Mukhtaran Mai: Pakistan betrayed you once again
April 21, 2011 will be remembered as a black day in Pakistan’s history. Not because this was the day when the Supreme Court acquitted…
Devolution in Pakistan: Unpacking the HEC debate
An amended, rationalised HEC needs to stay in place The 18th Amendment approved by the Parliament in 2010 signified a new era in Pakistan’s…
Pakistan has been playing us all for suckers
Britain is spending millions bolstering Pakistan, but it is a nation in thrall to radical Islam and is using its instability to blackmail the…
Time for a consensus on economic policy
My piece which was published by The News under the title Prospects of change The recent decision of the federal cabinet to rationalise General…
The Mohali exchange did not take place in a policy vacuum – Sherry Rehman
An interview with Sherry Rehman who visited India with Pakistan’s Prime Minister to enjoy cricket and build bridges with India. It was the first…
State of Human Rights in Pakistan
“The elected government’s authority remains notional in several areas – particularly those concerning the intelligence agencies” – Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan Representative, Human Rights…
Celebrating the Word
By Nadir Hassan At first glance, the second iteration of the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) was a rerun of the first, with the same…
Dynasties and Clientelism in Pakistan
THE hallmark of Pakistan’s political elites is their narrow base. A limited number of families have dominated Pakistan’s legislatures since the country’s inception in…
Pakistani media does not report on the brutal realities of Balochistan
Ali Dayan Hasan — Pakistan representative, Human Rights Watch The News on Sunday (TNS) How does HRW view the current state of human rights…
Balochistan: Pushed to the wall
There must be something terribly wrong with the state of Pakistan that in its largest province, state schools no longer recite the national anthem…
Alternative narratives: History rewritten to further political ends
The view that Pakistan was conceived as soon as Muhammad bin Qasim set foot in Sindh amounts to rewriting of history, Historian Manan Ahmed…
Witch hunt grips Pakistan as bloody political assassinations deplete liberal ranks
By Amanda Hodge IT says much about Pakistan’s McCarthyist atmosphere that the television presenter whom many accuse of inciting the political assassinations rocking the…
Zeal gives religious right in Pakistan the upper hand
By Salman Masood As Pakistan reels from last week’s murder of another political opponent of its blasphemy law, the divide between the country’s liberals…
Andrew Buncombe: Those who dare to speak out become a shooting target
By Andrew Buncombe Rarely have Pakistan’s religious minorities and liberals felt more beleaguered. Less than two months after the killing of Salmaan Taseer, a…
Fascists strike again in Pakistan: Minorities Minister killed
Raza Rumi Sometimes it feels we are living in stone age where no dissent and no call for a tolerant society is possible. Murder,…
Tahrir square eastward?
February 2011 saw the iron fist of Hosni Mubarak being wrenched open after three decades of repressive rule. During this period, the Egyptian secret…
Diplomatic duplicity
By C. CHRISTINE FAIR LAHORE — This much is clear about the latest convulsion in U.S.-Pakistan relations: an American man, operating under the name…
KLF: a mixed bag
By Huma Imtiaz When a literary festival’s headliner is author and religious thinker Karen Armstrong, one wonders whether to be amused, or descend into…
Taliban suicide bomber dressed as schoolboy kills 31 army cadets
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent, The Independent Pakistan’s army suffered a damaging blow after a suicide bomber believed to be in his teens and…
Faiz Ahmed Faiz: poet of peace
By Najam Sethi This year, South Asia celebrates the centenary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistan’s pre-eminent Urdu poet in the classical tradition of the…