The importance of forests on January 19, 2018The world is going into a new era of ecosystem restoration motivated by the Aichi Targets which include, The Bonn Challenge set up in 2011 that calls for the restoration of 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded lands by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. Furthermore, the New York Declaration on Forests was […]
Sarmila Bose changes perspective on 71 war through Dead Reckoning on January 7, 2018I have some faded memories of 1971 war. We used to live in Islamabad and had about 4 Bengali neighbours in our street as far as I remember. During the war they were all living there but one morning I found out that they had all left. They disappeared overnight. I don’t recall what the […]
Changing mindsets on January 5, 2018The problem of the blasphemy law is that the government is constantly trying to avoid dealing with it. The actual problem is that the government is not prepared to face religious fanaticism head on. The thing I find worrisome is that if you examine the cases of the hundreds tried under this law, you have […]
Rhapsodising Benazir Bhutto on December 25, 2017Gender Religion Country Democracy State Judiciary Parliament Whether it’s a public rally, floor of the Parliament or any International forum, I always found brave Benazir Bhutto eloquently defending the above mentioned. “The fundamental ethos of Islam is tolerance, dialogue, and democracy. Just as in Christianity and Judaism, we must always be on guard for those […]
Bhutto continues to rule the people’s hearts on November 30, 2017On 1 April 1948, 20-year-old Zulfikar Ali Bhutto spoke at University of Southern California of the Islamic Heritage and said, “I see a failure of the Muslim world as a personal failure. In that respect something is binding about the Muslim world despite the fact that it is torn by dissension. I am not a […]
People and movements that shaped Muslim culture on November 19, 2017Since 1987 over 1,300 people have been accused of blasphemy; over 67 people accused of blasphemy has been killed before their respective trials were over, and prominent figures who opposed the blasphemy law have been assassinated. Young Mashaal Khan was the latest victim of blasphemy, who was lynched to death by the students and the […]
Think environment on November 5, 2017A lot has been written, but a lot more needs to be done about air pollution. Air pollution is a worldwide problem. A survey of 1,600 cities by the World Health Organisation found air pollution had worsened since a similar survey in 2011. Health officials around the world warn that air pollution is only getting […]