Debate of the week

Facebook recently “upgraded” their interface while Google+ officially opened their doors to the public last week. With many users complaining about the changes to their settings and profiles on Facebook, would you seriously consider switching to Google+ as your primary social network? Many of us love to hate facebook, is that going to help Google+ become a successful competitor?   Dawn.com invites its readers to give their view and suggestions.

With President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani sending out flood relief appeals a little too late, chances are that it will be another 20 days before the donors mobilise their resources. With the national disaster management authority chief being quoted as saying that it will be another 90 days before water is drained out of districts Badin, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas, it will be a long time before the flood victims are rehabilitated. Meanwhile,...

Shoaib Akhtar has done it again. He is the centre of attention, managed to invite some controversy and started a debate that perhaps did not even cross the minds of cricket fans. “I think players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid weren’t exactly match winners to start with, nor did they know the art of finishing the game,” Akhtar said on the eve of his book launch in India. The auto-biography titled “Controversially Yours” is Akhtar...

There have been many talks about ‘getting the ball rolling’ to resolve the issue of jailed fishermen between India and Pakistan. But nothing conclusive has happened. Year after year, innocent fishermen from both sides are victimised, simply because there is no demarcation of water boundaries. According to Dawn, at least 400 fishermen have been languishing in jails in both countries for no intentional crimes. Despite no border markers, fishermen...

The 69-foot long body of a blue whale washed up on the Sea view beach in Karachi on Wednesday. No preliminary post-mortem examination was carried out to determine the cause of it’s death. Hence, if there was a hazardous environmental factor that contributed to the whale’s death, and may as well be threatening other marine life, it remains uninvestigated. What’s even more harrowing about the tragedy is that the Cantonment Board Clifton let the...

Justice delayed in some cases isn’t always denied. After a year since the senseless and utterly tragic deaths of two brothers in Sialkot, the jury has given a judgment.   Talking to Dawn, the family of Mughees and Muneeb said they were satisfied with the verdict in which the court sentenced seven of the convicts to death on four counts, gave life-term on four counts to six of them and jailed nine policemen, including a former district police officer,...

With August 14 approaching fast, Dawn.com would like to know your thoughts on Pakistan and the way forward. In your opinion, what should be done today to fix the many problems Pakistan faces? Please give your answer in one sentence along with your name, age, location and profession to qualify for the survey.

With the federal budget 2011-2012 expected to be announced on Friday, eyes and ears remained glued on the country’s policy-makers. While rising inflation continues to burden the urban masses, there has been talk of tax relief on lower income-brackets as well as debates on the introduction of new taxes forced by international money-lending forces. And as education becomes a ‘matter of life and death’ for the nation, many people are expecting...

Taliban militants assaulted the headquarters of Pakistan’s naval air force in Karachi, killing 13 people, injuring 16 others and blowing up at least two military aircraft. The assault that started at 10:30 pm on Sunday at PNS Mehran base near Shahrah-e-Faisal ended 14 hours later, after more than 20 Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants stormed the heavily guarded building with guns and grenades. Monday morning saw trucks carrying military and...

Osama Bin Laden had become a house hold name post 9/11. He will also probably go down in history as the most popular “Most Wanted” personality of all times. Now that the tall and lanky, 60 something man carrying around a kidney dialysis machine in his old age is dead, will the World become a safer place? Irrespective of who you are and where you’re from, this man has probably impacted your life in both subtle and obvious ways. The acts of this...