The afternoon sun slanted across the District Chief of Police’s office as he sat glowering at me in his oversized armchair, gnashing his teeth like some rabid, ethnic Muppet. Sitting in his line of fire, I smiled at nothing in my ridiculous Pashtun disguise, masterfully flaunting the Dumb Tourist Card. “This is no place for […]
By Tahir Mehdi Laws must make sense because if they don’t they are bound to be violated. The violators become criminals out of little or no fault of theirs and the matter becomes a grave social concern. That’s exactly what has happened to the election expenses. The Election Commission has recently set Rs 1.5 million
By Asad Munir In the last two centuries, there were numerous Pashtun uprisings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata against Sikhs and the British. Except for Syed Ahmad Barelvi’s movement, led by non-Pashtuns, most movements were localised jihads with the sole objective of evicting foreign forces from a particular area. However, there was one Pashtun hero,
By Syed Nasiruddin Peerzada Women around the world suffer so-called “honour violence” at the hands of relatives, usually male, in an effort to reclaim family “honour.” If a woman or girl is accused or suspected of engaging in behaviour that could taint her family’s status, she may face brutal retaliation from her relatives that often
Zar Alam Khan (Originally published in Dawn in 2008) As the annual Shandur festival draws nearer, a controversy between the Northern Areas (N.As) administration and Chitral over some meadows and pastures on the 10,500-foot-high pass has overshadowed the preparations, threatening even the future of the now worldwide popular event. The dispute between the locals of
