The Faiz Saga

  Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-84) ranks among the doyens of modern poetry, let alone Urdu. Coinciding with the ongoing Faiz International Festival at Lahore (Nov 17-19...

A look into the Qatar crisis

The political labyrinth that is the Gulf These countries accuse the Qatari monarchy of supporting Sunni Islamist terrorism and Iranian designs on the region....

Kashmir: Caught in the media’s tug of war

The Kashmir dispute has been raging on for the last six decades without a foreseeable end in sight. The dispute is not only causing...

Why do Europeans join ISIS?

Why do Europeans join ISIS or ISIL? That’s a question that keeps coming up and bewilders governments, intelligence agencies, and counter-terrorism experts alike. One of...

‘It’s always a good time to put pressure on India’ ― An interview with...

Indian media is seen as a PR agency of the Indian army. They have always covered up their war-crimes and distorted realities of Kashmir.     Muhammad...

Qawals, Qandeels and what that says about our priorities

There is an (allegedly) Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”   The Chinese origin is debateable, but if the past week alone is any indication,...

Bizarre tidings

“The moon rode in the sky – a hunted thing dodging behind wisps of tattered cloud, and the air was heavy and wet and...

Visual Burden: The essence of Photo-journalism

Photographer Agha Rizwan takes the first steps towards institutionalising photo-journalism in Pakistan   Photographs have become an integral part of our lifestyle and society ever since...

Obama’s Nuclear Summit

Madmen and wrong directions President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) is one of those same-agenda-every-time gatherings where everybody knows what everybody is going to say....

Decision making under PML-N

Lacking Finesse That those protesting against Qadri’s hanging were playing with public sentiment to achieve political ends is indicated by the assurances they sought from...

Problems confronting Punjab

And the government     The attack happened a couple of hours after news that Barelvis, who had gathered for Mumtaz Qadri’s chehlum, had decided to go...

Mullahs: United against progress

Happy to oppress women     "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains,” declared Karl Marx in the revolutionary Communist Manifesto...

The passion behind the ‘trophy hunter’

The passion behind the trophy hunter As I sit waiting for him to arrive, I look around his office at the immaculate sight of the trophies...

White Lies

Different people react to different situations in different ways. Or different classes of people do, at least. Take the security situation, especially with schools...

WL

Lahore is known for its elitism, of course. That’s why we have these fancy elite clubs, which are so few because so few qualify...

White Lies

Mian sb got some good advice despite the sombre backdrop of the APC in Peshawar. His old information minister Mushahid Hussain was there, and...

White Lies

It was some party at Rawal Lake last week. Quite the night of the generals. It had much of the top brass and quite...