Kashmir — A Burning Hell on October 3, 2019Shehla Rashid, a rights activist from Habba Kadal locality of Srinagar, says that huge support has erupted for Pakistan from some nooks of Kashmir in the form of celebrations and protests with mixed feelings of angst and glee. Angst – for being incarcerated for last two months without mobile network, internet, health and education services. […]
Human rights violations in Modi’s India on April 10, 2019Recently a female Muslim student on a college tour to Agra was ridiculed by her male classmates. When she refused to wear a Bharatia Janata Party cap, she was molested. Other female students on the bus were spared the treatment. The faculty members accompanying the students did not come forward to stop the hooliganism. The […]
Nationalist approach favours Mr Modi on March 23, 2019With a view to ascend the throne of power back in 2014, Narendra Modi stood tall on stage bellowing out vociferously on issues which mattered to the people of India. He pledged to create 20 million jobs, bring black money in 100 days and arrange ruminative prices for farmers. People voted the Bharatiya Janata Party […]
Endgame in Afghanistan — and the fears on February 13, 2019In his book, ‘Fear: Trump in the White House’, Bob Woodward notes how Trump emphasised that “Afghanistan is a total disaster. We don’t know what we are doing. Let’s get out”. What later develops is the outcome of what Trump and his cohorts plan accordingly. To put the plans into action, Lindsey Graham, a Republican […]
Disintegrating influence of MQM on February 28, 2018There was a time when fear would lurk in the streets of Karachi with all vengeance and power. People would wear scary expressions. Businesses were hostages to terror. And you knew why it was so, but your tongue could not grip the grit to speak, not to mention the monster diffusing fear all around. Financial […]
Lessons for Pakistan in the Indo-Israel relationship on January 27, 2018The optics exhibited quite a euphoria last week in India as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed there. Indian PM Narendra Modi broke the security protocol to reach Delhi’s Palm Airport to be captured with a hug. Later, there were luxurious dinners, visits to Taj Mahal, Gandhi’s memorial and then to Bollywood stars. But […]
Civil military imbalance — past and present on January 8, 2018Ever since this democratic set-up took up the keys of parliament with an impression to steer the ship of democracy, there have been voices of dissent saying that the establishment is impeding the way. By establishment, we mean our army. Similar angst had been the repeated mantra of the last PPP regime where you find […]
Hate speech wrapped in free speech on January 20, 2017Again huge hullabaloo is being raised for the right to freedom of speech ever since five bloggers disappeared from different cities of Pakistan. Earlier we have shown our deepest angst against the abuse of free speech by Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly magazine which published blasphemous material and was subsequently attacked for having given space […]
A Marooned Region on January 8, 2017Smooth roads with voluptuous curves; the dashingly ascending and descending over-bridges traversing through tall houses around; the luminous billboards exhibiting comely models; the bazaars fizzing with verve, and the slimly striding Metro are some of the glamours which incarnate the city of Lahore — new and different from the one it used to be exactly […]
New year resolution: countering extremism on December 31, 2016As the sun of 2016 descends deep down into the horizon of past, one is left musing over the problems that impede the way to progress, peace and ease in Pakistan. As Maya Angelou said, “Anew year is the time to make new resolutions, and new resolutionsare made in the light of past mistakes and […]