Let people be
My sister-in-law was born to a Pakistani soldier – someone truly battle-hardened who served on the front and participated in wars with India. She once confided with her younger sister…
Thar’s predicament
The seemingly never-ending spiral of child mortality in the Thar region is a chilling reminder that no lessons have been learned from the past. The area is said to have…
Vulnerable to quakes
Like other calamities, the quake that struck the northern parts of Pakistan on Oct 26 has stirred debate within our administrative and professional circles as well as in civil society.…
Danger of cults
The phenomenon of cults exists in most religions and has been the focus of much academic research; however, its classification is negligible in our society. When we hear stories of…
More power to the Lahore High Court
If ever there was a madcap scheme, an exercise in unvarnished insanity, it was the idea of an overhead expressway connecting Gulberg with the motorway at Saggian. Lahore which has…
‘What I must know’
Pakistan holds a unique position in the world with its long tradition of disregarding logic and reason in the conduct of its foreign policy. If any other country is acting…
Heatwave disaster
In Pakistan, the death of ordinary citizens has become a spectator sport. Man-made and natural disasters are a constant of daily life. Children are killed in schools, people are pulled…
Heat, death and poverty
Almost every aspect of the recent deadly heatwave in Karachi has been discussed in the media. Causes of this calamity: climate change, heat bubble, lack of water and power, incompetence…
The silencing of Sabeen
In my long career as a columnist, I have been constrained to chronicle the sorrows of this unfortunate country. And the focus mainly remains Karachi where I have grown up.…
Let’s not forget
If the fuel crisis completely monopolized the news, no matter how uninformed the debate it generated, it affected so many Pakistanis it wasn’t surprising. Neither was the criticism of a…
