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Thursday April 18, 2024
Zaigham Khan
Zaigham Khan

The writer is an anthropologist and development professional.

  • December 31, 2022

    The year the hybrid system ended

    What was the most important event of the year 2022? It was certainly not the ouster of Imran Khan’s government. The no-confidence motion that...

  • November 29, 2022

    WOMEN AND GREEN TRANSITION

    While Pakistan prepares to face new challenges and adopt green technology on a large scale, it must have a sharp focus on gender inclusivity and...

  • July 13, 2022

    The game is on

    Has the PDM government successfully reversed roles in a game that Imran Khan played better than cricket for eight years? In children’s versions of...

  • April 28, 2022

    Winning again?

    The opposition alliance that outfoxed and outmanoeuvred Imran Khan in the political arena has no clue how the master narrator has weaved the web of...

  • June 28, 2021

    Reform and the madrassah

    Pakistani ulema and their alma maters are facing an unprecedented challenge to their authority and prestige in society. As if the bombshell of the...

  • May 20, 2021

    The age of spectacles

    If nothing else, the ruling party is keeping us all entertained in these depressing days of a global pandemic. In the first fortnight of the month...

  • October 13, 2020

    The autumn of discontent

    Between the relentless heat of summer and the ruthless cold of winter, it was these very days of autumn last year when Maulana had arrived in...

  • December 22, 2019

    A new deal for Pakistan

    Are we hurtling to another crisis, if we are not in it already, at a time when our economic situation remains bleak and there are hardly any...

  • December 16, 2019

    What’s wrong with lawyers?

    From heroes to zeroes, lawyers have come a long way since the movement for the restoration of Justice Iftekhar Chaudhury in 2007. The movement was...

  • December 08, 2019

    What is the PTI afraid of?

    The PTI has hit a jackpot and yet it is behaving like a shy bride. The amount, $248 million, received by Pakistan through Britain’s National Crime...

  • December 02, 2019

    Will the youth rise again?

    How long can a major youth-bulge country, led by a self-serving power elite, remain immune from a youth-led political turmoil? It is not about 'if'...

  • November 24, 2019

    The burden of piety

    We are happily on the way to becoming a pious nation – yet again. And we have happily found a pious leader – yet again. His followers did not...

  • November 18, 2019

    The state of the siege

     Activists of JUI-F lodge a sit-in protest on Indus Highway as part of Plan B of Azadi March. -ONLINEMaulana's brigade has lifted the siege of...

  • November 10, 2019

    Kartarpur's healing touch

    “You are the protector of wisdom. Almighty Lord! Our helper and protector ever, restore to us the right and privilege of unhindered and free...

  • November 03, 2019

    Maulana on high octane

    Maulana has pulled the biggest of all the contemporary dharnas organised since 2013. Like the two earlier organizers, Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri,...

  • October 21, 2019

    Bracing for a siege

    Why should an elected government of a democratic country be bothered about a few thousand protesters marching to the capital?How can one march or...

  • October 15, 2019

    Maulana’s second coming

    Maulana, for once, should thank his arch-enemy for reviving his political fortunes. Kaptaan has one again put Maulana at the centre-stage of...

  • October 07, 2019

    The mayhem

    Imran Khan has proved that he can make a great wartime leader. No other politician can weave such perfect narratives, communicate them so...

  • September 23, 2019

    Educating guinea pigs

    The English medium is cruel because it is meant to create a class that is one notch above the Urdu medium- a class that can claim best economic and...

  • September 16, 2019

    Transforming Karachi

    Even a lay person can see that Article 149 is totally out of context in Karachi’s situation. Even if this Article carried such farfetched meanings...

  • September 09, 2019

    The colonial machine

    ATM thief Salahuddin Ayubi of Gujranwala, who died in police custody last week, can be seen in extreme pain during police interrogation.“On a hot...

  • September 01, 2019

    The great garbage battle

    Waseem Akhtar wrote in the official letter that the appointment was made in response to the claim that Mustafa Kamal could clean the city of Karachi...

  • August 19, 2019

    The Ummah and the nation-state

    Contrary to the expectations of many Pakistanis, leaders of the Ummah have not come galloping on their Arabian horses, brandishing shining crescent...

  • August 11, 2019

    The Kashmir challenge and Pakistan's politics

    Since the British sold it to Gulab Singh for 7,500,000 Nanakshahi rupees, Kashmir has been bought and sold, in reality and in public imagination,...

  • August 05, 2019

    Cloak-and-dagger politics

    It is a bit early to identity the unsung heroes of tabdeeli who ensured the continuity of a great symbol of change in the Senate by voting against...

  • July 29, 2019

    Brown man’s burden

    The Pakistani diaspora living in the West is fired up by the enlightenment zeal. Since they live in developed countries, they think they know how a...

  • July 22, 2019

    Wishing for deserted streets

    Hujra Shah Muqeem, a small town in the Okara district, is known for the tomb of a 16th century saint and a poem associated with him. This poem, that...

  • July 01, 2019

    Opposition’s feet of clay

    For almost a year, our revolutionary government was strutting like a rooster, mesmerised by the beauty of its own red crown, colourful feathers and...

  • June 24, 2019

    A problem for every solution

    Why did Ghalib drink alcohol on credit when he knew that his habit would land him in prison? We are about to explore this question, even when Ghalib...

  • June 10, 2019

    The alchemy of Tabdeeli 2.0

    The sorcerer’s stone, also known as Manka, Geedar-singhi and Tabdeeli, has not worked and we are back to the clinic of our own dear hakeem to...

  • June 03, 2019

    King forever?

    Once you are up there, it must be very painful to imagine that one day you will not be the king any longer. It must be even more distressing to...

  • May 21, 2019

    Amendments and distortions

    Pakistan’s parliament is such a barren place these days, failing spectacularly to fulfil any of its three functions – representation,...

  • May 13, 2019

    Lessons from Chinese gangs

    It is such shocking news. For months, some Chinese gangs preyed upon hundreds of unsuspecting Pakistani women, trapping them in bondage and the sex...

  • May 06, 2019

    What is the PTI’s ideology?

    Despite all the U-turns, we can see some consistency in Imran Khan’s thought process ie the PTI’s ideology. Twenty-three years ago, Imran Khan...

  • April 29, 2019

    Between livelihood and justice

    What’s more important: rozi or justice? Rozi is all important, certainly more important than abstract and elusive concepts like justice. In some...

  • April 21, 2019

    Sacrificing a limb

    Let’s mourn for Asad Umar. His departure marks the end of a phase of our history that was supposed to transform us magically. It symbolises the...

  • April 14, 2019

    The day of the clown

    If comic relief is not available, the grim business of governing can crush the souls of the king, his courtiers and his subjects. The PPP had its...

  • April 08, 2019

    The PTI’s contempt problem

    Imran Khan has finally reached out to Shahbaz Sharif. The four-page letter he wrote last week is the first communication between the leader of the...

  • April 01, 2019

    Pakistan at 100

    Many Pakistanis, including the incumbent prime minister, speak nostalgically of a time when Pakistan was considered an economic success story in...

  • March 24, 2019

    Bilawal’s first labour

    Bilawal must have waited for this moment for almost a decade. He might have felt frustrated by persistent infantalisation at the hands of his father...

  • March 18, 2019

    The marchers and their cause

    In 326 BC, Alexander gained control of Taxila. His companions found it a “wealthy, prosperous, and well governed” state lying at the cross-roads...

  • March 12, 2019

    Reining in militant organisations

    Has the story of militant organisations in Pakistan come full circle? Going by the official statements, Pakistan is taking decisive steps to clamp...

  • March 04, 2019

    Pathways to patriotism

    Modi is not mad. He did overreach himself by crossing a red line, but it was a calculated move with clear strategic and political objectives. The...

  • February 18, 2019

    Heritage and accountability

    It has taken me a month to understand the wisdom of not maintaining clean toilets at the fabulous Taxila Museum. Yes, it may be a great...

  • February 11, 2019

    Of gas and other demons

    A hot shower is now a luxury in Pakistan. The new gas tariff is hurting not only consumers but the government as well. The media is asking tough...

  • February 04, 2019

    The PML-N and ‘South Punjab’

    The PML-N is at its generous best and this time round its generosity is not focused on its beloved city of Lahore or GT Road where the PML-N’s...

  • January 29, 2019

    New engine, old rails

    Between Ghalib and Iqbal, we picked Iqbal as our national poet. Iqbal belongs to us more, but in many ways our national situation reflects habits of...

  • January 21, 2019

    Saying goodbye to the messiah

    We have been orphaned once again. The man who solved all of our problems has retired and left us for good. For a brief period of six months, we were...

  • January 14, 2019

    The djinns of Banigala

    It is a national calamity. The djinn millions of Pakistanis trusted appears to be failing and we are back to building the Temple of Solomon through...

  • December 31, 2018

    Thinking of 2019

    Will the sun shine brighter in 2019? It is the year when Imran Khan and the PTI will have the liberty to shape Pakistan in their vision. We have an...