Clik here to view.
Pakistan through the lens of passion
Tent pegging is an intense and powerful equestrian sport, played enthusiastically by the elite class in Pakistan. The rhythmic galloping of majestic horses combined with the vibrantly dressed riders...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Manifestos and reality: Analysing Indian Elections promises
Every politician has a promising career but unfortunately most of them fail to keep those promises. There is something about politics and politicians that make them impervious to promises and the same...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Kulfi chronicle
The summer heat is upon us with a vengeance and beckons me to write about the cooler delights on the desi menu, the ageless neembo pani (lime water) and kulfi, the desi ice cream. My earliest memory of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ending power theft: Not as simple as cutting off the Presidency
Abid Sher Ali is indeed Abid the Lionheart for he has gone after the most powerful of all power thieves. As he disconnects power to the powerful, he connects the State with good governance.It is hard...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brand Modi, so shiny
Three years ago, few Indians would have bet on Modi being anointed BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and also becoming the frontrunner for that position. Such a thing was deemed possible, yet highly...
View ArticleWhere are the women tabla players?
I went to a tabla and lecture demonstration at Amherst College. I went because I love percussion, all percussion, but tabla most of all. I went also in homage to the pair I left behind in Lahore in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Man with the golden arms
Ghotki Taluka is a dusty town in the northern most districts of the Sindh province. The majority of the people settled here are indigenous Sindhis, but the town also boasts of having a sizeable Mohajir...
View ArticleAli Zafar vs Shaan: What defines patriotism?
Sunday’s ARY Film Awards will go down in history – not as a milestone where the industry’s major players turned out in their finest for a night dedicated solely to celebrating the best of Pakistani...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cook, clean and vote for men
Words tell stories but numbers tell better ones. One such story, the story of Pakistani women comes from the discoveries made by one recent survey on women in politics in South Asia and it is not a...
View Article545 faces, not 3: Where the Indian elections went wrong
With just two of the 10 phases of the Great Indian Elections to go, we are at a unique vantage point to reflect this poll season. An election that has been characterised by high turnouts in most parts...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shobhaa De can’t be wrong
Shobhaa De, a perennially popular figure at literary festivals in Pakistan, wrote a delightful blog for the Times of India, where she rebuked Giriraj Singh for ‘advising’ all those who didn’t support...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What do polio travel restrictions mean for Pakistan?
Considering the restricted success of various strategies to eradicate polio and the rising number of infected children in the country few, if any, should be surprised at the World Health Organisation’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Young India: The mood of the First Time Voter
Age often plays a vital role in almost everything in the subcontinent. Many a times arguing elders in this part of the world shrug the young’s viewpoint on account of being … well, young. This also...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Did Warid really surprise everyone?
With the recent auction concluded for 3G and 4G licenses in Pakistan, there was a great deal of speculation as to why telecom giant Warid was not participating in the tender. Some saw this move as a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fasaad Fi sabilillah?
–Photo taken from an HRCP brochureIt could have been just another ordinary patient arriving at an eye clinic for treatment. Abdul Rauf, a 20-something resident of Badami Bagh Lahore, took his father to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To and fro with ‘traitors’ and ‘fascists’ in Pakistan
One year ago …One month ago …One week ago …One day ago …1234567
View ArticleClik here to view.
Another weekend, another PTI party
Time and time again, people much smarter than I have wasted pages in the hope that PTI would learn and mature. So, for me to even attempt another piece at criticising the national joke, that is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Terror in the Punjab University library
-Photo by Hussain AfzalThis is not the usual tale of terror. Terror’s usual ingredients - the explosion, the recovered head and the severed limbs, the bits and pieces of human flesh - are not present...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Terror in the library
-Photo by Hussain AfzalThis is not the usual tale of terror. Terror’s usual ingredients, the explosion, the recovered head and the severed limbs; the bits and pieces of human flesh are not present...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let's wait for the next Rashid Rehman to be murdered
Rashid RehmanIt is beyond tragic that the men that shot human rights advocate Rashid Rehman five times, had to pretend to be clients in order to kill him. After all, why should pious men undertaking...
View Article