Expressing dissent in a virtual world

ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan's private TV news channels being blacked out and censorship imposed on the print media, those opposing the emergency have learnt to keep up with developments and express dissent in cyberspace.

Sabahat Ashraf, a Pakistani software expert based in Silicon Valley, has created a wiki-page to catalogue and disseminate information on the emergency.

The page provides links to sites which give minute-to-minute updates on the situation in Pakistan, articles by people from across the world and live feeds of the blacked out TV channels on the internet. Even details regarding which lawyer or activist has been housed in which jail can be accessed on this page.

"WikiPakistan is an information database about Pakistan, Pakistanis and the diaspora hosted by Wikipedia," Ashraf said on his blog.

Ashraf, who was in Pakistan just a day before emergency was imposed on November 3, was not entirely shocked when he landed at the JFK airport in the US and learnt that his worst fears had come true.

An avid blogger, Ashraf immediately added a new page to the existing section on Pakistan at Wikipedia to keep everyone updated on the situation. The page helps cyber-buffs keep abreast with 'breaking news'.

On Ashraf's wiki-page, there are some blogs which have
been recommended as 'specialised', pakistanpolitics.net, pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com and pakistannewsroom.com and give an instant insight on the developments in the country.

But Ashraf is not the only one who is going the extra mile to provide information.