Mushtaq Ahmad There is a long history of global pandemic and epidemics, but there is also evidence that all these have been challenged by man. Consequently, there have been great losses of human lives coupled with social and economic vicissitudes as well. At the same time, every major crisis brings opportunities to rethink our systems and make them stronger to future …

By Ajmal Masood The territory of Gilgit-Baltistan until seventies had been comprised of clusters of autonomous princely states including Hunza and Nager. The two sovereign states had never remained under suzerainty of Jammu and Kashmir. After the Partition of the Indian Sub-Continent, Hunza and Nager were the first states to announce their decision of accession to the federation of Pakistan …

By Amir Roshan As the sit-in and protests for the release of Awami Workers Party (AWP) leaders Baba Jan, Aleem Ahmed, Iftikhar Karbalai, and 11 other imprisoned comrades continue, more people pour into Aliabad to join the main dharna and express solidarity with the families and friends of the prisoners. The sit-in that started at Aliabad, the main town of …

Rizwan K. Qalandar Hunza sit-in for the release of 14 political prisoners incarcerating for over nine years in Damas jail in Ghizer District enters its fourth day. The prisoners of Hunza were convicted by an Anti-Terrorism Court under fabricated charges of sedition and terrorism for destroying government buildings during a massive protest triggered by shooting down of a man and …

By Sana Basim These both are the most famous slogans of our times but connotations and perceptions behind both slogans are completely different. Our religious leaders always have a dominant role to endorse this mindset, despite most of the child abuse cases are reported by Mudrassa teachers, still influential religious leaders normally blame women’s dressing on national TV as one …

by Abdullah Bai Islamabad:  A climber from Poland has fallen to death at a mountain peak in Shimshal’s Ghujerav valley while his friend has been rescued. According to Shaheen Baig, leader of a rescue team, the two Polish climbers, llzuck Michael Jakob and Bogdanski Jakob had gone to Ghujerav Valley three days ago to attempt a little-known 6,200m-high Dhee Sar …

High Asia herald Report GILGIT: Pakistan’s top anti-graft body has urged youth and artists to join forces in the fight against the virus of corruption which is more lethal and spreads faster than Coronavirus. “Students should be part of the efforts in creating awareness about the ill-effects of the menace and making Pakistan a corruption-free country,” National Accountability Bureau (NAB) …

High Asia Herald Report Pakistan ranks the sixth most dangerous country in the world for women, with an alarming rise in cases of sexual crimes,domestic violence and kidnapping and honour crime. VAW is still endemic in Pakistan in a climate of impunity, state inaction, discriminatory legislation and a dysfunctional criminal justice system. On September 11, a woman was gang-raped on …

By Ghulam Amin Beg The old Indian narrative on Jammu and Kashmir of a democratic dispensation, constitutionally guaranteed local autonomy and unique status has disappeared overnight. Thanks to the fascist actions of Prime Minister Modi and the BJP government last year. The new status quo in Kashmir has created a new narrative for both pro-Indian and nationalist Kashmiris as well …

President Arif Alvi assents summary; govt weighs in on a proposal to give provisional province status to GB with representation in parliament High Asia Herald Report ISLAMABAD: General elections for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) will be held on November 15, according to a summary moved by the government and approved by President Arif Alvi on Wednesday. The notification comes …

$6.5m Third-Party Verification Immunization Coverage Survey was conducted to assess gaps and bottlenecks in Pakistan’s immunization programme High Asia Herald Report Islamabad:  Health experts and researchers have expressed concern at the prevalence of poliovirus in Pakistan and called for enhanced efforts to strengthen immunization coverage. They were speaking at the launch of a survey in the federal capital the other …

High Asia Herald Report Islamabad: The office-bearers of Pakistan Optometry and Vision Sciences Association (POVSA) and Pakistan Optometric Society (POS) have demanded a separate regulatory body for the profession to deal with this cadre. They have proposed the nomenclature of the proposed body as Pakistan Optometry and Vision Sciences Council. In a joint statement the POS Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa President Hanifur Rahman …

High Asia Herald Report The gang-rape of a woman in front of her children after dragging her from her car on a motorway in Punjab prompted outrage and protests across Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan with anger further fuelled by Lahore police chief remarks, blaming the victim for travelling alone. According to media reports, a large number of women, political and rights …

by Dr Aziz Baig The Coronavirus, perhaps the deadliest in the last century that surfaced in Wuhan city of China in November 2019, has now spread to about 188 countries of the world affecting over 27 million people and claiming over 0.8 million lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it pandemic on March 11, 2020. In Pakistan, the first two cases of COVID-19 …

A woman was raped on the motorway. The police blamed her. Twitter was enraged. This is a dangerous country for women. And anyone who says otherwise is probably living in a parallel universe with no connection to ground realities. But what makes everything worse is when officers who are hired and paid to protect the public — we believe that …