We’re not all Hindus, but we’re all Indians
So, if today we’re Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, animists or atheists then that’s precisely what we are and its fatuous, mistaken and even offensive to insist that, actually, we’re Hindu because that is the ancient link that once connected us. It’s not.
The argument that we’re all Hindus because, once upon a time, Hinduism was the original and only religion of the subcontinent doesn’t cut much ice with me. Because if you really want to dig back in time and find a common feature that unites all of us, the truth is before everything else we were […]
Saudi Arabia has no time to waste
Progressive Saudis would look at Dubai and wonder when pleasant social etiquettes would be part of the Kingdom’s daily life
By: Tariq A. Al Maeena I was on my way home last Thursday afternoon, when my cell phone buzzed with a frantic plea from my 10-year-old. Would I please pick up an HDMI cable for him from any store along the way? Luckily, at that moment, I was driving past a newly-opened hypermarket and quickly […]
14-year-old Faizan is Pakistan’s youngest published fiction writer
By: Namra Khan Haruki Murakami, a renowned Japanese author, once said, “If you’re young and talented, it’s like you have wings”. It seems that 14-year-old Faizan Aslam Soofi, one of the world’s youngest published authors and Pakistan’s youngest published fiction writer, is soaring towards the sky with his critically acclaimed books. He has published 4 […]
Modi playing with fire, driving J&K to despair
Pakistan has tended to concentrate its fire downwards of Poonch on the LoC where it has an advantage over India and across the international boundary.
By: Bharat Bhushan Instead of carrying forward the legacy of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions have seriously eroded the constituency for peace, dialogue and reconciliation in Jammu and Kashmir. The border with Pakistan has been deliberately heated up. The argument for an offensive posture is that the Pakistan […]
Morality: Boon or a Boondoggle
By: Towseef Ahmad The actions that yield the greatest good to the society are termed as utilitarian actions. The moral and egalitarian approaches encompass the stratification of moral interface and posit the moral trajectories in the constructs of differential utility. The emotions and empathy premise to it, provides the contours of the greater extent of […]
Gilgit Baltistan: Where Islamabad Sees ‘Terrorists’
Political persecution goes unabated in Gilgit-Baltistan. According to reports, Advocate Ehsan Ali, President of the Gilgit Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court Bar Association and ex-Chairman of Awami Action Committee (AAC) re-shared a photograph from a recent Iranian protests on social media on his Facebook page in January (date not specified) 2018. The photograph, showing a woman […]
Holi – the message of love
A festival is an event celebrated by a community based on religion or tradition. There are many types of festivals in the world and most countries celebrate cultural events and traditions as well. For making the public participation easier, the list of festivals are been published and most of them are associated with National holidays. […]
The Potential for a New Strand of Islamist Extremism in Pakistan
By: Farhan Zahid The emergence of violent Barelvi extremism in Pakistan was brought sharply to the country’s attention last year when Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah, an Islamist political party, staged an almost month-long sit-in that later turned violent. The party objected to an alleged change to the wording of the oath of office contained […]
The Concept of Rights
By: Towseef Ahmad The concept of right is an important asset with the contemporary world. It is that element of law, politics, justice and ethics which has reached here during a historical process to differentiate a certain degree of difference between “expositorial right” and right as “it ought to be”. It is the result of […]
The AJK & GB council fiasco
The PM and President of AJK are members of the council by virtue of their office only. All executive powers of the council are vested in its chairman — the PM of Pakistan
By: Manzoor Gilani Current Prime Minister (PM) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Raja Farooq Haider Khan, recently stirred up a debate related to directives issued by Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on February 15, ordering that the AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) councils be disbanded. These councils are designed to act as substitutes to Parliament […]
