After the tempest
Zulfikar Mirza’s press conference challenged the PPP leadership’s overtures towards the MQM, claimed to unveil the latter’s role as the sole perpetrator of violence in Karachi and solicited the support…
Life cut short in the mangroves
It would seem that all of Pakistan is in the grip of one frenzied land grab. From Khyber to Karachi, the rich, the powerful and the well-connected are squeezing out…
No time for mutiny
The symbol of an Anglican bishop is a crook (a hooked staff); and that of an archbishop is a double cross. Coincidentally, that’s what many of the English used to…
Whither foreign policy?
The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Karachi, has a remarkable history. Its founder-secretary, Khwaja Sarwar Hasan, brought the institution from Delhi to Karachi in 1947. Since then, it has had…
After the SC verdict
As expected the Supreme Court decision on the killings and disorder in Karachi has had a mixed reception. While most commentators have welcomed the court`s directives, some have expressed disappointment…
The looming water crisis
The perennial jostling at the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) is an indication of the country’s constrained water resources. Although termed ‘renewable’, in reality water replenishment comes with severe limits.…
Dialogue, not destruction
Former Balochistan Chief Minister Akhtar Mengal’s return to a country from which he had departed eight years ago – following a long period in jail, appearance before a Karachi court…
Jobs, plots and rivalry
All essays on the causes of violence in Karachi, and the measures taken to contain it, end on a disappointingly tentative note. So, surely, will this one. Still the litany…
Remembering Baldia victims
Last week the 13th Akhtar Hameed Khan Development Forum came as a timely reminder of the injustice befalling the workers in a country where it is a crime to be…
Smokers’ Corner
Recently while attending the second Pakistan-India Social Media conference in Karachi as a panelist,I was approached by a young man with a mic who wanted to interview me for a…
