by Rozina Ahmed Debate over women’s right to property and inheritance in Pakistan, in general, and in Gilgit-Baltistan, in particular, is commonplace in mainstream media, social media, and political circles. Although women’s right to property and inheritance is mandated by Islamic Shariah as well as the Constitution of Pakistan, it is rarely honored in practice. Even in regions where the …

By Safiullah Baig Diamer District is once again in the limelight for not a good reason but for a despicable act of burning a girl’s school in Darel by some extremist elements. Some mainstream and social media activists as usual were quick enough to point towards Diamer as bastion of extremism in Gilgit-Baltistan. This has made things murkier and will …

The senior journalist and TV commentator said the PML-N could have governor’s rule imposed in Punjab. He said this is what he foresaw coming, sooner or later The Friday Times (TFT) editor Najam Sethi said on Friday that no more ‘audio leaks’ on the governing coalition will follow since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan’s man on the dark web …

By Hamdan Ahmed After widening Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) strategic agenda, particularly focusing on limiting China in the Asian-Pacific region, the United States announced the Indo-Pacific Strategy in February 2022. The strategy has set up some ambiguous yet interesting objectives for the Indo-Pacific region, which was a battleground for the US-China economic and strategic competition lately and has now become …

The scale, scope and spread of the 2022 floods have surpassed the super floods of 2010. The monsoon rains have created unprecedented havoc in all regions of the country stretching from Gilgit-Baltistan and KP to Sindh, southern Punjab and Balochistan.

By Ziauddin Ali Shah As Pakistan commemorates the 75th Independence Day, it is important to reflect upon the achievements, failures, developments and issues in Gilgit-Baltistan from different perspectives and see how, as a nation, we have reached this adversity. The region, administered by Pakistan, is home to the three largest mountain ranges and massif of snow-clad lofty peaks, scenic pastures, …

Imran Khan’s politics is a turbo-charged neoliberalism... a shallow ideological cocktail of religion, patriotism, and praetorianism.

By Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar It is all so predictable. The raids on homes of opposition leaders and workers. Heavy-handed baton charges and tear-gas shelling. The same opposition workers who decried state repression then engaged in wanton destruction of public property — and burning trees for good measure! We have been here many times before. A few months ago, it …

Like Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan also has a swelling state debt and took on billions worth of loans over the last decade from China’s Export-Import Bank for a series of infrastructure plans under the Belt and Road Initiative.

We were told that the generosity of the rich would make up for cuts to government services. But those at the top are increasingly using dubious “charitable” ventures as vehicles for profit and influence. Institute for Policy Studies' report Gilded Giving 2022: How Wealth Inequality Distorts Philanthropy and Imperils Democracy, charitable giving is more dominated than ever by those at the top of the income and wealth pyramid.

The best-selling author is a gifted storyteller and popular speaker. But he sacrifices science for sensationalism, and his work is riddled with errors.

By Rozina Parveen When the horrors of life outway the terrors of death a man commits suicide — Albert Camus Suicide cases are on the rise in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. According to media reports in Pakistan 20 people, mostly female, aged between 15 and 35 years, take their lives every day. According to studies and survey reports, there has been …

Pakistani neoliberalism hasn’t rolled back state intervention in the economy. Building on a predatory tradition that dates back to British colonial rule, it has used state power to enforce the ruthless exploitation of Pakistan’s workers and natural resources.

We are faced with an intolerant generation that is self-righteous, hates dissent and wants everyone to think one way – which is their way. In short, we are reaping the fruits of the seeds we had sown ourselves in our classrooms and society at large. Today it is the misogynist, fascist Imran Khan, tomorrow it can be a right-wing extremist force which will use the same herd to its own advantage and ruin the already religiously intolerant and anti-women society.

Pakistan’s media has been grappling with an existential crisis in recent years, with critical areas going from bad to worse. This includes a staggering two-fifths of media jobs — 8,000 out of 20,000 — being wiped out, partly because of lifeline public sector advertising having shrunk by over half, and a squeezed media economy that is drying up even private sector advertising.