News & Articles

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the government is determined to make Lahore as clean as Istanbul and successfully operating modern sanitary system through the Turkish companies Albayrak and OZpak on the pattern of Turkey is a step to that end.
Speaking at a meeting held to review the new solid waste management system on Friday, the chief minister directed the department concerned eviction of the cattle from the city limits otherwise stern action would be taken against the officials who neglected their duties in this regard.Read More »Lahore to be given Istanbul look

Article by Maleeha Lodhi published in “The News” on 28^th January, 2014.

The eroding institutional capacity of the state has emerged in recent years as one of the most critical challenges facing the country. This has affected the performance of the core functions of state and is most tellingly reflected in deterioration in the delivery of basic public services to citizens. It is also indicated by Pakistan’s tumbling position in the global rankings on governance indicators. Read More »The institutional imperative

LAHORE: The Punjab government has announced to hold Basant festival at the Changa Manga forest from February 21 to March 5, and a formal notification in this regard has already been issued.
This notification has been issued on the continued pressure from the kite-flying association of the provincial metropolis, as well as the supporters of the dying industry of kites and strings manufacturing.
Another reason for allowing the festival was to provide entertainment facilities to the kite lovers, who had been legally stopped from flying kites following a number of deaths in the city caused by metallic twines. However, the citizens are still divided over whether to celebrate the festival at the designated place or not. Read More »Basant at Changa Manga

Islamabad: Directorate General of Immigration and Passports has launched a short messaging service (SMS) to help the applicants track their passports and get them easily.

The applicants can find their documents by sending an SMS, containing their tracking number to 9988, whereby the automated system would respond with the information containing the status of their passport.

“It is one of the key milestones in easing the process of receiving passports as the hassle for an individual to visit the passport office repeatedly has been removed and one can confirm the status of his/her passport status through SMS service,” said Director General (I&P) Sikander Sultan Raja.Read More »SMS to 9988 to know passport status

The 2013 report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has revealed that eight nuclear countries—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel possess a total of approximately 17,270 nukes including operational warheads, spares, those in both active and inactive storage and intact warheads scheduled for dismantlement.

According to SIPRI, at the start of 2013, the eight afore-mentioned nuclear states had possessed approximately 4,400 operational nuclear weapons, of which nearly 2,000 have been kept in a state of high operational alert.Read More »Eight nuclear states possess 17,270 nukes

ALI SUKHANVER

Sometimes it seems next to impossible to decide what the actual problem of Balochistan is. Countless targeted killings, kidnappings, suicide attacks and bomb blasts have deprived the beautiful land of Balochistan of peace and prosperity. Just a few years back there was an impression that only the non-Balochis are being targeted in Balochistan. As a result of this impression thousands of Punjabis, Mohajirs, Sindhis and people from other ethnic identities started saying good-bye to Balochistan. But unfortunately the story of violence took another shift; unknown and unidentified Read More »FOREIGN HANDS IN BALOCHISTAN

PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER

“That was no doubt the most dreadful night of my life,” a Swiss tourist in her late thirties was talking to the media in a tone filled with harassment and fear. She had been on a visit to India this March with her husband. “I had just changed my dress and was simply wearing a night gown when six wild stinking Indians thronged at the door of my room. They started beating my husband ruthlessly, threw him out of the room and within a few minutes I was a helpless prey and they were the hunters. I could never forget their wild brutality. The whole of my body was painfully bleeding when they left my room after raping me for the continuous three hours. That time I did not have even the strength and courage to go to the Read More »WHAT HAPPENED THAT DREADFUL NIGHT

By Qaisar Sultan

How societies and culture figure out what is religious and what is within the helm of purely human free well and reasoning is the defining element of intellectual maturity. What is within the reason should be within the helm of any religion; any argument above and beyond reason is nothing more than a cult like approach to religion. We see that in the most developed societies such as American society comes in the grip of religious fervor where the conservative religious leaders try to impose their religious view on those who differ from their view of what is Godly and what is not.   Recently, the debate of the medicine for contraception should be allowed to women in the religious organizations has captured the American collective reflection on how far they should allow the religious Read More »Woman and Religion