Tag: pakistan

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Wagah The Dog? The Daily Paradox Of Pakistani-Indian Border Ritual

The ritual has been performed every day since 1959
The ritual has been performed every day since 1959 Rana Sajid Hussain/Pacific Press/ZUMA

WAGAH — Here at the India-Pakistan border, thousands of men, women and children have gathered to watch a stunning ritual: On either side of the border, military march back and forth, as music roars and crowds cheer. Known either as the Wagah border ceremony, the lowering of the flags, or “Beating Retreat” ceremony, the ritual has been performed every day since 1959, as flags are lowered around sunset. “Summer, winter or in any kind of storm, whatever the weather or political conditions, the parade doesn’t stop,” said Sumer Singh, former Deputy Inspector General of India’s Border Security Force (BSF). The […]

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In The News

Erdogan’s Purge Stretches All The Way To Pakistan

Erdogan poster in Lahore, Pakistan
Erdogan poster in Lahore, Pakistan Rana Sajid Hussain/Pacific Press/ZUMA

KARACHI — A Turkish family is rushing out to a weekend protest in this populous Pakistani city; outside the Karachi Press Club, Turkish residents release doves as a sign of peace; 25 Turkish teachers plea for safety in Pakistan. These Turkish families have lived here for over two decades, teaching at a network of international schools led by Fethullah Gülen, a moderate Islamic cleric from Turkey, who currently lives in the United States. In the last 16 months, 28 Gülen schools and colleges across Pakistan have been shut down under pressure from the government in Ankara. Staff members now face […]

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In The News

When A Movie About Rape Gets Past Pakistan’s Censors

Leading Pakistani actress Mahira Khan stars as a teacher who fights back after being raped.
Leading Pakistani actress Mahira Khan stars as a teacher who fights back after being raped.

Cleared by the Central Board of Film Censors on appeal, top Pakistani director Shoaib Mansoor’s ‘Verna’ is a flawed film, but a wake-up call for a nation obsessed by patriarchal honor.

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Geopolitics Green Or Gone

In Pakistan, Arsenic-Laced Water Puts Millions At Risk

A boy filling water jugs on the outskirts of the capital of Pakistan
A boy filling water jugs on the outskirts of the capital of Pakistan Ahmad Kamal/Xinhua/ZUMA

BENGALURU — In vintage crime novels, there is often someone murdered by slow poisoning, and arsenic has been a common weapon of choice. It works the same way in your body — slowly killing you — if it is present in the water you drink beyond a certain threshold. This is why it’s disturbing that, according to a new study, the groundwater along the densely populated Indus river basin in Pakistan is severely contaminated with arsenic, putting the health of over 50 million people at risk. Arsenic occurs naturally in Earth’s crust. It is used by humans in some alloys […]

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In The News

Cruel Border Stories Between Pakistan And Afghanistan

At the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on March 20
At the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on March 20 Muhammad Hadi/Xinhua/ZUMA

PESHAWAR — Ayesha Rahmat, a 31-year-old mother of five, lives in a small, two-room house with an open kitchen in this northern Pakistani city. The smell of the bathroom cuts through the air. Ayesha has four daughters and a son, but her husband of more than 20 years, Rahmat Khan, is gone — Ayesha says his absence has left her in a desperate situation. “I have stopped taking my medicine as I don’t have money to buy it,” Ayesha said. “My children have only eaten one meal a day for the last month. We have not paid utility bills. The […]

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In The News

A Space Of Her Own: Pakistan’s Ladies Dhaba

At Ladies Dhaba in Karachi
At Ladies Dhaba in Karachi Ladies Dhaba via Instagram

In Pakistan, men dominate public life. There are very few occasions women can enjoy being out by themselves. But now there’s a place in Karachi that’s giving women the opportunity to enjoy a long-awaited cup of tea.

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In The News

No Escape For Traumatized Pakistani Refugees In Sri Lanka

In the streets of Negombo, Sri Lanka
In the streets of Negombo, Sri Lanka Ronald Saunders

Pakistan is ranked among the most dangerous countries in the world for religious minorities. Marginalized and persecuted for their faith, minorities such as Christians, flee to countries like Sri Lanka.

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Panama Papers & Politics, From Pakistan to Iceland

SPOTLIGHT: PANAMA PAPERS & POLITICS, FROM PAKISTAN TO ICELAND It’s been more than six months since a massive leak first exposed vast networks of offshore financial dealings linked to a Panama-based law firm. But the reverberations of the so-called “Panama Papers” continue to show up in unlikely places. Pakistan’s opposition party announced today that two […]

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Geopolitics

Decades Later, Afghan Refugees Face Uncertain Homecoming

Afghan refugees going home to Pakistan
Afghan refugees going home to Pakistan Shadi Khan Saif

Thousands of Afghans are making their way home after years and years living as refugees in neighboring Pakistan. For many of the migrants, their native country is now a foreign place.

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Geopolitics LGBTQ Plus Society

After Killings, Pakistan Play Tackles Transgender Stigma

The play Teesri Dhun
The play Teesri Dhun Teesri Dhun's Facebook

LAHORE — Over the past few months, the prestigious Al-Hamra Theater in this Pakistani city has been staging a first-of-its-kind play, one that very much pushes cultural boundaries in the conservative Muslim society. The play, called Teesri Dhun, focuses on the discrimination transgender people endure in Pakistan, where they are often shunned by families, schools and employers. Not only that, but the actors themselves are members of the transgender community. “The play highlights the problems transgender people face here,” says Neeli Rana, 40, who plays the lead role in Lahore. It’s a story line that resonates with Rana. “In 2006 […]

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Geopolitics

Post-Lahore, Pakistan’s Timid Efforts To Fight Terrorism

Woman in Lahore ,just after the March 27 blast
Woman in Lahore ,just after the March 27 blast Jamil Ahmed/Xinhua/ZUMA

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pledged to crack down on terrorism after the Easter Sunday attack that killed 72 people. But the tragedy has raised serious questions about the country’s strategy and the political factors at play.

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Death Toll Rises In Lahore Suicide Bombing

Scenes of chaos are making the front page of Karachi-based daily Dawn on Monday, after an Easter Day suicide bombing in a Lahore park killed at least 70 people and injured more than 300. According to rescue workers and police officials, a majority of the dead and wounded were children and women, the Pakistani daily […]

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

Pakistan To Australia, Along The Hazara Refugee Trail

Hazara men at Kabul's Pashtun Bazaar.
Hazara men at Kabul's Pashtun Bazaar. Philip Poupin/ZUMA

QUETTA/JAKARTA/MELBOURNE — Five-year-old Mohammad Raza is holding a photograph of his uncle Sadiq Ali. He believes his uncle is in Australia and that he will soon send a toy airplane. But his grandmother knows that Sadiq Ali is detained abroad. Sadiq left, she says, because he didn’t see any hope for his future in Pakistan. “It was a tough time for him here,” she says, “He ran his own shop but got tired of having no work because the area was unsafe. So he left the country.” Sadiq, 22, is part of the Shia Hazara community in Quetta, a town […]

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On This Day – December 27

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Peshawar School Massacre, One Year On

Dawn, Dec. 16, 2015 People across Pakistan today are remembering the 144 victims of the Peshawar school massacre, one year after the Taliban attack that killed 122 children and 22 teachers. In its editorial, daily newspaper Dawn looks back at the changes the country has gone through after an attack that marked “a new, terrible […]

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On This Day – November 16

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ISIS Figures In Sinai Crash, Mexico’s Legal Pot, Tinder In

ISIS Figures In Sinai Crash, Mexico's Legal Pot, Tinder In

ISIS MAY HAVE CAUSED SINAI CRASH AFTER ALL There is significant evidence that an ISIS affiliate in Egypt was behind a suspected bomb attack on a Russian passenger plane that killed 224 people over the Sinai Peninsula Saturday, UK, U.S. and European officials told The Guardian. But Egypt and Russia still urge caution on making […]

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U.S. Challenges China, Taliban Urges Quake Aid, The Hugshake

U.S. Challenges China, Taliban Urges Quake Aid, The Hugshake

U.S. SHIP CHALLENGES DISPUTED CHINA SEA A U.S. Navy ship sailed close to artificial islands built by China in the disputed South China Sea waters early today, The Washington Post quoted a U.S. defense official as saying. The move is a direct challenge to China’s territorial claims to this area, which the U.S. considers international […]

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Society

Pakistan’s Anti-Child Marriage Crusader Who’s Just A Kid Herself

Hadiqa Bashir
Hadiqa Bashir Portal KBR

MINGORA — At 13, Hadiqa Bashir is herself just a child, but she’s already working to save girls from child marriage in rural Pakistan. Though it’s illegal in Pakistan, marrying young children to much older men is still widely practiced in the Swat Valley. Visiting Hadiqa Bashir today is a young girl, Shabana, who is with her mother. A white gauze covers her nose, and she explains the horrific reason why. “My mother-in-law asked my husband to complete his job today and she left the house,” Shabana says. “I had my young son with me, and my husband asked his […]

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Geopolitics Society

Meet Neelam, The ‘Next Malala’ Working For Peace

Neelam Ibrar Chattan speaking at an International Women's Day event
Neelam Ibrar Chattan speaking at an International Women's Day event Facebook page

MINGORA — Neelam Ibrar Chattan makes breakfast for her mother and younger brother, serving them and rushing out the door without eating anything. As the young woman leaves, her mother Mariam Bibi recites Koranic versus in the hope of protecting her. Her husband died of heart attack about 12 years ago. “I encouraged Neelam because it was her father’s dream to be a social worker,” Bibi says. “I want my daughter to play her role for the people of the area and also fulfill the dream of her father. I know people don’t like her going out of the house […]

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blog

Tsipras in trouble, Japan’s military powers, Elder Bush injured‏

Tsipras in trouble, Japan's military powers, Elder Bush injured‏

Photo: Natsuki Sakai/ZUMA GREECE APPROVES BAILOUT, BUT TSIPRAS IN TROUBLE Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won a bittersweet approval late yesterday of a package of tough measures — including an increase in sales tax and a pension shakeup — that will make a third bailout of the ailing country possible. But 38 members of his […]

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Geopolitics Society

Acid Attacks Unite Pakistani And Australians To Stop Violence Against Women

With the Depilex Smile Again Foundation
With the Depilex Smile Again Foundation Depilex Smile Again Foundation

MELBOURNE — For nearly an hour the audience sits in silence as Feryal Ali Gauhar paces the stage, delivering a solo performance that spans three continents and tells the story of various women; mothers and daughters, the wealthy elite and domestic maids. All the characters in the play are based on real-life stories and have a common theme of gender-based violence and control at the hands of men. “It’s a very immediate medium,” she later explains. “For most women in the audience it is an experience that is close to them. The debate begins really on the journey home with […]

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blog

Greek banks close, “War of civilization,” Solar Impulse

Greek banks close, "War of civilization," Solar Impulse

Photo: PPI/Zuma GREEK BANK CLOSURES, TUMBLING STOCKS Stocks in Europe, Asia and Australia dropped in early trading today as the world braces for what some fear could be a “black Monday.” A Greek debt default tomorrow appears likely, with the country edging closer to exiting the Eurozone after talks with creditors broke down over the […]

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More US Spying On Friends, Uighur Attack, Spirulina Savior

More US Spying On Friends, Uighur Attack, Spirulina Savior

U.S. SPIED ON THREE FRENCH PRESIDENTS The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the last three French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, according to Wikileaks documents obtained and released by the French daily Libération and the investigative website Mediapart. PAKISTAN HEAT WAVE DEATH TOLL TOPS 800 Photo :Sajjad/Zuma The death […]

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Geopolitics Society

Disputed Kashmir Wrestles With How To Bring Back Hindus

Kashmiri men in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir
Kashmiri men in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir Javed Dar/Xinhua/ZUMA

It’s been two decades since the flight of many Kashmiri Hindus after an insurgency targeted them. Now even Kashmir Muslims want them to return.

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New Russian Offensive?, NASA Craft Crashes, Bernie’s In

New Russian Offensive?, NASA Craft Crashes, Bernie's In

NEPAL DEATHS EXCEED 6,000 The death toll in and around Nepal, where a devastating earthquake struck Saturday, now exceeds 6,200 people, Reuters reports. More than 14,000 people were also injured, and at least 600,000 homes were destroyed in the disaster. SNAPSHOT Photo: Sajjad/Xinhua/ZUMA A laborer works at an iron factory on International Workers’ Day in […]

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Extra! People’s Daily On Xi Jinping Trip To Pakistan

People’s Daily, April 22, 2015 President Xi Jinping’s two-day visit to Pakistan this week was the first official visit by a Chinese head of state to its western neighbor in nine years. China’s state-run newspaper People’s Daily gave ample front-page coverage to the trip that concluded Tuesday, with four large photographs and the text of […]

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Geopolitics Society

New Lessons For Women Teachers In Pakistan: How To Shoot Terrorists

A female teacher trying a gun.
A female teacher trying a gun. Mudassar Shah

PESHAWAR — Schools in Peshawar now look like police stations, equipped with barbed wire, surveillance cameras and snipers after the Taliban’s December assault on a school that killed 132 students. Officials told schools to be prepared for other attacks, and in an extraordinary measure, the Khyber Pakhtunkua government is allowing teachers to keep guns at school. The local police are also now training female teachers in how to use guns. Ashraf Khan teaches in a primary school not far from the army public school that the Taliban attacked in December. The first thing he does in the morning when he […]

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Geopolitics

Pakistani Response To Peshawar School Massacre: Deport Afghan Refugees

Muhammad Sadiq and his family on a truck to Jalalabad
Muhammad Sadiq and his family on a truck to Jalalabad Mudassar Shah

Though the Pakistan Taliban was responsible for the murders of 130 students in Peshawar, the local government believes some of the country’s longtime Afghan refugees harbor terrorists. Deportation and confinements have begun.

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Geopolitics

With Survivors And Victims, A Month After Pakistani School Massacre

Relatives of the victims
Relatives of the victims PPI/ZUMA

PESHAWAR — Shahana Khan had to wake her son up on the morning of December 16. He was late for school and she had to push him out the door. He was one of the 132 students who didn’t come home. “I cry all the time thinking I told him to go to school. I opened the gate for him,” mourns Shahana. At this time she would normally be making him breakfast: “I feel him in the house all the time and hear him. People say it’s just in my head but for me it is very real. I hear […]

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Society

Pakistani Rage Against The Country’s Entitled Elite

In Pakistan, rising outrage towards pols' "VIP culture."
In Pakistan, rising outrage towards pols' "VIP culture." Naeem Sahoutara

KARACHI — In Pakistan and many other Asian countries, politicians are given preferential treatment on the roads, in airports, and in services while everyone else waits in line. So it’s not surprising that this lopsided system is breeding growing outrage. In a wealthy suburb of Karachi, where many high-profile politicians live, a small middle-aged man stands at a busy traffic intersection. Wearing a long a black gown with a sign that reads “NO VIP,” he says that while your house is yours, the public road is for everyone. With him is a group of around 50 protesters who have been […]

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Society

Afghanistan Is Falling In Love With Cricket

Bowling with the national team in Kabul's stadium
Bowling with the national team in Kabul's stadium Saif Khan Saif

Catching onto “the gentleman’s game” later than its neighbors India and Pakistan, the Afghan team is currently ranked 9th in International Twenty20 cricket.

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Geopolitics Ideas

For The West, There’s No Walking Away From Arab Conflicts

A U.S. Army Spc. in Afghanistan's Logar province, in June 2010.
A U.S. Army Spc. in Afghanistan's Logar province, in June 2010. DVIDSHUB

-OpEd- BERLIN — American Foreign Policy magazine’s home page is a little bit like a quotation board for security policy strategies. Here you see not only how various players evaluate the world’s conflicts but also how much support there is for their point of view, because the number of times the article has been shared […]

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Geopolitics Society

The Bollywood Kiss Heard ‘Round The World

India's Emraan Hashmi and Pakistan's Humaima Malick's locking lips in "Raja Natwarlal."
India's Emraan Hashmi and Pakistan's Humaima Malick's locking lips in "Raja Natwarlal." UTV Motion Pictures - screenshot

India and Pakistan are arch enemies whose ongoing Kashmir conflict shows no signs of ending. So will the film kiss between a beloved Pakistani actress and an India heartthrob be censored?

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Society

A Brave Couple Shuns Pakistan’s Antiquated Wedding Dowry

Khushboo Rafiiq, her husband Usman and theirs friends
Khushboo Rafiiq, her husband Usman and theirs friends Naeem Sahoutara

KARACHI — Khushboo Rafiq is the first person in her family not to pay a dowry, or bride price, to her husband Usman’s family. Khushboo works for an organization that advocates women’s rights. It was very important to her that her wedding represents the ideals and convictions on which she spends her professional efforts.” We used the wedding invitation to tell guests they should not bring any gifts,” she says. “We also made it very clear that no dowry was being paid. We also are donating our wedding dress to a charity for another couple to use in the future.” […]

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Geopolitics Society

Pakistan’s New Tallest Building Threatens Hindu Temple

Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple, a 150-year-old Hindu temple under threat in Karachi
Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple, a 150-year-old Hindu temple under threat in Karachi India Today

The construction of Pakistan’s next tallest building in Karachi is seen by the country’s Hindu minority yet another attack in this Muslim-majority country of 180 million.

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Society

In Pakistan, Islamic Boarding Schools Accused Of Torture

An Islamic class in a small school near Quetta, Pakistan.
An Islamic class in a small school near Quetta, Pakistan. Tom O'Neill/ZUMA

KARACHI — It’s time for the evening prayer at the Edhi Shelter Home in Karachi, Pakistan. For nine-year-old Rehmatullah Khan, it’s a reminder of a painful childhood past. His parents sent him to an Islamic boarding school in the northwestern city of Quetta when he was just three. “At seminary, my teacher would beat me and the other students,” he recalls. “The teacher would beat us for not memorizing the lessons or making a noise. He sometimes hit us with sticks and would punch me when the other students told him it was me making noise in the classroom.” After […]

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blog Geopolitics

Creeping Famine In Pakistan’s Thar Desert

Once again, drought grips Pakistan's Thar desert
Once again, drought grips Pakistan's Thar desert Shadi Khan Saif

KAPOOSAR — Pancho Mai is a villager in Kapoosar, located in the Tharpakar district. Today is the festival of Holi, but the 25-year-old mother is deep in mourning. Over the past three months, her three children have died. “They had fever for a few days, and then pneumonia killed each one of them,” she says numbly. Her mother-in-law, Kaplana Mai, had rushed the children to the only government hospital in the district. But it was too late. They died within days. This is not an isolated case. According to independent statistics reported by the local media, some 200 children, mostly […]

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Future Society

Local Fallout From Pakistan’s Nuclear Energy Bet

Fishermen in Abdul Rehman goth near Karachi
Fishermen in Abdul Rehman goth near Karachi Shadi Khan Saif

ABDUL REHMAN GOTH — Ahmad Baloch couldn’t remember life ever changing much in this centuries-old fishing village just outside Karachi. But when two nuclear power plants started being built nearby, coast guard and naval security personnel arrived. “They don’t allow us free mobility in the waters,” he says of his fishing trade in Abdul Rehman Goth. “What are we going to do?” Fears about a terrorist attack on the nuclear power plants have led to massive security around them, leaving the fishermen locked out. “There are not enough fish recently,” Baloch says. “We’re just worried for our next generation.” Families […]

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Economy Society

In Pakistan, The World Capital Of Soccer Ball Production

Workers in a soccer ball factory in Sialkot
Workers in a soccer ball factory in Sialkot Mudassar Shah

SIALKOT — Mohammad Idrees walks slowly, with the help of his crutches, to the factory where he works in Sialkot, Pakistan. The 35-year-old has been stitching soccer balls here for more than 17 years, earning $3 a day to support his wife and six children. “I don’t have any other skills to earn a living, so I would have ended up roaming around the city or begging on the street if it wasn’t for the football factory in our village,” Idrees says as he sits on a low chair with some 30 other workers inside the factory. “I work for […]

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