Sentenced to death without trial By: Clive Stafford Smith on July 24, 2020I have never witnessed my client, Saifullah Paracha, more depressed than when the federal judge denied his application to be released from Guantánamo Bay after 17 years. The ruling was 124 pages long, but could be distilled to a single line: an elderly man was being told that he should be left to die in […]
Behind the lens By: Zain Rasheed Channa on July 24, 2020The courts of Pakistan, created to protect the rights of individuals equally, fairly and diligently, are fallible in their failure to tighten security and provide protection to Pakistanis using the internet. Complicated scenarios on the internet, masked by freedom of speech and expression, leave most people nationally, as well as internationally, defamed and damaged. Online […]
Hagia Sophia Cathedral Conversion into a Mosque and Islamic Civilisation’s Renaissance By: Wali Imran Khalil on July 24, 2020Hagia Sophia’s conversion to a mosque is a political signal for the dominant global powers. It has nothing to do with Islam. Does Islam allow the conversion of religious sites? There is no early Islamic precedence of converting religious places to mosques, but that was when Islam was an ascendant power. It is a whole […]
Construction: the all-important economic pillar By: Syed Mohammad Wajih Zafar on July 24, 2020Construction is a major industry throughout the world; accounting for a sizeable proportion of most countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The rise of Japanese/German/European economies to the present state from the ashes of World War-II, behind the magnificent industrial, agro-based and housing structures, is largely attributed to the construction industry. The construction industry has a […]
Law and order situation in Ghotki By: Salman Ali on July 23, 2020Regrettably, there is a general breakdown of law and order in the country. However, the situation in the northern Sindh districts has shockingly worsened. Importantly, kidnapping for ransom has acquired the “status of industry” in that region. In Sindh, tribal killings have alarmingly increased. However, most of the cases are happening in Ghotki. Every day, […]
Governance through Local Governments By: Zia Ullah Khan on July 23, 2020Governance is a quick response by the government to the needs of people. It is a complex process whereby some sectors of the society wield power, enact and promulgate public policies, which directly affect the economic and social developments of society. Each democratic regime inherently entails three tiers of government: federal, provincial and local governments. […]
How challenging is ego management! By: Parvez Jamil on July 23, 2020Ego is a conscious mind, the part of one’s identity that means all “self.” If one has a big ego, one is too full of oneself. Poor ego gets such a bad rap, being so often confused with “megalomania” and “vanity” and all kinds of other nasty things, but it is only the conscious (as […]
Rising Asia and the West By: Imtiaz Rafi Butt on July 22, 2020The present year marks the end of an era in two distinct ways. One, the life of 2019 has been altered for the foreseeable future by the pandemic Covid-19, and two, the dominance of the West is no longer the norm. The wheels of change are in full swing. Power circles are being redefined. Colonial […]
New Delhi’s big brotherism and Nepal’s security dilemma: is there a way out? By: Syed Imran Sardar on July 22, 2020Realistically speaking, options for the small states in dealing with big powers in the international system has always been limited. Thanks to the globalisation and the growing interdependence, which has reduced the risk of military invasions, it has widened the room to manoeuvre small states’ foreign policies. Since the end of the cold war, the […]
The music of the subcontinent By: Noman Nayyir Kulachvi on July 22, 2020The greatest Muslim mystic, Jalal Uddin Rumi said, “There are many ways to the divine, but I have chosen the ways of song, dance and laughter.” On the contrary, the greatest exponent of atheism and intellectualism, a radical German philosopher and composer, Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Music is a […]