Editorial

Now that the festive splendour has passed, the nation should get back to the arduous task of building a strong and healthy Pakistan. 63 Augusts ago, Madr-e-Millat had called freedom “a tender plant (which) need(ed) nursing and constant vigilance.” And the deadly attack on security forces in Balochistan, downing two sons of the soil, was […]

Just one month after medicines prescribed for psychiatric treatments had mysteriously started petering out, as many as 40 essential drugs for life-threatening diseases have reportedly gone missing from the market. The manufacturers’ hands are up in the air as they talk about unbearable import prices of raw materials. After all, their survival in the market […]

Having completed 75 years of independence is enough reason to paint the town red. However, as patriotic fervour overwhelms streets and nooks all across the country, there could not be a more appropriate time to pause for a minute (preferably, more) and take a deep look within. Is Pakistan of 2022 an ideal encapsulation of […]

The Punjab government’s crackdown on the police force for overstepping authority, etc, during PTI’s march on the capital in late May, is just another example of doing the right thing in the wrong way. The government has already suspended 25 SHOs and sent notices to a number of other officials, so it must have all […]

Few things are as certain in today’s world as Modi’s India making a desperate anti-Muslim, preferably anti-Pakistan, dash for the headlines every now and then. The decision to mark August 14, which happens to be Pakistan’s Independence Day, as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day was actually taken last year, and had to be put back because […]

The receipt of a letter of intent (LoI) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) augurs well for the bailout facility, which continues to hang in the balance as the Fund’s executive board meets on Aug29 to decide on it. The word on the market floor is that this all put puts the final stamp on […]

There is no sight of clarity in the latest twist to revel in the unsavoury world of politics. Three days after PTI senior leader Shehbaz Gill was taken into custody for making controversial statements against the state institutions, neither side appears ready to let reason prevail as low punches, distasteful occurrences of the days gone […]

The transfer of the Peshawar corps commander, the sudden execution of TTP leader Omar Khurasani, the re-emergence of armed TTP men in former Fata and KP, and renewed violence in the region all remind Pakistanis of a time that they’d rather forget. Yet, for some reason, instead of preparing to nip the evil in the […]

PTI’s fiery stalwart Shahbaz Gill’s mysterious arrest from Bani Gala on Tuesday is fast-widening an increasingly bitter political divide across the country. While those rooting in the former prime minister’s top aide are decrying the arrest as an “abduction” by “unidentified individuals in unmarked vehicles,” the other end of the spectrum is emphatically swaying to […]

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail seems a different, far more confident man just than a few months ago when he seemed worried about the prospect of default if the IMF bailout program was not salvaged. He did seem pretty convinced, though, that the implementation of painful austerity measures will save the extended fund facility just in […]