Category: Columns

Martin Luther King Jr.’s idea that when a society focuses all its resources and attention on wars, public issues like education and healthcare are pushed aside, strongly reflects the reality of Pakistan today. The continuous environment of violence, bomb blasts, and bloodshed has deeply affected our collective thinking. Human suffering has sadly become a routine...

Emotional manipulation operates through multiple outlets, from intimate family relationships to powerful mass-media narratives. Emotional manipulation does not only harm individuals, it corrodes the emotional framework of society itself. When empathy and sympathy are repeatedly used as tools of control rather than understanding, they lose their moral clarity and are learned in distorted forms. Those...

Before the Partition of India, Allahabad was a remarkably fertile and respected center of Indian literature. It was a time when the Progressive Movement was taking firm root, and in an intellectual and literary city like Allahabad, new ideas and revolutionary tendencies were clearly taking shape. Mushairas, literary gatherings, and journals gave Urdu literature a...

Islamabad, once admired for its well-planned layout, quiet streets, and orderly traffic, is now encountering growing challenges in urban management. Instead of easing commuters’ woes, many new projects often have visible and noticeable effects on daily travel. The constant noise, horns, and smoke amid heavy traffic test the patience of the people, highlighting the need...

Lahore also holds a historic position in the world of literature. For centuries, this city has remained a center of poetry, short stories, drama, and other literary forms. During the Mughal era, its poetic gatherings contributed significantly to the growth of Urdu and Persian literature, while in the modern literary movements of the Subcontinent, writers...

In the history of Urdu short fiction, there are some names that never become widely famous, yet their work leaves a lasting impression on serious readers. Qamar Abbas Nadeem is one such writer. On one hand, he was a doctor in his professional life, and on the other, a sensitive and deeply thoughtful short story...

Daily prayer sits at the center of a Muslim’s life. It shapes routine, builds discipline, and keeps the heart connected to its purpose. Still, maintaining consistency with five daily prayers becomes challenging when work schedules tighten, travel increases, and attention is constantly pulled in different directions. Many people do not struggle with intention; they struggle...

The post-1945 economic order, predicated on the free movement of goods and the sanctity of alliances, may well have breathed its last this Wednesday. In a move that has sent shockwaves from the polder lands of Veldhoven to the industrial clusters of Gyeonggi-do, the White House has announced a sweeping 25 per cent tariff on...

In the history of Urdu literature, there have been many writers who, through their creative work, not only enriched the literary world but also reflected the social, political, and cultural issues of their times in the mirror of literature. Among these notable figures is Ali Haider Malik, recognized as a serious, thought-provoking, and creative writer...