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Yes, Insafians, you are being ‘sore losers’
The historic elections are finally over. A significant majority of Pakistanis exercised their right to vote for their favoured parties and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has emerged as the...
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Please don’t stare at my sister
My little sister is well into adulthood. Mentally, however, I’d say her behaviour is that of a particularly sober and socially adept five or six year old. This is due to a combination of Down’s...
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SITE: When industrialists are forced to work in a ‘pigsty’
Ironically, the largest sty in the world is located in Pakistan. In fact it is in Karachi, known as Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) Karachi. It is an industrial estate with over 3,000...
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Karachi summers: Easy, breezy and beautiful
May is a seminal month in Karachi, an intermediary that hints of the pleasures of a South Asian summer. The searing April heat is omnipresent but in late afternoons you can hear the cuckoo’s song that...
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MQM’s much awaited cleansing
A few hours ago, Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) dissolved the Rabita Committee in Pakistan and London. It seems as if the chief of MQM Altaf Hussain, has finally taken notice of the ongoing problems...
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An open letter to MQM from a PTI supporter
Dear brothers and sisters, While I strongly condemn the brutal killing of Zahra Shahid Hussain, I would like to take this opportunity as an individual to apologise to the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM)...
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The tale of Karachi: Home is where the shackle was
Karachi gives you so much pain at times, nothing else compares. Sometimes the sun strikes harder on us than usual, almost as if to punish us for our sins from the day before. We lose teenagers in...
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Dear MQM, PTI supporters are not sorry!
This letter is a response to a letter recently published in The Express Tribune. I sincerely applaud your gracious apology to the MQM, especially at time when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters...
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Electricity woes: Is this KESC versus SSGC or Karachi versus Lahore?
We all expected it. We all knew that with the election of the Punjab government, Karachi would have to pay the price - like it always has. I don’t plan on venting my frustration out on Karachi Electric...
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Why Karachi police fails to convict its criminals
Karachi is at siege by an array of criminals such as the Taliban and from splinter groups with political support. Over 2,200 people were victims of homicide in the city last year – the highest number...
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How I became one of the ‘namaloom afrad’
I was never really the brightest kid in my class. Going to school meant tolerating the teacher’s taunts as he caught me trying to distract my mates from the last bench. It also meant getting kicked out...
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Life in Pakistan: Can we afford to hope for improvement?
I find it difficult to come up with a truthful answer to the question “How is life in Pakistan these days?” A simple “It’s complicated” does not even begin to describe the complexities of everyday life...
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Ibrahim Hyderi: Where children chew gutka and await their turn to eat
Enter Ibrahim Hyderi. From the foul and putrid smell that contaminates the air to the alleys upon alleys of shanty mud erections, this 4,000 year old basti (town) will leave you despondent. It has been...
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Ship-breaking at Gadani: Unsafe and unfair for ordinary workers
Ship-breaking, the process in which defunct ships are broken up to obtain reusable steel and other materials, is a major industry in Pakistan. Reviving from a slump that almost forced it to shut down,...
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Taxi driver shot dead by Rangers: Trained to kill or trained to protect?
Yesterday, Murad, a taxi driver, was shot dead in front of his four-year-old son by Ghulam Rasul, a Rangers soldier. Witness accounts suggest Murad was asked to stop his vehicle and as he reversed...
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DHA: The hub of ‘open-air’ prostitution in Karachi
It is said that prostitution is the oldest profession. While prostitution is itself a problem, ignorance of such taboos is a bigger problem. Since a few years, Khayaban-e-Shujaat in DHA, Phase 5,...
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What do we owe Afghan refugees?
The Af-Pak situation is a much detested thorn in the side of American foreign policy, and understandably so. It is volatile and exceedingly complex. Foreign policy discourse is saturated with different...
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Monsoon rains in Karachi: Forget your cars, bring out the boats
This Saturday seemed like any other ordinary day to me and I continued my day as usual; the sky was not very clear, but I never anticipated the havoc that was to soon come my way. The weather forecast...
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A commuter’s plea: Revive the Karachi Circular Railway!
I can still remember the days of my childhood in the mid 90s when I would sit in front of my father on the oil tank of his Yamaha motorcycle, en route to my uncle’s place. I can still hear myself...
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Sindh local government elections: Bureaucrats have no place in politics
The upcoming local government elections could provide an opportunity to address issues of governance in Karachi provided the local governance system is strengthened to compensate for the division of...
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