Religious prisons
A JIRGA in northern Pakistan bans women from visiting tourist spots. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan continues to deny education to girls as well as freedom to work or go…
Religious politics after NA-120
The house and the last resting place of Syed Maududi, the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), is located in Ichra, an area of Lahore that falls in the National Assembly…
Perils of religious chauvinism
The majority of humanity is associated with four major religions. On top of the list is Christianity with 2,200 million in its fold followed by Islam with 1,600 million followers.…
Terrorism financing in Pakistan
Terrorism is a contested term -- difficult to define, and a cause of contention in academics and policymaking for years. There is no universal definition of terrorism. According to the…
Informative books
The country is in the grips of blood-spilling events like the murder of Mashal Khan in Mardan. The political bout between Imran Khan and his followers: Naeemul Haque, Muhammad Ali…
Under siege in Madina
If there is a threshold of pain and tolerance, this must be it. If this does not wake us up, I do not know what will. The unimaginable and unthinkable…
The terror landscape
There are three clear divisions of the TTP collage. The first is TTP Central, based in North Waziristan and controlling operations from there. Mostly consisting of the Mehsud tribes and…
Zakat as non-state social welfare
THE last few years have proven to be immensely difficult for low-income households in Pakistan. High rates of inflation and low economic growth have exacerbated poverty and heightened the importance…
NAP as panacea?
Every time there is a surge in terrorist activities, Pakistani authorities invoke the National Action Plan (NAP) as a cure-all solution to counter extremism and restore security. However, a critical…
Sino-Pak cooperation
IT is expected that the train hijacking incident in Balochistan will trigger a robust response from the state — quite likely in the form of military action on several fronts. Nevertheless, discussions…
