Opinion Survey Archives
United in discontent
The survey provides insights about the impact of the pro-provinces federal reforms in the shape of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
morePerson of the year
In the early 1980s, a small group of gutsy women came together to oppose the adverse effects on women of martial law and General Ziaul Haq’s Islamisation campaign. In 1983, they took to the streets in Lahore, protesting the case …
moreInterview: Arundhati Roy
Q. Does the attack on Malala Yousafzai represent the much-needed turning point for Pakistan in its efforts to reclaim sociocultural and political spaces dominated by extremism?
A. The attempted murder of Malala Yousafzai is a grotesque and unforgiveable crime. …
moreContenders and pretenders
The outgoing year was a happening one — and not always in a positive sense. A long list of individuals marked milestones for Pakistan in 2012 in their own ways and helped determine how the country fared in recent times. …
moreExtreme assignment
The idea appeared deceptively simple — capturing landscape and tribal lifestyles. What made this assignment challenging and extreme was its locale – Balochistan – which has experienced a volatile security environment since the assassination of the Baloch tribal chief, Akbar …
moreNew discoveries
Rashid Rana’s mid-career retrospective, titled Labyrinth of Reflections: The Art of Rashid Rana 1992-2012, opens at the Mohatta Palace Museum later this month. This ambitious show has been co-curated by Hameed Haroon and Naazish Ata-Ullah and includes some 70 works, …
moreTallying the costs
Eating Grass is the latest addition to a long list of literature on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. It is a semi-official history of the programme, written by a former military officer who was closely connected with the nuclear policymaking component …
moreGeneral perception
In the continuously played out power game in Islamabad, the Pakistan Army uses image as its most potent weapon. Portrayed as efficient, smart and highly disciplined, it is projected as an institution which can fix anything that others – especially …
moreA textbook case
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori — “It is sweet and right to die for your country.” The centuries-old Latin line popularised in modern times by Wilfred Owen – in a poem written near the end of the First …
moreTroubled north-west comes to town
On a mid-November day, factory worker Ghulam Shabbir was shot dead on the road adjacent to Manghopir Hills in north-western Karachi. The motorcycle he was riding had POLICE written on its registration plate. A day earlier, a Mohammad Ejaz was …
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