India and Pakistan’s new education policies will push their respective religious minorities into a corner Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy ON July 29, Narendra Modi’s government unveiled what it calls a groundbreaking new national education policy (NEP 2020). The 65-page document’s wide range — from primary to university — forces me to consider here just a single issue: To what extent does …

Partition left many border people in the lurch. Dr Asim Sajjad Akhtar THE announcement by the prime minister earlier this week of a ‘new political map’ of the country in which India-occupied Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are depicted as part of Pakistan is, on the surface, much ado about nothing. Designed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Modi regime’s decision …

In responding to Indian provocation, Pakistan abandoned its principled stand about who can legitimately decide on the fate of Kashmir, writes Farhatullah Babar by Farhatullah Babar Exactly a year after Prime Minister Modi annulled the special status of Kashmir and annexed the region into the Indian territory, Pakistan responded by unveiling with great fanfare its own new political map. The new …

On two days, seventy-five years ago, the United States used nuclear weapons in combat for the first and, so far, only time in history. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on August 6 and 9, 1945, killed a quarter of a million people and ushered in an era of imperialist aggression through the threat of global annihilation. Then, as now, …

Two persons were sentenced to two years imprisonment and Rs5 million fine each for poaching of the endangered animal. Two other persons were given one year jail term and fine. GILGIT: Five people have been convicted of poaching in Hopar, Nager and sent to jail, said a press statement issued by the WildLife and Forest Department, Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesday. High …

UN-appointed independent human rights experts have called for urgent action in India’s Jammu and Kashmir, amid concerns of ongoing abuses against civilians there.

Lazgi is a must-see of Khorezm. Lazgi is the dance with a feel-good factor, making you feel a joie de vivre or zest for life. There is an opinion that the meaning of the ancient word ‘lazgi’ is ‘tremble,’ which describes a very energetic movement of the body along with the vibrant musical rhythms and expressive facial mimics.

GB students are struggling to remain connected with digital world By Ramish Khan There seems to be no one to understand the traumatic situation the students like me have been passing through for the last three months. If I start to jot down the stressful moments I have been through and how badly I have lost my mental peace, it …

Political leaders, media and human rights bodies condemn the abduction of the senior journalist   Herald Report   Islamabad: Journalist Matiullah Jan returned home late Tuesday night, nearly 12 hours after he was abducted from Sector G-6, a highly secured locality of the capital city in broad daylight, family sources said. Earlier on Tuesday, Matiullah Jan, known for his criticism …

Leila Slimani on sex and ethics of women’s liberation in Morocco   By Leïla Slimani   When, in the summer of 2014, I published my first novel, Adèle, some French journalists expressed surprise that a Moroccan woman could write such a book. What they meant by that was an “unconstrained book,” a “sexy book,” a straight-talking, popular book, the story of a woman …