The Supreme Court’s Thursday dismissal of Zahir Jaffer’s review plea marks a rare moment of legal closure in a case that has haunted Pakistan’s conscience since the blood-curdling murder of Noor Mukadam in 2021. The court maintained its earlier verdict upholding the death sentence first handed down by an Islamabad sessions court in February 2022. […]
Editorial
What Now?
World Environment Day has come and gone. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif used the occasion to underline that climate change is no longer a distant threat but a harsh daily reality for millions of Pakistanis. They are not wrong. The problem is that Pakistan has heard this before. One does not […]
Right to Choose
The Sindh High Court’s order directing protection for Hassan Buriro and Sidra Channa will be remembered less as relief for one newly married couple than as an indictment of a social order in which consent can still invite collective punishment. The couple approached the court after contracting a marriage of their own choice. Their relatives, […]
Lebanon Ceasefire
The latest US-brokered framework for Lebanon is less a peace plan than an attempt to restore the logic of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 under wartime pressure. Israel and Lebanon have said they are prepared to move towards a conditional ceasefire built around two familiar requirements: Hezbollah would halt its fire and withdraw from the […]
Responsible Politics
Gilgit-Baltistan does not need another season of political theatre. After 22 years without elected local bodies, the August 2 schedule should have turned politics towards streets, drains, schools, clinics, markets, tourism and jobs: the daily grammar of governance. Instead, with the Assembly election fast approaching, allegations and counter-allegations are crowding out the only question that […]
Motorway Rape Case
The Lahore High Court’s dismissal of the appeals in the 2020 Motorway gang-rape case brings legal closure one step closer in a case that shook Pakistan’s conscience. The two convicts, sentenced by an anti-terrorism court in 2021, have failed to overturn their sentences. This is welcome, necessary, but sadly, still not enough. After every high-profile […]
Unending War
Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian cities on Tuesday, killing at least ten people and wounding around a hundred. The barrages hit Kyiv and Dnipro, sending fireballs above high-rise buildings and forcing residents into subway stations for shelter, with four killed and 58 injured in Kyiv alone. Six more died, and 36 were wounded, in […]
Fake Medicine Crisis
The federal cabinet’s approval of a nationwide track-and-trace system for pharmaceutical products is a timely and important intervention in a sector where weak oversight can cost lives without making headlines. By approving amendments to the Drug Labelling and Packing Rules, the government has cleared the way for standardised 2D barcodes and serialisation data on medicine […]
GB Elections
On the campaign trail in Shigar, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari emphasised that any new constitutional amendment must protect Gilgit-Baltistan’s rights and resources and that its elected representatives deserved the authority and revenue promised to other federating units. He has argued that the region should have the same rights under the Constitution’s 18th Amendment and has […]
Raging Hillfires
The Margallas are burning again, and the official relief that follows every containment operation is beginning to sound dangerously routine. This week, fire crews have had to respond to fresh blazes near the Golra and Bara Kahu ranges, while more than 20 fires were contained in the Murree and Rawalpindi forest divisions over four days […]