A few days ago, I came across a heart-wrenching picture of a child sleeping between the graves of his parents. Reportedly, the image is from Syria. But this is not an article about Syria. I do not know what is happening there, since I no longer believe the media. I can only comment on what […]
Strong, unspoken traditions
While Panama and the who-dunnit discussion around 10 billion dominated media headlines, political rights were violated of 1,164 Pakistani citizens. This is the number of registered women voters in PP-23 constituting the areas of Dhurnal, Dhaural and Mogla villages of Chakwal district in Punjab. Please re-read the previous sentence again. Chakwal in Punjab which, […]
Murder, we all wrote
People are surprised and have been asking as to how this is possible. I am surprised that they are surprised. Looking around, as I write this I find myself living in a private bubble. The electricity that powers my house is from private means, the water that I use has been bought in bottles […]
Uncharitable business
Charity is a serious business in Pakistan. You must be wondering why I am putting so much emphasis on its seriousness. The fact of the matter is that Pakistanis give more than Rs 650 billion in charity annually. Perhaps a simple comparison will give you a clear idea of how big this amount is. […]
Ban the ban
I have spent most of my working life conducting capacity building sessions as the jargon goes. What am I building, whose capacity is all in haze? I just know that I get to travel across Pakistan, exchange numbers with random people who then send me ‘Juma Mubarak’messages. This cycle of living happily ever after was […]
Other languages
According to the global language database Ethnologue, Pakistan’s linguistic diversity accounts for 73 languages including the nine languages that are mentioned in the census form of 2017. The other 64 languages are categorised as the “other” languages. The term “celebrating diversity” has been consistently used in Pakistan’s context by policy makers, subject experts, and artists […]
Excuse me?
As I jot down these lines, the three-day International Conference on the Role of Women Parliamentarians in Strengthening Democracy and Social Justice is underway in Islamabad. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Women Parliamentary Caucus for conducting such a successful event with participants including women parliamentarians from more than twelve countries […]
Where is the Sindh Witness Protection Act 2013?
One by one all the witnesses to the Wali Khan Babar murder case were eliminated. The only witness to the Sabeen Mehmud murder case also got killed. In between these two murder cases, occurring in 2011 and 2015 respectively, a number of witnesses to other high profile cases also got murdered or retracted their statements […]
FATA elections: who, when and how?
After much deliberation and discussion with like-minded colleagues and friends, I have come to the conclusion that “FATA reforms” are not on the to-do-list of this government, at least not in the near future. The reason behind this pessimism is the lack of any development on the subject. Despite the fact that most of the […]
FATA local elections
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is once again in the spotlight. Thankfully this time, the discussion is not on the security situation in the area but on the much needed administrative reforms. It won’t be wrong to say that FATA has seen its share of destruction, lawlessness and most importantly bad governance. This area […]