Editorial

It almost beggars belief that a certain prayer leader in Karachi defied the strict official lockdown, went ahead with Friday prayers – a large number of people reportedly took part – and even incited people to attack the police. Four people including the imam were duly arrested when a large police contingent later arrived to […]

It’s no surprise that practically all countries are revising their annual GDP growth rates downwards in light of the heavy economic and financial impact of the coronavirus. And Pakistan is no exception of course. In fact, our economy was so brittle even before the outbreak that a $6 billion IMF bailout program barely enabled it […]

Clearly initial estimates weren’t quite so right and the lockdown, on the global scale, will need to be far longer than just two weeks. Although there is some light at the end of the tunnel. According to some experts, mostly American, there is a slight chance that after peaking over yet two more weeks the […]

Islamabad has rightly rejected the new domicile law introduced by the Indian government in Occupied Kashmir. The law grants Indian citizens who have resided in the Occupied Valley for fifteen years the right to call it their place of domicile. This is clearly yet another move on the part of India’s extremist government to illegally […]

Everybody understands all the complications and limitations that the government faces in the fight against the coronavirus. But it seems there are certain contradictions in the government’s narrative that must be ironed out rather urgently. For example, as province after province follows Sindh in enforcing as complete a lockdown as possible, why does the centre […]

US President Donald Trump seems, sadly, spot on in warning Americans to brace for “a hell of a two weeks” going forward as the White House projected that there could well be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the US alone. That is why markets tanked again, in what now seems the new normal, and sent […]

A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), released on Monday, said Pakistan would most likely be among developing countries that will be hardest hit by the by the economic/financial hangover of the coronavirus. It further noted that the global economy would need injections worth trillions of dollars to cope with […]

It’s still too soon to say when this coronavirus nightmare will be over; or, for that matter, just what kind of changed world is left behind if it lasts too long. But it is already abundantly clear that governments around the world will have to redefine their priorities. How could it be, really, that the […]

The government’s claim that a good 27 per cent of reported coronavirus cases so far have been the result of local transmission seriously calls into question the role of the general public in facing this crisis. There’s only so much that authorities can do, really, to limit unnecessary movement on the part of such a […]

With two coronavirus related deaths reportedly occurring in Occupied Kashmir – although it’s very hard to get facts out of the valley these days – surely it’s time for the international community to finally take a long hard look at what’s been happening there since at least Aug5 last year, when New Delhi stripped it […]