The author is a staff reporter.Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Quaidabad police station in Khushab district in the Punjab on November 4 to resist the arrest of a security guard at a local branch of National Bank of Pakistan who had shot dead the branch manager during duty hours and later tried to justify his action by accusing the deceased of blasphemy. Bank officials, family of the murdered man and local clerics…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
The writer is a freelance columnist.This newspaper recently published a report about how South Asia ranks highest in incidents of ‘child stunting,’ based on a study by Laura Hammond. Another national daily reports that four out of ten children in Pakistan are ‘unlikely ever to meet their cognitive and developmental potential’, which is “44 percent nationally, the third highest in the world.” An insufficient diet, which means an insufficiency of required nutrients can lead to…
THERE appears to be no end to the government’s relentless efforts to curb freedom of expression in the sphere of arts and culture. After obsessively hounding TikTok and other popular apps for alleged ‘vulgar’ content, the government has found a new avenue through which it can block audience access to content it finds disagreeable. The Cabinet Division informed the State Bank of Pakistan recently to ensure that local banks block online payments for digital content…
After being delayed from their original date in August, the 2020 Gilgit-Baltistan elections are now finally going to be held on November 15. These elections are important because, in their aftermath, the provincial status of the region will be decided and worked upon. The election campaigns are in full swing as all main parties, PPP, PML-N and PTI, are working ardently to convince voters in their favour. How will the results turn out? Past trends…
by Munazza Siddiqui in The News, Nov 14, 2020The writer is an executive producer, Geo News.….. The concept of casualty is central to the idea of free will; that effects have causes. So what happens when equal enticements are replaced with equal threats, when two alternatives are judged to carry equally frightening consequences. Deriving from the conclusion of 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan of the Donkey Paradox that in such a situation no rational…
THE recent macroeconomic trends confirm Prime Minister Imran Khan’s words that a broad-based recovery appears to be underway. The evidence of this turnaround can be seen in the recent rebound in manufacturing as indicated by record cement sales, increased demand for cars, motorbikes and white goods, revival of the construction industry, etc. In short, the resurgence of domestic consumption is pushing the current growth momentum. It is a positive sign that the ongoing spurt in…
As feared, the government is struggling to get the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) back on track and has, for the first time, indicated that it might not be revived till the end of the year at the very least. While it is understandable that the government does not want to increase the electricity tariff or taxes right now, keeping in view the prevailing weak economic situation, the ruling party is still wrong to lay…
The government seems to have painted itself into a corner with the IMF, to the extent that the existing $6 billion package is in danger of collapsing, as it seems that the package, suspended since the Covid-19 pandemic set in, can only be revived if the government takes measures that it considers political suicide. The problem with letting the IMF programme lapse is that it would mean that the World Bank and the Asian Development…
In a society where crimes against women are often neglected, it is the job of the media to report rape cases responsibly and with utmost priority so that it receives a sense of outrage, that it inculcates a feeling amongst the masses that such a crime should never be allowed to be committed again, and it invokes pressure on the government to pass laws to prevent and erase the rape culture that exists. It is…
Female students at the Islamia College University (ICU) have taken a brave stand against harassment on campus. The students have said male teachers use grades as an excuse to call them into their offices and then make objectionable comments or worse. The students want action under the 2010 law against the harassment of women at the workplace. This is not a problem unique to this college or to Peshawar. We are all familiar with the…
The China model: op-ed by Dr Farrukh Saleem in The News, Nov 15, 2020
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad……..The China Model focuses on ‘substance’ rather than the ‘democratic procedure’ (we in Pakistan are exclusively focused on the ‘procedural conceptions of democracy’ as opposed to ‘substance-based democratic conceptions’). ….. A procedural democracy “concerns itself with the so-called democratic features whereas a substantive democracy concerns itself whether policy has produced results that meet the needs of the masses.” China has a ‘state-led economic model’ as opposed to ‘Western-style…