Syed Kamran Hashmi

A blast ripped through the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore, on Easter Sunday, killing 72 people and injuring more than 300, most of them poor, vulnerable and helpless, people who went with their families to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether or not Jesus was resurrected on the third day after Crucifixion is a religious debate […]

Within 24 hours after the decision of the Supreme Court that lifted the ban on him from travelling abroad, the former chief of the army staff (COAS), General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf left Pakistan, a journey that most people believe would be one-way. A few years ago, while still in power, Musharraf used to captivate our […]

Swarms of people poured in the streets to attend the funeral of Mumtaz Qadari, now known as Ghazi Mumtaz Qadri Shaheed (RA) in the Barelvi textbooks. According to media reports, the number of people who joined the prayers surpassed six digits, making it one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Pakistan. Who were […]

As the plane traverses through the Atlantic towards your future home, the United States, one assumes that you will scratch off the petty local prejudices that you kept dear in Pakistan as harmful and counterproductive. That you will relinquish all other identities and be recognised only as a Pakistani, and not as a Punjabi, Pashtun […]

Disappointed by recent amendments, the director general of the Ehtesab Commission (EC) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Hamid Khan, resigned from his post last week. “It was not simply a job for me; I accepted the position as a challenge, a mission to contribute to society,” he said on television after stepping down, “With those changes in place, […]

Even those among us who do not offer prayers five times a day find the Friday congregation spiritually reinvigorating, a powerful reminder for everyone to be more introspective and less judgmental. We do not completely understand how it works but we realise that our soul feels lighter afterwards, refreshed and polished, as if a layer […]

By announcing his plan to retire upon the end of his tenure without getting an extension, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif, has disappointed a group of people that was all geared up to lunge at the opportunity once the time came to “protect Pakistan”. Frustrated now, they insist it is too […]

After every tragedy, like the one in Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, which took the lives of more than 20 people last week, it seems that our nation leaps to target politicians in their criticism instead of consoling the victims or their families, as if only parliamentarians and no one else hold responsibility for such attacks. […]

If asked about the future of our country, most people would say they want to see Pakistan as a prosperous, peaceful and powerful nation, a nation renowned in the world for its “raw talent” instead of being notorious for its association with international terrorism, a constitutional state where political destiny is determined only through the […]

In a highly provocative undertaking, the Saudi regime executed Shia cleric NimrBaqr Al Nimr last week, a vocal critic of the royal family demanding nationwide free and fair elections, and political rights to minorities. In response to his death, protests erupted in Iran. A large crowd — shocked and angry — poured into the streets […]