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Friday November 22, 2024
Raoof Hasan
Raoof Hasan

  • July 12, 2024

    Lighting up a million paths

    Aliya Hamza and Sanam Javed have now been incarcerated for over a year

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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...

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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

  • 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...

  • 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....

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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,...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • July 14, 2023

    Pakistan needs a healing touch

    With a few exceptions under extraordinary circumstances, human conduct mostly remains an unpredictable phenomenon. With some rising to the apex of...

  • June 23, 2023

    A cloud of inevitability

    “To Bedlam with him!/ Is the man grown mad?” —Shakespeare. The pace at which conditions are deteriorating in the country is pregnant with an...

  • June 16, 2023

    And then there is delusion

    It is mind-boggling to see how deeply infatuated the state and its institutions are with the task of rendering Imran Khan and PTI irrelevant. The...

  • June 09, 2023

    Let voices of sanity resonate

    Every society is an amalgam of ideas, interests and proclivities which are not always similar in nature. In fact, more often, they reflect the vast...

  • May 26, 2023

    A meltdown and the phoenix moment

    The seemingly unending spate of arrests with credible information filtering out regarding pressure, even torture, being inflicted upon the detainees...

  • May 19, 2023

    No shape or substance, just hollowness

    The Friday ColumnThroughout my living years, I imagined that I had a fair stock of words I could choose from to express my thoughts exactly the way...

  • May 12, 2023

    Descent into chaos

    The brutal and barbaric manner Imran Khan was arrested is a reprehensible act which would forever remain beyond the realm of lawful and decent...

  • May 05, 2023

    A season of darkness, a spark of hope

    “Stars, hide your fires,/ Let not light see my black and deep desires.” – Shakespeare: ‘Macbeth’The world has been full of people...

  • April 28, 2023

    The wrath of blood

    It is difficult to make much sense of what is happening around us within the precincts of logic and reason. But not only is this enactment of...

  • April 21, 2023

    Pulling the edifice down

    “Thou art become / The dungeon of thyself; thy soul/ Imprisoned now indeed, / In real darkness of the body dwells, / Shut up from outward light, /...

  • April 14, 2023

    A government in contempt

    Those who thought that sanity would return to the ranks of the government, and that they would take the requisite steps to facilitate the holding of...