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Biscoot and chai, anyone?
While browsing through the aisles at the local store, I came across a new kind of biscuit – LU’s Nan Khatai. I was immediately transported down memory lane, to numerous childhood bakery trips for the...
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India: The surgical strike has damaged us more than you, Pakistan
We don’t know the truth behind the surgical operation. Pakistan denies any kind of extraordinary military intervention in its territory. On the other hand, India says it conducted an operation beyond...
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This Muharram, I realised that my father’s childhood is still alive
The beggar who did his beat in my old neighbourhood knew his audience well. The whole year he would beg by lamenting his misfortune with mixed results, but from the first day of Muharram he would...
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Of dirty politics, Cyril Almeida, Lal Masjid and Asia Bibi
The Supreme Court’s adjournment of Asia Bibi’s final hearing, the Lal Masjid warning of dire consequences of her release and Cyril Almeida, Dawn’s prominent columnist and purported inheritor of...
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It is in Trump’s America that a seven-year-old Muslim boy can be bullied and...
I still have a hard time believing it. I say this to myself every time I see Donald Trump on television as a presidential candidate. My disbelief doubled and tripled as I watched the recent...
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Indirect taxation is a regressive move affecting the poor – make FBR...
Taxes are what make governments work and allow other functions to operate smoothly. It maintains the country’s infrastructure, funds government operations, facilities and the logistics involved in...
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RIP Shahlyla Ahmadzai Baloch, the shining pearl of Balochistan
In a country where you would be hard pressed to find men footballers who ply their trade in a foreign league, I was actually quite surprised when I was first told of Shahlyla Baloch. A woman soccer...
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Narcos – Season Two: Plata O Plomo?
If you are like me, someone who swears at anything and everything under the sun, there are times when the repertoire of your favourite curse words is simply not enough for the occasion. For these very...
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Pakistan, where merit takes a backseat and connections take the wheel
Growing up as the child of a journalist isn’t easy. Especially when your father was a struggling reporter in the 90s and Karachi was at its most violent. But apart from the violent riots and massive...
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Does the creation of Bangladesh prove the two-nation theory wrong?
This article is not a “defence” or repudiation of the two-nation theory (TNT). Rather it tries to critically evaluate the argument that the creation of Bangladesh in fact proved that the two-nation...
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An open letter to my younger self
Dear Tanzila, Today your wish will come true. You will get what you had always wanted. Remember that hair straightener set? Mum has gotten it for you. It has curlers too! But I have some bad news: you...
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Bacon greased bullets? Really, America?
As I write these lines, I’m in the middle of mourning the loss of my friend, Jim – a fine gentleman, who, as a young man, fled Robert Mugabe’s brutal Zimbabwe and took refuge in the United States. Like...
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A mother’s dream, an American dream and gold star parents
I am a woman, I am a mother, I am an immigrant, I am a Pakistani-American, I am a Muslim, I live in the swing state of Nevada and I was in the audience this past Saturday when Mr Khizr Khan, the...
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A historical walk through the forgotten Sheranwala Bagh in Gujranwala
Gujranwala is one of the cities of Punjab that have contributed to its history, especially during Ranjit Singh’s rise to power and the establishment of the Sikh empire. This is where Ranjit Singh was...
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Why don’t we have a team for Pakistani expats in the PSL?
Three out of the 16 members of the English Test cricket squad touring Bangladesh these days are of Pakistani descent. They are: batting all-rounder Moeen Ali, leg spinner Adil Rasheed and left arm spin...
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A crushed rose
She sat on the steps outside the kitchen door, stroking the stalk of a beautiful rose that she had plucked from the garden earlier that morning, with a faint smile playing across her lips. From here,...
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Capitalism, the disease that breeds social injustice
A while back, a story went viral on the internet about a young girl, who worked as a house maid. Long story cut short, she asked her employer for an advance because her mother was extremely ill, but...
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I am a Muslim and I would vote for Trump
On July 30, 1788, William Lancaster (an anti-federalist delegate to the North Carolina Convention) warned the participants of the possibility of a Muslim becoming the President of the United States and...
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Thank you, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
I don’t know what others may say, but I support Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for taking a rally out on Sunday and paralysing Karachi. We don’t spend Sundays at home; we spend it on frivolous activities like...
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Ahmed Mujtaba: Pakistan’s new champion of Mixed Martial Arts
It wasn’t long ago when Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters from Pakistan were making waves around the world with promising passion and devotion that was bound to pay off eventually. Ahmed Mujtaba aka...
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