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The reality of Pakistan through Brandon Stanton’s lens
While Pakistani fans of Brandon Stanton were posting warm and welcoming comments on the Humans of New York (HONY) Facebook page, the power of pre-conceived notions and assumptions about Pakistan was...
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Karachi se Lahore: A one-man show of hilarity
Karachi Se Lahore is another comedy flick from the back to back line-up in Pakistani cinema. It is directed and produced by Wajahat Rauf and the screenplay was written by Yasir Hussain. [embed...
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When the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’ seeps into the fashion world
The recent allegations surrounding designer Tabassum Mughal are widely known. She is accused of ‘beating up’ and verbally abusing a client’s mother, Shagufta Noor, when she visited the studio at the...
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What is it about Umar Akmal that people don’t understand?
Manzoor, Zahoor and Saleem Elahi. Imran and Humayun Farhat. Moin and Nadeem Khan. Hanif, Mushtaq, Sadiq and Wazir Mohammad. Wasim and Ramiz Raja. This is not a listicle of the cricketing families of...
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The Cult of Sarfraz Ahmed – Doing more harm than good
It started during the World Cup 2015. What was first a dialogue from an extremely popular and recent Indian movie, took over nearly all Pakistani TV stations. It was simply inescapable. Any news...
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Dear Karachiites, before you plant trees, think
The heat wave that killed more than 1,300 people in Karachi seems like a long time ago. Concerned citizens, in the heat of the moment, promised to plant trees, but very little has been said regarding...
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If Geeta was a Muslim, would the Indian government have done the same?
After the Indian High Commissioner, Dr TCA Raghvan and his wife met the hearing and speech-impaired ‘Hindu’ girl in Karachi, reportedly stuck in Pakistan for 13 long years, External Affairs Minister...
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Can ‘Shah’ box its way to the top?
Pakistan is a land of talented and gifted people. We have people who have made something out of nothing. With barely any resources available, various Pakistanis have outdone themselves in recent times...
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Hospitality – The strong dissimilarity between rural and urban Pakistanis
Earlier this year, I was in rural Punjab conducting fieldwork on a study called ‘Women’s Work in Agriculture and Nutrition’. Prior to that, I was interviewing adolescents and their families in lower...
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When the ‘city of lights’ turns into the ‘city of survival’
Karachi will endure not just because it has to, but because its inhabitants refuse to call it quits and give in to the face of adversity, for it is the people that define Karachi, and their resilience...
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I am a Sindhi and I have no sympathy for PPP anymore
Thar’s veteran politician, Rana Chandra Singh, once commented on the size of Umerkot’s Lanba ground in Dhatki, “Lanba ground Kachhi menhan Bhari ya Bhutto re Dikri.” (Either the southern rain has the...
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Don’t deny it, Pakistan. We are responsible for the teenage couple’s suicide!
Sadly, there is nothing unusual about teenage suicide. Nothing new about the reason behind it either. Recently, two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, killed themselves at their school in Karachi, apparently...
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Dear Zardari, you weren’t above the law in the 90s nor are you above it today
In his fiery and ‘courageous’ speech, followed by his ‘courageous’ exit from the country, Asif Ali Zardari seemingly tried to intimidate the country’s establishment in general and the army in...
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Like Waar, Phantom only provides momentary adrenaline to reactionary patriots
Kabir Khan is a well-known and renowned Bollywood director and it’s pretty clear by now that he is not interested in directing and producing ‘masala movies’. Since his directional debut, Kabul Express...
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If A’ level schools from Karachi were houses from Game of Thrones
I am sure that anyone who has seen the Game of Thrones would love to know what house they would belong to had they been part of the series. But what if we lived in a world where houses were based on...
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Science ka Adda Episode 2: Do you know where you live?
The search for our identity starts at home. But how do we define home? In this episode of Science ka Adda, we search for our cosmic address, starting from Karachi and ending with some of the farthest...
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No one paid heed to the strike call. Is MQM losing its grip on Karachi?
Not too long ago, at the call for a citywide strike from Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), Karachi would have launched into a panicked frenzy, storekeepers would have shut down their business, cars would...
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What a perfect Pakistan Super League could be like
Pakistan Super League (PSL) gets rolling in February next year. PSL promises to be a great Pakistani sporting spectacle, with competitive cricket and the entire sixes-for-fun (T20) aura. However, one...
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The Mysteries of Pittsburgh: A forgotten gem relevant even today
Michael Chabon’s first novel, the critically acclaimed The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, was first published in 1988, a good 15 years before the concept of my existence was even remotely conceptualised. He...
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Revisiting Jeremy Corbyn’s Pakistan moment
I took a photo while Jeremy Corbyn – a British politician who is the leader of the Labour Party and the Opposition, and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North – Naila Hussain, and I were...
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