Outcry on social media as LUMS cancels talk featuring Mama Qadeer

[Zarvan]

Activists condemned the cancellation of the talk however, the cause behind it could not be ascertained. Photo: promotional poster LUMS Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
LAHORE: Students and activists took to social networking websites to protest the cancellation of a talk by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) featuring Baloch human rights activist Mama Qadeer Baloch on Thursday.

Mama Qadeer Baloch, a sexagenarian activist, is known for highlighting cases of enforced disappearance of Baloch activists which rights groups accuse the military and intelligence agencies of kidnapping and killing.

The talk titled "Unsilencing Balochistan", a part of the series "Remapping Justice: On Human Rights in Pakistan" was scheduled for today at 6:30 pm at LUMS Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS), according to a promotional poster.

The representative from the office of LUMS Vice Chancellor told Dawn.com that the university "would soon be issuing an official statement regarding cancellation of the talk" on their website.

Meanwhile, Dean of the Students Affairs Department at LUMS said that he was not in a position to give an official statement about the cancellation of the event.

Soon after the announcement the hashtag "#Shameonlums" started to trend on social networking site Twitter.

A LUMS student said that students received an email from Associate Professor and Department Chair, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS Ali Khan announcing the cancellation of the talk.

The email said that the scheduled talk on Balochistan was "cancelled on the orders of the government".

The email further said: "LUMS is committed to working with the government to find a way to allow the university to hold conversations on topics that are sensitive but that need to be debated in an objective and unbiased manner".

The talk was to feature Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) chairman Mama Qadeer, activist M. M. Ali Talpur, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Director I.A. Rehman, General Secretary Farzana Majeed, Quaid-e-Azam University professor and activist Aasim Sajjad and human rights activist Sajjad Changezi as guest speakers.

The talk was organised by Visiting Assistant Professor at LUMS Dr Anne Christine Habbard and was scheduled to be moderated by Daily Times Chief Editor Rashid Rahman.
Outcry on social media as LUMS cancels talk featuring Mama Qadeer - Pakistan - DAWN.COM
Yes talks cancelled but still those who were trying to arrange this talk and promote traitor like Mama Qadeer and one another guy should be arrested and put in jail. Mama Qadeer own son is involved in bomb blasts and that other guys has close relation with BLA I am talking about Taimur Rahman
@WebMaster @Horus @Oscar @Jango @Jungibaaz @Irfan Baloch @nair @SpArK @AUz @Spring Onion @Leader @Jazzbot @Jzaib @Stealth @Radioactive Friends

 

[senses]

If im not wrong, this mama qadeer has alot of bloods on his hands right ? i saw a video of his openly encouraging separatist of Baluchistan to rise against pakistan ?

 

[haviZsultan]

I haven't come across anything where Mama Qadeer Baloch is directly petitioning for the dissolvation of the Pakistani state. Point me out where I may be wrong though.

 

[Kabira]

Stupid of army/ISI to prevent this.

 

[sparten]

What is praiseworthy in peace becomes dangerous in war. Once we have won this war, then Mama Qadeer or Papa Faqir or whoever can speak at LUMS all they want.

As an aside, I wonder how Mama Qadeer would react to an institute like LUMS in Balochistan. A free thinkink, diverse, pluaralistic, majority female student body? Not well I would wager.