The Song of the Reed – on Rumi’s birth anniversary

Listen to the song of the reed, How it wails with the pain of separation…

Mehdi Hasan: The Man & His Music

But this has been our tragic tradition. Our greatest artists, singers, poets and intellectuals have suffered at the hands of a conformist society and…

Collapsing Local Governance

Recent floods have exposed the capacity of the state to govern, especially at the local level. The disintegration of local state is not a…

Ardent messiah lovers and regime change in Pakistan

Erosion of public institutions under authoritarian regimes is an undeniable lesson of our history. At a time when al Qaeda and its cohorts are…

Fighting corruption through digital technology

State accountability – all is not that bleak Much has been written about corruption and how there seems to be no way out of…

Failed prescriptions for a failing state

The cat is finally out of the bag. The MQM chief has issued a statement on how the country needs to be saved from…

Future of a crisis

Pakistan's ruling elites fond of palace intrigues and power maximisation tricks must realise that this may be the last chance of saving the country,…

That Colorless Life: Attacking Shrines and the ‘other’ Islam

An interesting policy brief by the Jinnah Institute In recent months, militant efforts have turned increasingly to operations in the heart of Pakistan’s cities,…

A nation determined to be innocent

There's massive disappointment and anger that this could happen at a time when the country is going through such a bad phase," he said.…