Hina Hafeezullah Ishaq

She was in my English Literature class at college: vivacious, sparkling and bright. Her long, dark hair always tied in a braid, she exuded energy and enthusiasm. Always ready for a good laugh, she saw the funny side of life and was quick to dispel gloom and misery. She drove a parrot green ‘Dabba’ (minivan), […]

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) released the district-wise data of male and female voters in the country, last week. There are 86,189,802 registered voters in Pakistan, 48,592,387 of these are males while 37,597,415 are females; roughly calculated, this means nearly 44 percent of the total eligible, registered voters are women. According to the Global […]

She was always impeccably dressed; her house was always spotless, her pots and pans always bright and shiny, her embroidery and knitting skills surpassed those of many a fine artisan. Her home was always open to everyone; she was agile and made the best aloo gosht in the world. She was Khala Jee, my grandmother’s […]

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Unlike Captain Kirk, I live in what I presume is now the 21st century, in a city called […]

Only one survived. It was past 11 at night, and I was in bed, firm in my resolve to sleep early to ease my rising time of 4:30 am. The dogs kept on barking, and as I tossed and turned, I thought I heard an unusual sound, but then dismissed it as my mind playing […]

Death is the inevitable reality. No measure of science or prayer has been able to change it. It is inevitable that come one day, we will all die, some sooner, others later. But what if we all had the power and capacity to change the life of others, to alleviate their suffering, to end their […]

It is rumoured that after the resounding success of the movie Triple M, the stage is set for further like ventures. Not only was Triple M a local production, it also boasted an entire local cast and was proudly filmed on our own Pakistani soil. It ran for three whole days, gaining amazing accolades and […]

“Savita Halappanavar, who was 17 weeks pregnant, died of septicaemia a week after presenting with back pain on 21 October at University hospital in Galway, where she was found to be miscarrying,” reported The Guardian. Savita’s death did not take place in any Third World developing country but in Ireland. Sadly, for Savita, who was […]

In an ideal world, there should be no discrimination that is defined as unfair treatment or denial of normal privileges to persons because of their race, age, sex, nationality or religion. Watching a talk show on television recently, I heard one of the participants say that there were discriminatory laws against women in Pakistan, which […]

I must confess I have always been fascinated with the ‘cuckoo’ clock! As a child, I just could not get enough of the ‘cuckoo! cuckoo!’ dot on the hour, every hour, but in spite of my fascination, I have never actually owned one: neither the cuckoo nor the clock! Talking to a friend once, who […]