When Manmohan Singh went AWOL
The Notoriously Unreliable Source of Raisina And Tihar – Nusrat, in short – winked and grinned broadly as he approached me. He was clearly bursting with news.‘Well, Nusrat,’ I said. ‘You seem mighty...
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Movie Review: ‘Bhoothnath Returns’, better than the original
Bhoothnath Returns, the much better sequel to Bhoothnath, talks about a mix of emotions with a simple message: get up and vote.A ghost of a ministerAmitabh Bachchan, who returns as Bhoothnath, has a...
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Did Pakistan cause Afghanistan's lack of economic development?
Carlotta Gall's recent book squarely blames Pakistan for Afghanistan's and Pakistan's misfortunes. Pakistan, at least since the late 70s, has been instrumental in the wars waged in and on Afghanistan....
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Test of nerves: Pakistan’s four greatest Test victories
When in early 2014 Misbah-ul-Haq’s men dramatically defeated Sri Lanka at Sharjah in the third Test to square the series 1-1, the victory was rightly described as being one of the finest achieved by...
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We don't need cyber security that tramples on basic rights
Earlier this week, Senator Mushahid Hussain presented a bill titled ‘Cyber Security Council Bill 2014’ in the Pakistan Senate. The bill, if passed by the parliament, will result in the creation of a...
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The treasure hunter: An allegory for Pakistan
The area around Multan’s New Delhi Gate is an old one; inhabited long before Pakistan was a country and love for it a prerogative. The houses in the area are small and the opportunities are smaller...
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Oh Karachi, my Karachi!
-Illustration by Fahad Naveed.Karachi has arrived. And it seems to be having a curious effect on its citizens, many of whom are moved to write tortured paeans to it in lyrical prose; a veritable...
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier – just another sequel
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, like any other 3D movie, is a combination of super-heroic pathos and popcorn action that makes one think whether you should applaud, criticise or roll eyes at some...
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Celebrities in Indian politics: The dance of democracy
Glamour has been an intrinsic part of every Indian elections and the battle for 16th Lok Shabha isn’t any different. The Dance of Democracy explores celebrities involved on either side of biggest...
View ArticleAttack on Hamid Mir: You have the right to remain silent
Hamid Mir was shot because of his calls to respect the human rights of the Baloch, because he stood with Mama Qadeer in the VMBP’s Long March.No, it was because he didn’t give enough space to the...
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Celebrating failure
As the first year of relocation from Houston to Karachi drew to an end, I wondered what I could write to mark that milestone.As I had several times in the past, whenever I was faced with a writing...
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One bullet for all journalists
I sat stunned as I absorbed the news: He had been shot in the chest and was at a hospital in an unstable condition.I could never have imagined it. Especially when he had done everything as I had asked...
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Death in the time of the Taliban
Sadequain's work on classical literature with Ghalib's verses“He always considered death an unavoidable professional hazard.” Shakir put the newspaper back on his table and telephoned his home, for...
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A eulogy for 2,100 bustards
-Photo by Ker Than/National GeographicOn absorbing the final report on the massacre of wildlife in his region, I wonder if Jafar Baloch of the Balochistan Forest and Wildlife learned something...
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Saving international universities
Universities are more apt at teaching the law of supply and demand than following it. Ignoring the long-term impacts of declining fertility, universities in Canada have been busy building capacity only...
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Movie Review: 2 States – or how to woo the parents
Directed by Abhishek Varman, the movie is overlong, doesn’t really do anything aesthetically extraordinary and skims over the one thing its male lead – Arjun Kapoor – says in the beginning: “the story...
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Enter 3G: A question of scale, speed, reliability
The long-awaited 3G and 4G Spectrum Auction commenced and closed yesterday, after eight rounds of bidding as a result of which, the Government of Pakistan has managed to successfully raise $1.1...
View ArticlePakistani balls!
Former Pakistan cricket captain and ace batsman, Zaheer Abbas, recently lamented that right from the moment Pakistan achieved international cricket status (in 1952), its batting has been its weakest...
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Indian elections: What taking potshots at Pakistan really means
Narendra Modi asks for restraint and disapproves of the remarks made by his party man, Giriraj Singh in Bihar few days ago. The Prime Ministerial candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right wing...
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The Clifton of yore
Much digging is to be done to discover the answers to questions such as how old is Clifton? Since when has it been populated? Why is it called Clifton?However, there is something interesting I can tell...
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