"Frankly my heart is quite heavy. But brave men don't cry, they fight it out and put these bastards out of business."

Inspired by Anna, Pakistani to fast against corruption

Taking a cue from Anna Hazare, a 68-year-old Pakistani businessman is set to go on hunger strike in Islamabad from Sep 12 to declare war on endemic corruption in his country. Expressing his admiration for Hazare, Jehangeeer Akhtar complained that corruption was a far more serious disease in Pakistan. Activist Akhtar wants the Pakistan parliament to pass an anti-corruption law -- like what India is now planning. 'I demand that an anti-corruption bill be presented in the National Assembly,' said Akhtar, who has closely followed the anti-corruption war in India. He said the Pakistani bill should be on the lines of what gets passed in India's parliament. 'Corruption in Pakistan is more than in India... bahut zyada (much more),' Akhtar said in a telephonic interview from Islamabad where he runs a photography business. It is not the first time Akhtar will be taking up cudgels for a cause. 'I once sat on a hunger strike for 22 days for the sake of traders in Islamabad,' he recalled. It was about tenants being forcibly vacated. On another occasion, he went on hunger strike for eight days. {Read on}

Nepal echoes Anna Hazare's protest

Inspired by activist Anna Hazare's protest against corruption in New Delhi, women activists in Nepal and human rights workers championing women's rights have begun a hunger strike in capital city Kathmandu, seeking a new Constitution within the August 31 deadline. "We are proud that our protest resembles Anna Hazare's," said 53-year-old Som Prasad Bhandari, general secretary of Bhumi Adhikar Manch, an NGO that seeks to protect the rights of landless squatters. "We wish he would come to Nepal." Defying incessant rainfall and a transport strike, Bhandari and over a dozen others, mostly women, sat on a hunger strike before Nepal's Parliament, asking the political parties to stop squabbling for power, form a government on the basis of consensus and produce the first draft of the new Constitution that has already been delayed by nearly 15 months. "There is a parallel between Anna Hazare's protest and ours though we are on a relay hunger strike for 12 hours a day," said Rita Thapa, a 60-year-old grandmother and veteran women's rights activist who had been arrested by police in May for taking part in a similar protest by women near Parliament. {Read on}

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