Daily Articles

In January 2015, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, opened a preliminary examination into the “situation in Palestine” after the “State of Palestine” signed the Rome Statute, thereby formally accepting the court’s jurisdiction over its territory. Two months ago, Palestine submitted to the court a so-called state referral, which basically requests the prosecutor to investigate “past, ongoing …

Unbridled population growth is one of the biggest challenges in today’s Pakistan. Yet, there are no credible attempts at any level in Pakistan to tackle the issues posed by a rising population. From an economic, environmental and development perspective, our population is growing at an untenable rate. Successive governments in Pakistan never recognised the growing population as a serious question …

Climate change is one of the major challenges faced by the modern world. It is a peril that will continue to have an impact on our planet for the next 100 years or so. Unfortunately, Pakistan is among the countries that are going to be negatively affected by climate change. Pakistan has persistently fallen victim to extreme weather conditions. This …

As the elections 2018 loom, the single most important issue that should command priority attention should be the economy A slogan first pinned on a wall by the Clinton campaign team, during the presidential elections of 1992, has surely passed into history. The phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid,” is no longer limited to the American elections anymore and also has …

It seems that the a sizeable faction of the urban middle-class, heteronormative male, Sunni Muslim, rightwing Punjabis is now challenging its own stereotypical positions In Pakistan, as a rule of thumb, if you were an urban middle-class, heteronormative male, Sunni Muslim, rightwing Punjabi, you were a supporter of Pakistani military and the military must have loved you back. This is …

Taking stock of contemporary debate between proponents of liberal Islam and Islamists to show how both camps are trapped within their dogmatic enclosures “Consult thy reason and let perdition take others all: Of all the conference Reason best will counsel and guide. A little doubt is better than total credulity.” — Abū al-Alā al-Maarr, The emergence of Islam after the …

As a rule, our political parties have their heads in the clouds when it comes to contending with fiendish economic problems. Not surprisingly, economic issues take a backseat in political polemics. In the run-up to the elections, a rancorous tug-of-war between the principal political players has clouded the fact that they all are on the same page regarding the efficacy …

I served in London as a military attaché in the high commission between 1992 and 1996 when the IRA – the militant wing of the breakaway Sinn Fein of Northern Ireland – had laid siege to Kingdom’s Union with Northern Ireland. In an over 30-year-long civil war, 3500 lives were lost with over 50,000 casualties in 36,900 shootings and 16,200 …

Bridging distances Transforming the globe into a village means that its inhabitants are well-connected, well-acquainted with one another. This global community has surpassed many challenges, particularly that of distance. Now, people from the under-developed world, even if only twenty-two percent from Africa, can connect with their counterparts residing in the developed world. There has been a time when people living …

Neither the election campaigns nor the manifestos of major political parties have mentioned anything concrete about the country’s foreign policy. The PML-N was bitten badly for eating from that tree of life while the PPP found itself handicapped in pursuing its agenda. So, it comes as no surprise that the PTI has also decided to avoid stepping into uncharted terrain. …