The legal case for Kashmir on August 22, 2019The Kashmir dispute has many religious and political connotations that cannot be ignored. However, at the international stage, Pakistan must make a legal case for Kashmir, which means that it must finally move away from its support for a jihadist solution to pushing for a solution based on principles of international law. This should ideally […]
Personal tragedy, public lessons on April 21, 2019On late Friday night/early Saturday morning (22nd/23rd February 2019), three young women lost their lives in a tragic car accident that shook the city of Islamabad. Almost everyone in our tiny city either knew someone in that car, or knew someone who knew someone in that car. Two of my best friends were in that […]
Protecting the Hazara Community on April 18, 2019Six years ago, on 10 January 2013, a snooker hall in Quetta witnessed a suicide attack, killing eight people. Shortly after the initial blast, another explosive device was detonated after being planted on an ambulance, just to make sure that the maximum number of Shia Hazaras could be killed. And they were: over 120 people, […]
The information conundrum on April 12, 2019On 6 April, a reporter posted on Twitter that the former Finance Minister of Pakistan, Miftah Ismail “tried to escape Pakistan” and that he was “stopped at Karachi airport” after his name had been “recommended to be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL)”.The tweet was retweeted over a thousand times and “liked” over 4000 […]
A landmark ruling for international trade on April 7, 2019The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently issued a landmark ruling, in a case involving a dispute between Russia and Ukraine. What makes the decision so important? The WTO panel ruled on Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Prior to delving into the substance of this ruling and the implications flowing […]
Pakistan in perspective: unwilling to learn on March 28, 2019In the 1990s, a thirteen-year-old illiterate, Christian boy, Salamat Masih, was sentenced to death by a lower court in Pakistan (the conviction being reversed by the Lahore High Court eventually), for allegedly chalking anti-Islamic slogans on the wall of a Mosque. With the exception of Justice Arif Bhatti, Asma Jahangir and a handful of sane […]
How dare they? on March 16, 2019Much has been written, debated and discussed on the Aurat March(es) that took place across the country on International Women’s Day. There have been extreme reactions: from calling for inquiries into the funding and organization of these marches to horrific abuse and death threats being directed at those who organized and attended these peaceful protests. […]
The shrinking space on November 29, 2018Why is the right to freedom of opinion and expression, contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), phrased in such a way so as to include “freedom to hold opinions without interference” and “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of […]
Judicial impropriety on November 23, 2018In the 1924 R v. Sussex Justices case, Lord Chief Justice Hewart laid down one of the world’s most well-known dictums: “Justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done”. In the same year, the American Bar Association (ABA) put forward the ‘Canons of Judicial Ethics”. Canon 4 […]
The bitter truth on November 20, 2018In Pakistan, the institutions that have remained above legitimate criticism since our inception are those that do not want to hear the bitter truth. This bitter truth is a story of oppression, denial of fundamental rights and the endorsement of a bigoted and warped religious narrative that has eaten away at the core of what […]