Power, patronage, Pakistan
Daniyal Mueenuddin, the acclaimed Pakistani American short story writer who was the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his book ‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’, has written a sweeping novel…
Drone on
THERE was a time when aerial photography was possible only from a helicopter; the exception was the KMC fire brigade snorkels, in the service of the MQM, covering party events.…
A spectre of confrontation
The spectre of military tensions is haunting millions of pacifists across the world, with the US planning to increase its defence budget to $1.5 trillion, Russia, China, Iran and South…
The wrong end of the wire
Pakistan’s electricity crisis refuses to yield to repeated rounds of reform because the debate itself remains misplaced. The latest assessment by the power sector regulator (Nepra) once again lays bare…
Genocide is wrong
Israel and its partners continue waging genocide against Palestinian people. Those who, so far, have survived the hideous attacks since October 7, 2023, now face ongoing jeopardy. Hemmed in by…
Politics of confrontation
THE possibility of governor rule in KP has been widely discussed for months but it now seems imminent. The mounting tension between the provincial and federal governments appears to have reached a…
This is Pakistan’s next frontier
I am 35 years old. That means I have lived through loadshedding summers, textbook shortages, the 2005 earthquake, the 2010 floods, terror attacks that emptied our streets and the quiet…
Wrong court, real crisis
As of the end of last year, Pakistan’s courts were sitting on roughly 2.3 million unresolved cases. Nearly 83 per cent were pending in the district judiciary; the remainder was…
Empire ruins environment
The secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, does not mince words in the Guardian: “Devastating consequences now inevitable but emissions cuts still vital, says António Guterres in sole…
Too many battlefronts
IT has been some years since Anatol Lieven called Pakistan a ‘hard country’, a phrase which didn’t really get much traction. It just didn’t carry enough negative connotations; the rest of the…
