Writing about the lost blood of the wretched of the earth, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, the outstanding progressive poet of Urdu in the 20th century, says in his poem “No trace of blood”: Neither on the hands and nail of the slayer Nor any sign on the sleeve No redness in the dagger’s edge No any colour on spear’s head No ...

The events of late 1970s ensued mass exodus of Afghans to the neighboring countries. The greater portion of refugee migration of large displacement caused by Russian invasion of 1979 took place to Pakistan. Afghans continued to seek refuge in Pakistan throughout 80s as war intensified between the Pakistan based Mujahedeen groups and Russian invaders partnering communist regime of Kabul. Early ...

I think when Dr Tariq was writing his book‘the death of a state” it was the early 70s. In his canvas there was forsaken of’lesser Muslims’ in the then East Pakistan, nucleation of the eyes of the eldest son of the Nawab Attaullah Mengal and Sukkur tribunal with civilian Martial administrator on the top. The canvas is the same today ...

It is hardly surprising to see the eruption of a heated debate in Pakistan over the decision of General (retired) Raheel Sharif (GRS) to become head of the so-called Islamic Military Alliance which is cobbled together by Saudi Arabia. Many Pakistanis are concerned about the possible fallout of this new adventure while the country is still profusely bleeding because of ...

The US policy of carrot to bring Pakistan to negotiating table in Afghanistan’s context badly bogged down. It was wrong expectation to ask someone to throw gold and guns in the fast flowing river . The sole super is expected to take bold step like the US took in Suez Canal crisis that was not to be. The sole super ...

The term census was originally coined by Romans to keep a count of the male population fit for military services. But during the socio-historical evolution of the world it mainly came to mean national population and housing censuses that provides a picture of levels of education, age, sex, social status and other characteristics of the people. By now it has ...

It is interesting to note that electronic media has taken longer strides than print media in the war-torn country. The evolution of the concept of civil society over the past several hundred years makes an interesting study.  Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, Marx, Tocqueville and Gramsci took hard efforts to construct the concept of civil society at various phases and eras of ...

The main feature of Pakistan’s 70th National Day was the impressive and colourful military parade that remained the focus of media coverage on 23rd of March this year. The march past was supposed to represent the country’s determination for defeating terrorism, which is a noble and desirable goal. So far so good. But for the last many years the country ...

Experience is like a comb one gets it when there is no hair left on the head. The experiment is a good teacher but the tuition fee is too high. The wiser will learn from others or his own past experiences but the stupid will experiment again and again. To put it, in other words, the silly will bang his ...

Afrasiab Khan Khattak With the exception of a few sane voices Pakistan has lacked a rational and fair discourse on the question of accountability for obvious reasons. Prerequisites for genuine accountability such as supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law and equality of citizens before the law aren’t there. Holy cows have been and still are above the law and ...