Lal Khan

On January 11, 2016, the normally dormant, lifeless and visionless institution called the Senate did something unexpected and radical even going against its core conservative characteristics. The Senate undid the ban on student unions imposed by the reactionary and vicious dictatorship of Ziaul Haq on February 9, 1984. During the darkest days under Zia’s monstrous […]

Till late Friday evening the Afghan forces, along with NATO troops and ‘advisers’, were locked in an intense battle with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s strategic Sangin district after retaking some government buildings from the armed group, officials said. At least 20 civilians have been killed during the past 24 hours of fighting. The fight for […]

Forty-four years ago, on December 16 and 17, 1971, Dhaka fell and Pakistan’s army surrendered East Pakistan in a humiliating defeat. Lieutenant General A A K Niazi, the martial law administrator of East Pakistan, surrendered to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, the joint commander of the Bangladesh-India allied forces. Air Commodore A K Khandker acted […]

Pakistan and India announced on Wednesday once again that they were resuming the dialogue on outstanding issues, ending a two-year-long stalemate. The ‘adversary’ regimes needed a breakthrough to come out of the diplomatic cul-de-sac. Delhi and Islamabad gave up their tough positions on two key issues to achieve this result. India agreed to keep Kashmir […]

As the bestialterrorism sprouting form capitalism’s socioeconomic crisis ravages the world, life for ordinary soulsis becoming more and more agonising. Already immersed in the excruciating abyss of misery, poverty, drudgery, deprivation, migration, environmental disasters and disease, the curse of terrorism has made this planet a frightening place to inhabit for ordinary people. The relentless violence […]

Another Sharif is doing the rounds in Washington, less than a month after the Prime Minister (PM), Nawaz Sharif, met with US President Barack Obama at the Oval Office to discuss many of the same issues said to be on his army chief’s agenda, including Afghan peace talks and Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions. General Raheel Sharif […]

The rescue and search operation at the Rajput polyester plant in the Sunder Industrial Estate werr officially concluded in the early hours of Tuesday. The authorities confirmed that 45 people, mostly workers, died in the four-storey building collapse while 103 were evacuated. The wounded are not mentioned in the official press release. The figures given […]

As the crisis of capitalism unravels with a harrowing ferocity, society in Pakistan descends into the blind abyss of poverty, misery, disease, filth, terrorism, mayhem and crime. It is not just in Pakistan but also on a world scale; we are passing through one of the most turbulent and pulverising periods ever in history. It […]

First of all, Russian air strikes against terrorists in Syria and now the visit of Syria’s president have ignited severe criticism and a flurry of impotent rage in western capitals. The White House has strongly condemned a visit to Moscow by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, criticising Russia for putting on a “red carpet welcome”. It […]

While the din of the media-based politics of the moneyed political elite with the petit bourgeois hordes scrambling erratically in an orgy of vain haranguing between pseudo-experts of different factions is unending, there is stagnation and indifference of the oppressed masses beneath the surface. Yet this stark silence of the vast simmering populace has its […]