The tragic case of Saad Khan, a 32-year old contestant on a Pakistani game show being filmed in Thailand who died while taking part in one of the show’s stunts, highlights the serious issue of safety and regulation in the Pakistani media. The days of one state-controlled channel informing the obedient...

Ever since Twitter became the online phenomenon, the battle for ‘real time’ web has been on. While you tweet and post a status update each time a fly flits by you at work, industry giants such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook are trying to figure out how to integrate more real time data into their...

Quite like Dr. Noam Chomsky, award-wining writer and activist, Arundhati Roy, can be one of the most easily predictable intellectuals this side of the post-Cold-War left. And also, quite like Dr. Chomsky (and Naomi Klein), Roy too is fast becoming the provider of the intellectual fodder that wily and...

Imran Yusuf examines why Test cricket has failed to capture the public imagination in Pakistan. The recently concluded Ashes series featured two ordinary teams playing a lot of average cricket with very few outstanding feats. Yet it was an outstanding series: an epic contest, a compelling narrative,...

A reporter’s ability to cover a murder case is hampered by sectarian concerns. In a matter of hours, the whole area had plunged into chaos as news of Allama Ali Sher Hyderi’s murder began to circulate in the city, recalls Mansoor Mirani, Dawn’s correspondent in Khairpur. Hyderi, who was the chief...

Finally. Or is he? This time the verdict absolving him of the many charges Indian historians have heaped on him comes from Jaswant Singh, until recently a top BJP leader who, if you were to ask Madeline Albright, the former US Secretary of State, was someone single-mindedly obsessed with Pakistan’s...

Kabul-based Maysam Najafizada describes how Afghanistan’s second presidential election is unfolding in Kabul. On the day of the presidential elections in Afghanistan, Kabul city was quiet early in the morning, around 6:00 a.m. local time. There were very few cars on the streets and tight security...

Last weekend I finally managed to get my hands on the DVD versions of two Pakistani films that I had once seen on the big screen many years ago, and was looking to do the same again, but this time in the privacy of my TV lounge. I went looking for them after a friend and I discussed the possibility of...

A few months ago, I came across a (now infamous) YouTube video about changing demographics of the Muslim population in Europe. The tone was ominous as it warned of the dawning of an Islamicised Europe. In 39 years, the video claimed, France will be an Islamic republic. In 15 years, half the population...

This is the third week in a row that my blog talks about the Gojra massacre. After a mob of Muslims killed 7 people and burned over 50 houses on allegations of blasphemy in the Punjabi town, there have been a series of reports of religious persecution. In the case of Gojra, one of the earlier findings...