Benjamin Gilmour’s feature film Jirga remedies maladies of guilt with bravery and redemption.   It is fairly cathartic when a war movie takes us far beyond the horror of bullets, bomb and blood into the other sides of the war—emotional incumbrances on the individuals.  With such a characteristic aplomb, Jirga film unveils the depth of the heartache and guilt of an ...

In his first address to the nation, Prime minister Imran Khan spoke on a number of issues. It’s very pleasant to see someone speaking about the issues which were barely addressed before, as,  climate change, tourism, agriculture research, new provinces, health insurance, physically challenged people, kids on the streets, merit, child abuse, civil service reforms, developing beaches, building new resorts, ...

The much talked about democratic transition that was supposed to have started with the general elections in 2008 and continued through the general elections of 2013 has for all practical purposes died down. The so called soft creeping coup which was conceived by the deep state and midwifed by judiciary during the last few years has not only culminated in ...

As if this was not enough, the civil and military bureaucracy is about to spring another surprise on the Parliament by imposing the so called Interim Governance Order 2018 which is a new form of the despicable FCR. Ultimately the 31st Constitutional Amendment bill, providing for merger of Federally Administered Tribal Area ( FATA ) and Provincially Administered Tribal Area ...

Formally the constitutional term of the present government will come to an end with completion of the term of elected assemblies by the end of May but power has already been shifted from elected to non elected executive far before that. The black out of the entire press conference of the sitting prime minister last week was a proof of ...

Officially Pakistan is supposed to be in the final stage of preparation for general elections to be held in summer this year as the elected National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies are reaching the end of their constitutional term on May 30 ( the last day of the constitutional life of Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is May 28). Care taker governments, at both ...

BY BABAR SATTAR: Manzoor Pashteen’s social consciousness may be rooted in his Pashtun identity. He may be motivated by sufferings of fellow Pushtun’s he has seen growing up. But the questions he is asking are relevant for all of us. The debate triggered by Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is about the coercive relationship between a citizen and Pakistani state and the ...

8th of April was yet another watershed moment for the hardly three months old Pashtun Tahafuz Movement ( PTM). In fact it was a milestone on the path of  redefining Pashtun political discourse in Pakistan. But  it is also pertinent to note that this development has significant implications for political discourse all over  Pakistan. After squandering the last few years ...

His mission is not to attain power but to dismantle the power of those who has invited nothing but miseries to his nation in the name of religion. Any big event is rarely engineered and put in action. It is the capturing of a moment by someone, who may or may not be in routine limelight. The present uprising of ...

In a free season on the Constitution some people have floated the idea of imposing a judicial martial law for holding general elections in the country. Apart from being a contradiction in terms it’s also a totally meaningless concept because a martial law is martial law and a prefix or a suffix doesn’t change its character in any manner. We ...