The good, bad and bizarre of 2021
The advent of a new year is the best time to record the highs and lows of the outgoing year, and attempt – mostly in vain – to learn lessons…
Facts of a slowing economy
THIS government is having an increasingly difficult time producing meaningful outcomes in areas that really matter. The thing about having an objective like revenue collection, for example, as a benchmark…
Legal eye: The slippery slope
We seem to be on the slippery slope that leads down to praetorian rule. Nawaz Sharif is down but not out. It is hard to deny that he is still…
Being more human
What measures are necessary to counter violent extremism and religious intolerance in Pakistan? And what role should the youth be assigned in this campaign, which has a bearing on our…
A big transition
IT is hard to imagine how someone changes the course of their life — more so when that person is a top jihadist leader on the world’s most-wanted terrorist lists…
Punjabi nationalism
IN comparison to other multiethnic/multicultural countries in Asia, like India and Malaysia, Pakistan is a bit of an anomaly in that the largest identity group is not formally politicised. While…
PML-N’s uphill task in Punjab
WHETHER countrywide elections are held within three months to coincide with the elections to the Punjab Assembly, after its dissolution, or separately on the completion of the term of the…
Democracy and dystopia
IN Ireland, ordinary people are hoarding firewood, afraid that they will not be able to heat their homes in the upcoming winter owing to the Ukraine-Russia conflict. In Iran, protests against the…
Western media and the war
THE brazen one-sided account of the conflict justifying Israeli aggression against Palestinians living in the occupied Gaza Strip has exposed the mainstream Western media’s claims of objectivity in reporting. Truth…
Gender imbalance
THE annual Aurat March always draws strong, polarising reactions from citizens across Pakistan. The most bizarre reaction (and unfortunately a common one) is to deny that gender inequality is, in fact, a…
