Clik here to view.
Inside Jinnah Naval Base Ormara: Diary of an 'embedded' journalist
This is the third installment of a three-part travelogue. Read the first and second parts. DAY 3 0700hrs: Today, we arrive in time to board an ATR transport aircraft, this time Ormara-bound, where the...
View ArticleBreaking the unspoken rule about sex in Pakistan: Talking about it
I'll never forget being a repressed teenager in Karachi in the 80s. I used to drive by the late Agha Hussein Abidi's house every day to and from school. One morning as I passed by the high walls of his...
View ArticleMalangi and Nizam Lohar, the Robin Hoods who ruled the forests of Punjab
The single lane disappeared deep into the darkness of the road. Shadows of the trees ran past as the headlight of the car illuminated them. There was a deep forest on both sides of the road. The Multan...
View ArticleWhy the Golden Temple is the heart of splendour and generosity
http://www.dawn.com/news/1254950/the-heart-of-splendour-and-generosity
View ArticleClik here to view.
Minimarg: Finding magic near the Line of Control
This is the second installment of a four-part travel blog. Read the first one here. After a strenuous hike that lasted for an hour, I came to a grinding halt. I had only covered a 1.5km distance. With...
View ArticleWhy Donald Trump is the Y2K problem of US politics
Donald Trump is making huge waves in the US electoral process. The media loves his outrageous statements like a Kim Kardashian selfie.Democrats hate him and Republicans get nightmares when they imagine...
View ArticleAre you Indian or Pakistani? — Why it shouldn't matter
Born to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother, I grew up in a family that embraces multiple religions and beliefs. Every Gurpurab (Sikh festival), we would go to the nearby Gurudwara to bow our heads and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Of highs and lows: How Pakistani cricket changed forever
Cricket is massive in South Asia. And Pakistani cricket teams have played a major role in making it a popular sport in the region — especially due to the kind of mercurial and off-beat talent that the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The jirga that murdered Ambreen should be Pakistan's last
As if the reasons for which women are killed in Pakistan were not enough, helping a friend marry the man she loves has become the latest sin in the list of transgressions that seal a woman’s...
View Article7 lifehacks to survive Pakistan's scorching summer
2015 was the hottest year on record dating back to 1880; 2014 the second hottest, 2010 third, 2013 fourth, and so on. There are numerous factors contributing to this — some of which are beyond the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Karachi to Umerkot: The ‘real’ Pakistan found outside the beaten tracks
The route to Umerkot (or Amarkot) from Karachi is a study in contrasts, the most obvious being the landscape. The arid terrain leading up to Hyderabad transitions into cultivated fields of rice,...
View ArticleKhurram Zaki: The voice that spoke for the dead
“Dead men can’t talk,” Malik Ishaq — leader of militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi — told Fida Hussain Ghalvi and three other men who testified against him during a trial in the presence of a civil...
View ArticleWhy Pakistanis are among the least innovative in the world
It's a pity that Pakistan was ranked at 131 out of 141 countries in the 2015 report of the Global Innovation Index — which explores the impact of innovation-oriented policies on economic growth and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Will Pakistanis celebrating Sadiq Khan vote for a non-Muslim mayor?
Sadiq Khan’s election as Mayor of London has sent Pakistanis into a celebratory mode but amidst the bonhomie, some questions have emerged. Many on social media have pointed out the rarity of such an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The end of corruption in Pakistan: A seismological analysis
Revolution is coming. One can now safely suggest that the days of the Nawaz Sharif government are as good as over. The truly patriotic people of Pakistan seemed to have had enough. This regime has...
View ArticleHow PTI failed women
A girl confided in me recently about being harassed. She said she never reported it because she was told that "boys will be boys and girls should just accept it". Horrified and sickened, as a man, all...
View ArticleRemembering Safia: The woman who stood by Manto in good times — and the many...
http://images.dawn.com/news/1175345/remembering-safia-the-woman-who-stood-by-manto-in-good-times-and-the-many-bad-ones
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can your off-shore account information be ‘leaked’?
Revelations in the Panama Papers about off-shore accounts held by the prime minister’s children might have shaken Pakistani politics, but it is another question that computer network security experts...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An India-Pakistan wartime friendship in Prague
The year was 1966. On a cold, gloomy and wet December afternoon, I landed at the Prague airport, capital of the erstwhile Czechoslovakia, now broken into the countries of Czech Republic and Slovakia. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reimagining Iqbal at the Mosque of Cordoba
O’ sacred place of Cordoba, you exist because of Ishq Ishq that’s wholly eternal, which does not come and go This is how Allama Muhammad Iqbal described the mosque of Cordoba in his famous poem...
View Article