There has been a lot of public debate about the general deteriorating quality of education, gaps between public and private schooling and myriad ways to improve the overall learning outcomes. In many assessment reports and analyses it is devised that public schools learn from, or collaborate with, ...

The Rat Race Called 'Rating' As a talk-show is set to go on-air in a few hours, here is sample of a passing conversation among the host or anchor, producer, social media person and the researcher. Anchor: We will be doing an exclusive interview of Imran Khan tonight. Please do the needful. ...

To make sense of the genesis of heinous act of hate crime and terror in Orlando’s gay nightclub folks around the world are consumed piecing together homophobia, prevalence of gun violence, Islamophobia and other shreds of it. While concerned folks are at it, regular (read moderate) Muslims ...

At a recent huddle in Lahore, with the PML-N top leadership, cohorts and media persons in attendance, the Prime Minister had to tackle a tricky question. Someone from the audience dared to ask the premier if civil and military leadership were on the same page. The PML-N leadership who never stopped ...

For his part, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif thankfully cancelled his visit to the UK and paid a visit to the victims of Lahore blast (which claimed more than 70 precious lives and left scores of others injured in the latest horrendous act of terrorism claimed by a TTP splinter group). Sharif even ...

A month or so back, I made a new friend from Taiwan who is currently studying at Harvard University. Pei-ling Huang was doing field research in Pakistan on an extremely interesting topic. A close friend of mine also studying at Harvard whom I was roommate with at LUMS had put me through to her. ...

There are 14 mountains above 8,000 meters in the world, usually referred to as eight-thousanders, and Pakistan alone hosts 5 of them: K2(8611m), Nanga Parbat(8126m), Gasherbrum 1(8080m), Broad Peak(8051m), Gasherbrum 2(8035m). Such is the irony that there is no Pakistani climber who ever made it ...

As a member of the Youth Parliament Pakistan, I along with my fellow parliamentary committee members were recently tasked to devise recommendations for the PML-N top leadership (essentially the PML-N president Muhammad Nawaz Sharif) on some of the issues highlighted by the party president in a mock ...

Post Charsadda university attack, a lot has been said in our TV talk shows, newspapers, social media and other forums. Condemnations, blames and recommendations sequentially poured in. And these were followed by the calls for unity, patriotism and assurances of how we are very close to defeating ...

In the realm of Pakistan-India bilateral dialogue, ‘postponed for an indefinite period’ has been replaced with ‘likely to happen in near future’. And that it has successfully survived the January 2 Pathankot attack is a good sign. For the good of bilateral ties, thankfully ...

Political commentary and analysis is my thing. However, I have been utterly shamed and disgraced to see the “third-gender” citizens living a miserable life in our society today and could not resist but raise the issue which has both social and political contours. This especially comes ...

The historic 150-minute stopover of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lahore – the ‘heart of Pakistan’ – took everyone by surprise. The hawks and naysayers on both sides of the border were trounced when Modi unexpectedly landed in Lahore to wish his counterpart ...

NA-154 Lodhran is one of the four National Assembly seats from Punjab where Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has long been demanding investigations for the alleged rigging in 2013 general elections (other seats are NA-122 Lahore, NA-125 Lahore and NA-110 Sialkot). So much so that PTI even boycotted the ...

In general, every political party has its own stronghold. And all of them have been restricted to their strongholds as is evident by the local government elections. Nonetheless, all of them – ethnic parties, nationalist parties, religious parties and regional parties – will play an ...

For a moment, let’s assume (quite safely now) that there shall be no martial laws coming our way (ever). Also that Nawaz Sharif, to use Ayaz Amir’s terminology, would not prove to be his own suicide bomber unlike his past misadventures. Let’s assume also that men in uniform shall ...

There are a host of reasons which explain low voter turnout and make a convincing case for the electorate to stay dispassionate as they are. Following are some pointers which help us understand why local government elections are meaningless: 1.      Family politics: In the ...

There have been much fervor and speculation about the ongoing four-day long US visit of General Raheel Sharif. COAS Sharif’s visit comes weeks after PM Nawaz Sharif’s three-day US visit where the tactical-nuclear-weapons talk was mostly avoided and downplayed. ‘Nuclear’ was ...

One visible trend after the first phase of local government elections is, inter alia, the resistance of the Punjab and Sindh electorate to change their old loyalties. The voters may not be able to decide to rebel too early and too quickly.  Predominantly, Punjab-based PML-N sweeps in Punjab ...

Things seem to be changing as the season of local body elections starts. Even though only yesterday it seemed like the expose on the Imran-Reham divorce had overtaken all of the media space. Seemingly, the attention (not interest) has been diverted towards the third tier of governance – and ...

For those who religiously follow current affairs and have an eye on the daily topics being discussed in our TV talk shows should agree that there was a lot of hue and cry over the Kasur child abuse scandal (early August). Media channels devoted a lot of its airtime to the issue.  Four ...

October 11 is going to be a big day in the history of the NA 122 (Lahore-V) seat. Electoral politics and campaigning is in full swing as all eyes are set on the by-elections. With Imran Khan’s presence in Lahore, the excitement has increased exponentially. Arguably, the real contest is ...

We may not have a law relating cybercrimes as yet, but there is one in the pipeline. Thereafter a room for discussion on important sensitive subjects may be available. Government may not have been monitoring and regulating our activities on social media too strictly. Hence there is a forum ...

In November 2007, United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution with consensus. It was decided that September 15 shall be observed as the International Day of Democracy. While in 2014 the theme for celebration was “Engaging Youth on Democracy”, this year’s theme-“Space ...

Let me start by saying that, in general, there is no easy way for youngsters to enter into politics in Pakistan. A general observation reveals that for one to be considered seriously for the ‘unholy alliance’ of politicians, one has to be influential. And if you think yourself to be ...