Debate of the week

Karachi was once again set on fire on Tuesday when Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said that some armed men entered the house of Mansoor Mukhtar, a member of the party’s PIB sector committee in PIB colony and shot him to death. The early morning attack also led to the death of the victim’s brother Maqsood Mukhtar who was earlier injured in the firing and later succumbed to his wounds. The statement issued by MQM alleged that elements of the Lyari...

Pakistan and the United States are expected to commence the rebuilding of their mutual ties when Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani meets President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a nuclear safety summit in South Korea next week. The two leaders are expected to discuss the issues of drone strikes, the attack by US Nato forces on a Pakistani check post on November 26 and new taxes on transport of goods for coalition forces in Afghanistan. While the...

Tell us, in one short sentence, how would you redraft the Pakistan Resolution, given the many challenges faced by the country today. A selection of readers’ opinions will appear in a Special Report of Dawn on March 23. Please include your name, age, profession and location to qualify for the opinion to be published. E.g. “Education and employment for all” Sabiha Khan, 21, IT professional, Kohat

Although March 8, 2012 marks International Women’s Day, the constant deterioration of women’s rights and safety of women in Pakistan negate the ideology of marking the celebrations planned for the day. Despite the formulation of the women protection bill, which supposedly protects women from honour killings, underage marriages and acid attacks, incidents of such abhorrent nature are evidently ubiquitous. On this Women’s Day perhaps we should...

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), on Wednesday, launched a text-messaging service for voter-detail verification, along with announcing a three-week extension for registration and corrections. By sending their National Identity Card (NIC) number (without hyphens) to the number ‘8300,’ users can find out if they are registered to vote and their voting area. “The ECP is using state of the art SMS technology to facilitate over 80 million...

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy made Oscar history late Sunday, as she became the first Pakistani to win the coveted award for her documentary film Saving Face. Chinoy’s triumph is, rightly, being celebrated with much vigour and the country’s prime minister has announced the highest civilian award for the filmmaker. The film, which beat competition in the form of documentaries based on Japan’s deadly tsunami and the Iraq war among others, is the story...

With the recent trip of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan’s ties with its two Western neighbours seem to be strengthening. “The presidents of the three countries, at their summit, agreed to bolster their counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics cooperation despite bitterness during bilateral parleys between Pakistan and Afghanistan over allegations related to Taliban,” a report in this...

Balochistan has come under focus in the last few days with the murder of a member of Balochistan assembly and his wife, a Supreme Court hearing on the missing persons case, unabated violence in the province and a US Congressional hearing on the Balochistan issue. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik recently said that there were reports indicating involvement of foreign hands in the prevailing situation of Balochistan. “Natural resources are...

Pakistan left the cricketing world stunned with their 72-run win over England in the second Test match at Abu Dhabi. As the team erupted in celebrations at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, one of the prominent scenes was that of stand-in coach Mohsin Hasan Khan being thrown in jubilation by his team. Much of Pakistan’s recent success has been (rightly) credited to the captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq and his team’s newfound work ethic. Pakistan have now won...

In the ever-changing scenario in the memogate scandal case, Mansoor Ijaz has reportedly refused to come to Pakistan and appear in court. Ijaz has based his decision on ‘unsatisfactory’ security arrangements and that the government is interfering in the security plan. This latest development has created furore amongst politicians, diplomats, analysts and the media – as they all voice their opinion on the case. While one cannot take away from...