Judicial capture: Lawyers react to ‘diluted’ 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill
Following weeks of upheaval, the coalition government on Sunday finally passed the controversial 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Senate, hours after it was approved by the federal cabinet....
View ArticleCaught in the web: Surveillance, data protection and AI in Pakistan
Some weeks ago, a LinkedIn user shared a video about a man in Lahore whose CNIC had been used to post bail for different people in separate cases. The man told a Vlogger that he had gone to a xerox...
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A year after SC annulled military courts, civilians await justice
On October 23, 2023, the Supreme Court struck down the section of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, which allowed the court martial of civilians. The majority judgements were authored by Justices Munib...
View ArticleThe tech dream: Pakistan urgently needs a strategic roadmap for the IT sector
Pakistan’s IT sector came into the spotlight recently amid internet slowdowns and disruption in cellular services. While the usual rhetoric from official quarters has sought to pacify concerns, it’s...
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The year of Qazi: maverick in freefall
Ever since they brought out that word, we stood warned. “Reputed judicial maverick sworn in as new chief justice,” said Stratfor. “Pakistan’s maverick chief justice aims to restore court’s...
View ArticleWhat would a Trump or Harris presidency mean for Pakistan?
The US presidential election is just days away, and many within Pakistan are keeping a close eye on the race for obvious reasons. The elections have also led to an increased debate, both within...
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In America’s gripping political chess game, what is really at stake?
Said Lord Byron famously, “While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls — the world.” As America’s high-octane presidential race makes...
View ArticleThe Donald supremacy
It wasn’t even close. But also, it was never going to be. As the 2024 polls conclude, the global hegemon may be entering its own late Soviet Union phase: ancient leaders, vomiting soldiers, and the...
View ArticleAs the world melts around them, climate refugees in Hunza pin hopes on COP29
In the remote highlands of northern Pakistan, the Ismail family once lived in harmony with the towering glaciers that crowned their village. They had deep ties to the land —an enduring connection...
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Lahore’s dangerous smog: where disease and death stalk
“It’s been horrible; I’ve been sick on and off for the last 10 days,” said 29-year-old Natasha Sohail, who teaches A-Level students at three private schools in Lahore. She is asthmatic, and last week,...
View ArticleGreen precedents: Pakistan’s judiciary on the frontline in the battle against...
A country under siege, not by war or strife, but by nature itself. Pakistan, ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, stands on the frontline of climate catastrophe: glaciers are...
View ArticleCan Lahore learn from London’s Great Smog of 1952?
The factories of Manchester and New York were the proud symbols of industrialisation, ushering in an era of progress and prosperity in the 18th century. But beneath the chimneys that fuelled this...
View ArticleThis Movember, it’s time to ‘man up’ and talk about it
Why can men debate a referee’s decision for hours while watching football, yet barely utter a word when asked, “How are you feeling?” According to a Cleveland Clinic study, nearly 60 per cent of men...
View ArticleWhat does the Council of Islamic Ideology have to do with VPNs anyway?
With a gilded halo of virtue, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) declared the use of VPNs as “un-Islamic” earlier this month. Before the ink had dried on public reaction, the council’s chairman,...
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Lahore’s smog: the sun may be out but a sustainable solution remains out of...
Atif Manzoor, 45, the owner of a blue pottery business in Multan, had every reason to feel cheerful last week when the sun finally came out. For a good three weeks, the city of Sufi shrines had been...
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Dawn Investigations: Building sandcastles in Karachi’s waters
The sea trees are best seen from space — for only the satellite’s eye can do justice to their fields of emerald (viridian) green florets. At eye level, that is, from an earthly vantage point, however,...
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Renegotiation of IPP contracts: bad medicine or just what the doctor ordered?
In a bid to save the country’s foreign exchange and conserve scarce economic resources, Pakistan recently terminated the power purchase agreements (PPAs) of five independent power producers (IPPs),...
View ArticleWhat makes Bushra Bibi such a polarising figure in Pakistani politics?
Few figures in Pakistan’s political landscape pique as much interest or controversy as Bushra Bibi — the third wife of former prime minister Imran Khan. Over the last few years, her prominence in...
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The climate paradox: AI’s role in both saving and sabotaging the planet
In a world racing to combat climate change, the newest weapon in our arsenal comes with an ironic twist. Artificial Intelligence, our digital saviour in the fight against global warming, has developed...
View ArticleSC’s order green lights military courts, detrimental to civilian rights,...
In a landmark move fraught with legal and political implications,the Supreme Court (SC) has conditionally greenlit military courts to announce verdicts for 85 civilians who were still in custody for...
View ArticleFertility woes — the hidden cost of rising air pollution
Climate-induced illnesses have been mounting globally with poorer nations being particularly vulnerable as they bear the brunt of greenhouse gas emissions more than anyone. Among the most alarming...
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How Pakistan’s climate crisis is fueling violence against women
Zainab saw her world turn upside down in 2022, when catastrophic floods wreaked havoc across Pakistan. She was among the hundreds and thousands of people who lost their homes, land, and even loved ones...
View ArticleWhat Jinnah thought of civil liberties and the right to a fair trial
It’s a fickle thing, the public memory — in what it chooses to remember, and what it wishes to forget. It’s worse still on days like these, where everyone invokes the founder’s name and cites his...
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2024: The year of the (mostly angry) citizen
2024 was the year of elections, change, and upheaval. Where citizens could, they voiced their dissatisfaction through the ballot box, bringing change by exercising their democratic rights. While the...
View ArticleBalochistan in 2024: The year of the women
As we bid adieu to 2024, Balochistan finds itself at a critical juncture — grappling with a year shaped by political turmoil, devastating floods, spiralling violence, and the rise of grassroots rights...
View ArticleWelcoming 2025 in Pakistan: The satire edition
This is a satire piece and any eventual accuracy in its predictions will be completely coincidental. We’re now officially a quarter of a century into the third millennium, which is just a more...
View ArticleFive for 2025 — The key challenges Pakistan must tackle head on in the new year
2024 was an eventful year for Pakistan. We have seen a few successes — including an IMF deal and the return of macroeconomic stability, for now — and perhaps a greater number of setbacks, including...
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The year they came for the internet
So there we have it. Pakistan has topped the world in terms of financial losses suffered as a result of outages and shutdowns of internet and social media apps in 2024, according to Top10VPN.com, an...
View ArticlePakistan’s economy needs a boost in 2025. Here’s what we must do to achieve it
It is a no-brainer that sustained and inclusive economic growth — one that creates jobs, avoids fuelling the current account deficit, and uplifts every segment of society — is Pakistan’s only viable...
View ArticleFrom smog to solutions: Can Pakistan turn the tide on air pollution?
This year, Pakistan’s battle with air pollution has reached harrowing new heights. A shroud of smog — so dense it was captured from space — engulfed vast swathes of the country, catapulting the crisis...
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