan since its independence. These elections were conducted under the Legal Framework Order, 1970, promulgated by Gen. Yahya Khan.
Under LFO 1970, the national assembly was to consist of 300 general seats & 13 reserved seats for women (300 + 13), distributed, on population basis, as follows:
In 2013, when I was working with Mr. Kamran Sheikh, we had filed a petition before the SC under Art 184(3) of the Constitution on behalf of Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) Network seeking enforcement of the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities in #Pakistan
The petition was drafted in People-First Language & sought interpretation of constitutional rights in the context of disability, relying on the rights-based approach enunciated in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (Ratified by Pakistan in 2011)
Oct 24, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The prosecution team (including myself), which had been appointed in 2013 to prosecute Gen Musharraf (R.) for high treason & had been pursuing the case ever since, has just been de-notified by the federal govt. After years of delay, the case was fixed for final arguments today.
In the previous hearing, the Special Court had directed both sides to submit their written arguments prior to today's hearing. In compliance, the prosecution had already submitted its written arguments. Today oral arguments were to be heard. However we were barred from doing so.
