Global terrorism myth and reality
A new report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an international think tank based in Australia, brings to light some hard data on…
Nawaz Sharif shift to the centre
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chequered political career may have entered a new phase. His third term is beset by the same old challenges usually…
Faiz Ahmed Faiz: A window to what could have been
Most of us recognize Faiz Ahmed Faiz for his immortal poetry. Few are aware that Faiz Ahmed Faiz was also a prolific prose writer…
Democracy in recession?
On the surface, things could not appear to be better for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. With a majority in parliament, electoral rigging charges thrown…
Abdullah Hussein: alive in his vision
The great Pakistani writer Abdullah Hussein is no more. Perhaps, he has been relieved of the agony that he underwent as a cancer patient,…
Ideology, impunity & chaos
The sheer barbarity of the attack on the Ismaili community in Pakistan’s largest and one of the more misgoverned cities shocked the country. It…
Counterterrorism: rhetoric vs reality
Amid the controversy of Pakistan joining the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, the media focus has shifted from the implementation of the National Action Plan…
A year ago, I was almost killed
A year ago, I suffered the fate of thousands of Pakistanis who have been attacked, maimed and terrorised by violent extremism. I was lucky…
Pakistan fails its Christians again
The dual suicide attacks on Lahore’s Christian churches last Sunday were a continuation of evidently unstoppable violence against the country’s minorities. A gruesome lynching…
The need to review our India policy
The Indian foreign secretary’s visit to Islamabad last week generated much interest but the outcome was the usual bureaucratic statements amounting to nothing. The…
Pakistan future fraught with perilous possibilities
Nearly two months after the Peshawar attack, it is unclear if Pakistan direction has changed. The unprecedented grief and anger over the tragedy has…
The vicious cycle of hate and violence
The recent issue to have riled up a good number of Pakistanis including jihadi networks is the alleged blasphemy against Islam committed by the…
A definitive history of Pakistan
Pakistan’s best-known historian, Ayesha Jalal, is back with a new book: The Struggle For Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics. This book essentially…
Countering the terror menace
Ten days after the ghastly attack on the military-run school, Pakistan’s prime minister (PM) finally appeared on national television and announced a set of…
Don’t expect a miracle to happen
The state has responded by ending the moratorium on the death penalty and convicted terrorists are now being hanged. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has…
Pakistan’s beleaguered Hazaras
The attack on the Hazara community in Quetta last month, which left 10 dead and many injured, comes amidst the recent spate of violence…
Prioritising polio eradication
Nothing exemplifies the state of Pakistani society and its governance better the resurgence of the polio virus. Here is a country boasting of world’s…
Negligence, the biggest disaster in Pakistan
As if the ongoing political crisis was not enough, we are in the middle of a natural disaster, once again. As before, the state…
Will a new power-sharing arrangement emerge from this crisis?
Since early August, Pakistan has been battling itself, once again. Two opposition groups have paralysed the federal government and the capital for weeks through…
Watching the watchdog
Democracy is like an infertile woman that cannot produce anything, thundered a popular columnist (a real opinion-maker) at the Association of Physicians of Pakistani…