Womansplaining rights
As women celebrate their womanhood on March 8, and bond in solidarity to define the rights to their lives and choices, many people in Pakistan still actually ask: why do…
New Syrian land law raises red flags for rights groups, lawyers
Rights groups and specialists are sounding the alarm over a new Syrian law on urban development, saying millions of displaced risk never returning home after losing claim to land left…
Of students’ rights
THE nationwide students’ solidarity march of Nov 29, a most impressive expression of Pakistani students’ aspirations and concerns, has received diverse responses and all of them can be dispassionately discussed. First, the…
The right to rights
The PTI regime in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa surreptitiously promulgated KP Actions (In Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019 on August 5 and is now using it to justify holding up citizens in internment…
A world without rights
“I NEVER thought I’d work, but it’s better than having to go ask people for money,” one woman told reporters from The New York Times in the eastern city of…
Accountability and labor rights
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has apparently become more prudent in reviewing and disposing of low-profile pending cases in recent days. According to the organisation's officials, there was a realization…
One-party rule or civilian martial law?
The slugfest between the PTI government and the opposition, particularly the two largest opposition parties, the PML-N and PPP, is intensifying. The Sharif brothers are cooling their heels in jail…
The civil society’s concerns
Responding to the enormity of crises faced by state and society, leading civil society activists and mainstream and left-oriented activists and intellectuals have come up with an alternative progressive democratic…
Faith and civil society
In my previous article in these pages (July 8, 2019), I discussed the paradox of collective freedom in faith-based communities. The article led to a heated debate around the existential…
Human rights & mental health
A DECADE ago, world-renowned psychiatrist and medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman termed the standard of mental healthcare across the world a ‘failure of humanity’. He noted that the worse deficiencies of…
