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March 29, 2025
The dread of living
In the past, with every rising of the sun, much anticipation was associated with reading the newspaper
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March 22, 2025
Blowing trumpets of war
There is also no denying fact that state should act with its full might to eradicate this cancer
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March 15, 2025
The games we play
It is time for introspection, initiating a dialogue and generating unity and harmony
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March 08, 2025
Death traps and loss of hope
As we hit others with blame, it becomes a cause of further pain and anguish
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March 01, 2025
When dark shall be an illusion
Such has been unfortunate fate of this nation that it has confronted one set of obstacles or other
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February 22, 2025
Escalating conflict syndrome
Streak of light at end of dark tunnel should keep generating hope that one is on right path
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February 15, 2025
Hiding behind the cloak of democracy
It is never easy to pick up pieces from the debris and put them in place to become functional again
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February 08, 2025
Dearth, nay demise, of reason
Since independence, these institutions have seldom delivered on key benchmarks to propel country forward
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February 01, 2025
My lips may be sealed, but the heart shall beat
All I can say is that strictures may seal my lips, but my heart shall continue to beat even more robustly
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January 25, 2025
An unfathomable pit: Candid corner
One may pick up any avenue of national life to realise that it has either stopped functioning altogether or is precariously close to it
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January 18, 2025
Loss of freedom
Dream associated with the cherished ideal of freedom has refused to die
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July 12, 2024
Lighting up a million paths
Aliya Hamza and Sanam Javed have now been incarcerated for over a year
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June 28, 2024
A change so subtle, yet so powerful
Till quite recently, it all seemed dark as state institutions were locked up in bloody tentacles of forces of brute power
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June 14, 2024
A song of resistance, a ray of light
This kept them busy to an extent that they had no inclination left to attend to other things, gradual destruction of country being most important
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May 31, 2024
Spare me the freedom to live with sanity
I don’t know why and from where this streak of violence has penetrated the societal fabric
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May 17, 2024
A silent revolution
This awakening has also come at a critical time when the country is teetering on the brink of disaster
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April 26, 2024
Good days shall return
Former prime minister Imran Khan. — Instagram/ imrankhan.ptiAn old saying has it that “when you dance with the devil, the devil doesn’t...
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March 29, 2024
A drop of rain on a parched land
The time of the holy cows and their aides and abettors may be up
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March 22, 2024
Lingering in the chambers of darkness
We are living through such times when no professional outfit manifests even the most minimal level of integrity
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March 08, 2024
And then the deluge
In 2024 elections, power-wielders went a step too far in decimating two-thirds majority of PTI to help a coalition of corrupt sneak into power
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January 26, 2024
Burgeoning hope, looming uncertainties
Undying yearning to escape into comfort of another world is a theme that has attracted volumes of literature
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January 19, 2024
Things a ‘bat’ would make them do
There is also prospect of stuffing ballot boxes with votes in favour of parties being promoted by power wielders
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January 12, 2024
Two paths from here on
There is still stage left for this drama to finally end: that of ECP exercising its right to challenge PHC decision in SC
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January 05, 2024
Some things are better left undone
This has made him even more popular, his image retaining its magnetic pull, calling upon people to throng hustings on election day
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December 29, 2023
With fear lurking, eyes denuded of sight
It was Shakespeare who said in ‘The Tempest’: “Those are pearls that were his eyes”. So powerful was the impact of the line that T S Eliot...
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December 22, 2023
Breaking barriers, discovering new vistas
Despite the government's efforts to slow down the internet and disrupt X, Facebook, and other social media platforms, over 10 million people...
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December 15, 2023
When sanity is banished from discourse
We are living through times when a foreboding often casts its shadow that whatever we were taught through our evolving years, whatever we learnt...
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December 08, 2023
Cometh the day, cometh the hour
As time crawls to February 8, the date the ECP has designated for holding the next general elections in the country, the related uncertainties are...
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December 01, 2023
The legend of the phoenix
The qualities associated with the legend of the phoenix are symptomatic of our times in an uncanny manner: that each phoenix lives for 500 years and...
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November 24, 2023
Hate nurtured and sanity bartered
Representational image from Unsplash. I have often written about the degenerative trends which seem to be swamping society and the destructive...
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November 17, 2023
Foundational ethos and ideological predators
A voter is casting his vote at a polling station during by-elections in the NA-237 constituency in Karachi on October 16, 2022. — PPIThere comes a...
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November 10, 2023
Trouble across the western border
Afghan and Pakistani nationals walk through a security barrier to cross the border as the Pakistani and Taliban flags fly at the Pak-Afghan border...
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November 03, 2023
A recipe of ruination, a lifetime of shame
PDM leaders Shehbaz Sharif , Asif Ali Zardari and Fazlur Rehman speak during a press conference in Islamabad, on March 28, 2022. — AFPThese...
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October 27, 2023
When dreams crumble
Former president Asif Ali Zardari and Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. —AFP/FileTransition is a strange phenomenon that impacts life in a...
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October 20, 2023
World watches a genocide in silence
Devastating scenes of people crying over dead bodies of their loved ones, including women, children, would bring tears to every soul
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October 13, 2023
Caged justice and numbed brains
“Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise./ Up from the past that’s rooted in pain, I rise./ I am a black ocean, leaping and wide,/ Welling...
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October 06, 2023
A tradition of pain, a sparkle of hope
“In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile....
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September 29, 2023
State against people
Highlighting the growing trust deficit between the state and the people, I tweeted a few days ago: “A country unwilling to engage with itself to...
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September 23, 2023
Fodder for alien cannons
With the release of the follow-up report by The Intercept regarding the alleged sale of arms to Ukraine due to economic contingencies and US...
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September 15, 2023
The echoes getting closer and louder
Some among us are sensitive to even the slightest deviation from the course of truth and justice while others show a penchant to gel with the way...
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September 08, 2023
The sparks are aflame
Much may already have happened, but much more, tragically, continues to happen. It may not be difficult to fathom the direction the steps currently...
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September 01, 2023
Stirrings of life
It seems that, despite the rapidly increasing burden of life, people are reconciled with being in chains that restrict their movement and padlocks...
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August 25, 2023
Losing the script
Pakistan is shrouded in multiple crises with each day seeing the dawn of more grievous ones with painful monotony. If ever we had a script to go by,...
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August 18, 2023
Caretakers — but not quite caretaking
After much uncertainty and speculation, a caretaker prime minister has taken oath of office understandably to steer the country towards holding...
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August 11, 2023
A shameful chapter indeed
The Friday ColumnBy the time this piece appears in the press, the most dishonourable bunch ever in the history of Pakistan, led by that inveterate...
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August 04, 2023
Burial of reason
It is said: what’s in a number; after all, it is just a number. But did anyone ever think that it could be much more than that? It could actually...
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July 28, 2023
Old recipes will not work
In the existent times when sanity has been forfeited at the stake of personal vendettas, it is extremely difficult to keep destruction from visiting...
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July 21, 2023
A tragic flaw
The wise have always advocated moderation in every task one may undertake and every plan one may envisage. The problem, if any, is not as much as in...
