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A new order

WHEN Cole Porter sang ‘Anything Goes’ in 1934, his ironic lament was restricted to the scandals of American Depression-era high society. Today the song serves as an apt anthem for…

The fragile balance of US-China trade

After decades of facilitating and even encouraging China’s rise, the dramatic shift by the US to a policy of containment could gather pace when Donald Trump takes over on January…

Protests, containers, repeat

Islamabad, once a symbol of order and governance, has now turned into a city of perpetual chaos every weekend. For most people around the world, weekends mean family time, self-care,…

An icon of the left: Part – II

Saeeda Gazdar’s short stories are not all about politics and repression; some are full of nostalgia and recall the pre-partition days. Her story ‘Hindustani, Pakistani’ is one such story that…

When business starts politicking

“I want to leave, it is getting too political”. “I cannot breathe, it is choking”. “Nothing I say gets across to the right quarters”. “They know how to butter up,…

The Baloch question

IT is not as if we have not been here before. Balochistan has bled for so long that the mainstream Pakistani consciousness has tuned it into the background. Yet every…

Understanding change

THE changes that are taking place in the built environment of Karachi’s low- and middle-income neighbourhoods are hard to ignore by those vested in urban planning. The increase in population,…

Not so holy anymore

ALTHOUGH most commentators and analysts agree that what is being witnessed today is chaos and a slide into anarchy, optimists may still argue some good will come out of it,…

Military’s constitutional role

WHILE expressing his innocent wonder over why our armed forces are “often made the subject of criticism”, Gen Bajwa, our former army chief, recently conceded that this may just have something to…

What’s in a name?

PAKISTAN holds an unusual pack of cards. It has no kings. They have been either deposed, exiled, assassinated, or hanged. It has no queens. One potential qualifier Miss Fatima Jinnah…