By Adnan Haider In the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, the students have been told by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to study through online classes. The measure intends to ensure that the time we spend in quarantine will be of use and our academic semesters would not suffer. However, this way of education doesn’t seem feasible for students who …

Today is the 41st anniversary of the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan By Waseem Altaf Military dictator Ziaul Haq imposed martial law in Pakistan on July 5, 1977. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and all his cabinet ministers were arrested and assemblies dissolved. The constitution was suspended and civil rights set aside. The validity …

Dr Aftab Husain in his essay critiques South Asian literates’ response to catastrophe and epidemics and how writers in Pakistan react to COVID-19   There is a proverb in Persian and Urdu that could be roughly translated thus — ‘A collective death has an air of festivity’. The great Urdu poet, Ghalib, however, would have not subscribed to this notion …

History remains the slave of victors only when people internalize the master’s version of history. History can be salvaged, retrieved and appropriated through multiple and even in mundane sources not necessarily sublime one, writes Aziz Ali Dad. By Aziz Ali Dad History is an enigmatic discipline because it deals with events of the past but its understanding tends to change …

The pandemic-turned-catastrophe has hit the world in less than three months, which nobody was expecting when it first erupted in China’s Wuhan city of Hubei province in December 2019. The global health system was not prepared enough to face the challenge. The cases were curtailed at Wuhan. However, the world remained busy in stitching conspiracy theories rather than executing any …

By Yuval Noah Harari Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics, and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We …

To our healthcare workers: we are grateful for your service and sorry for our collective inaction. by Faizaan Qayyum The Covid-19 crisis is here and with our healthcare systems choked beyond capacity, we don’t seem to be doing very well. This is when the full force of the pandemic hasn’t hit us yet. To make it more complicated, social (or …

by Suwaibah Bilal It was a chilly January night. Dinnertime in Wuhan had just acquired a new hint of umami. News of a certain virus wafted through re gan mian (hot dry noodles) stands and hot pot restaurants, resonating through the clinking of stoneware and china, resonating deeper than anyone could hear. Alleged to have originated in a wet market …

by Mariam Bokhari & Ayesha Mushtaq When a global pandemic burns through a country it first tests both its leadership as well as its national public resolve. In Pakistan much more is being tested, including the limits of the healthcare system across the federation, and the state’s ability to mobilise responses and shape civic engagement. First things first. The one …

| By Shafqat Aziz | The students of history have the luxury of travelling back to eras and epochs ranging a few decades to millions of years. To observe the great struggles for human rights, gender equality and all the fundamental freedoms, travel to the 19th century would be more advisable for rapid developments around such evolutionary concepts. This epoch …