Mustafa Qadri

Sorry for not posting more travel diary entries of late. Or perhaps that’s a good thing? I’ve been a little flat out putting some stories together. The decision to impeach Musharraf didn’t help either… in terms of my workload. I’m still way behind on some non-Pakistan stories including one which is oh, just around 2 months overdue.

I visited the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan today. It was a wonderful experience meeting committed, fearless lawyers and activists. I hope to be traveling to Hyderabad with one of their activists later in the week to interview a former bonded worker who is now an activist. Something of a de facto union leader for the lowest of the low actually.

The interesting and shocking thing they told me was that they have had more complaints from bonded labourers since the non-Musharraf controlled civilian government won election last February. Basically a lot of the landlords who literally own these people are parliamentarians or affiliated with the PPP (in Sindh, anyway) and other political parties. That is most definitely what I’d call FUBAR.

Of course we spoke about a lot of other things too. But you’ll just have to come back later to read more about it!