What happens when water becomes a weapon? After a tragic attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam valley left 26 tourists dead on Tuesday, India wasted no time blaming Pakistan-without investigation, without evidence, and most worryingly, without restraint. The government’s knee-jerk decision to “hold in abeyance” the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) marks a dangerous escalation: the […]
Editorial
Better Approach
The federal government’s renewed push for economic streamlining through mining ventures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan presents a complex stress test for our federation. And right now, the method is dangerously flirting with madness. At stake is not just $6 trillion in mineral wealth but the integrity of the constitutional order. No one can deny […]
Rise of TLP
Last week’s lynching in Karachi of a 46?year?old Ahmadi businessman, brutally beaten by Tehreek?e?Labbaik Pakistan activists merely for offering Friday prayers, laid bare the daily nightmare faced by our country’s religious minorities. For Ahmadis, who many hard?liners regard as heretical, this kind of mob violence has, tragically, become all too routine. Yet what makes this […]
Politics Behind Phalagam
Even before the sound of gunfire rocking Phalagam, Indian-administered Kashmir, could fade into the background, prominent news channels and government-aligned social media handles began beating a now-familiar drum: Pakistan was to blame. The readiness with which this accusation was made and accepted by society (minus any credible investigation or verification) speaks volumes about a deeper, […]
Human Cost
Asif Javed’s story had not begun at the Lahore High Court, where he drenched himself in petrol and struck a match. It began much earlier: in corporate boardrooms where employee grievances are treated as line items rather than human struggles, in HR departments that view worker rights as a nuisance, and in regulatory offices more […]
Coalition Without Consensus
The recent, and perhaps necessary, meeting between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Lahore, aimed at mending their visibly-strained alliance, comes as yet another sign of the endemic fragility of coalition politics in Pakistan. For now, both parties have publicly (read carefully) reaffirmed their commitment to collaboration, but the […]
Exporting Despair
Last November, Pakistan made headlines for all the wrong reasons when Saudi authorities issued us a stern warning, not over weapons or geopolitical alliances, but a deluge of beggars. Rightly so, as the Kingdom, according to Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, has already deported 4,700 Pakistanis for begging under its Anti?Begging Regulation. While this proves to […]
Wake-up Call
With just two weeks into April, Pakistan has already been battered by a series of devastating natural events this month. A relentless heatwave, unprecedented hailstorms, destructive windstorms, and unsettling seismic tremors have all come crashing in, one after another. To dismiss these incidents as freak events would be an act of unprecedented naivety. The shrill […]
Protesting Doctors
Pakistan’s healthcare system is in crisis, and the Punjab government’s plan to privatize hospitals is making things worse. With only one doctor for every 1,764 people-far below the World Health Organization’s standard of one per 1,000-Pakistan is struggling to care for its citizens. Many doctors are leaving the country, and strict rules make it hard […]
Mine Line
As Sindh is locked with the centre on the canal issue, a political storm is brewing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over a new mining and minerals bill. The bill, introduced by a faction backed by KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the provincial assembly, has drawn heavy criticism not […]