CM announces lockdown for Gilgit-Baltistan HOME LOCKDOWN COMES INTO FORCE FROM MIDNIGHT————————————————–Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister announces enforcement of home lockdown plan in Gilgit-Baltistan to contain spread of Coronavirus. He urged people to follow health guidelines and strictly ensure physical distance which is the only way to avoid get infected. He said the relevant officials have elaborated the details of the lockdown. …

The award-winning author addressed a gathering at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday   Beloved friends, comrades and my fellow writers, This place where we are gathered today is only a short bus ride away from where four days ago a fascist mob, fired up by speeches made by members of the Ruling Party, backed up and actively assisted by …

The laws that were created by the British Raj are still being used to stifle dissent on the Indian subcontinent, writes Dr Ammar Ali Jan in Al-Jazeera’s online news page. by Ammar Ali Jan   It appears to be sedition season on the Indian subcontinent. A relic of the colonial era, the sedition law has become a potent weapon in the …

Pakistan’s lowest spending in the social sector will create an incompetent generation, writes Amir Hussain in his lastest column published in The News today. He suggests that if PTI government wants to translate its rhetoric of building 5m houses and create 10m jobs, it must double its GDP and ensure growth at a rate of 8% for next 10  years …

The world is facing a growing disillusionment with current economic and political order that was historically erected through great games and neoliberal economic agenda and development concepts by the colonial empires. These issues were deliberated upon by scholars, academics, development practitioners at a workshop held recently in Ottawa University, Canada. They debunked the neoliberal development concept and advocated pluralistic, universal …

IHC wraps up cases against AWP PTM activists, asks government to protect the right to freedom of expression    High Asia Herald Report   Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday disposed of a petition of 23 workers who were arrested by the police last month for protesting against the arrest of PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen when the court …

Sedition seems to be the ‘crime’ of the times — even as the demand for the state to respect fundamental rights is growing increasingly louder, comments Dawn in its editorial piece on article 124-A  Pakistan Penal Code and its frequent use against dissenting views and protest for fundamental rights. “During the last few months alone, charges of sedition have been …

File photo of a protest rally by activists demanding revival of student unions, and batter education facilities, in Karachi on Nov 29, 2019. Credit: AFP In his latest column, Amir Husain questions the relevance of nation-states which have become a tool of oppression; he also critics the Left’s failure in shaping the discourse of resistance and suggests that the Left must …

Swiss activist Loukina Tille, Swedish climate change activists Greta Thunberg and Isabelle Axelsson attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters The individuals leading change, and making the largest sacrifices, are all too often the people most threatened by inequality   by Darren Walker   As we enter 2020 and survey the state of the …

In his latest column, published in The News, Amir Hussain dislodges the myth of development practitioners and poverty alleviation careerists that “grassroots institutions of the poor” have any.transformative role beyond poverty management. He poses a question ‘whether public funds be spent on such initiatives?   We all talk about the importance of strong institutions as drivers of social progress, economic …