Category: Pakistan

Blasphemy politics killing Pakistan’s pluralism

     

Mashal Khan was never afraid to speak his mind. The 23-year-old journalism student was known for questioning his peers and speaking out against injustice and corruption, the Guardian reports: But… Read more »

Democracy activists shortlisted for Freedom of Expression Awards

     

A Zimbabwean pastor arrested last week for his #ThisFlag campaign, an Iranian Kurdish journalist covering life as an interned Australian asylum seeker, one of China’s most notorious political cartoonists, and… Read more »

Quality of Pakistan’s democracy on the slide

     

The year 2016 has seen Pakistan’s Quality of Democracy slide by 4 percentage points from 2015, according to a report released by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency… Read more »

Middle class bolsters Pakistan’s fragile democracy

     

Pakistan, often in the headlines for terrorism, coups and poverty, has developed something else in recent years: a burgeoning middle class that is fueling economic growth and bolstering a fragile… Read more »

Has Pakistan’s democracy turned a corner?

     

Pakistan’s 2013 general election marked the country’s first civilian transfer of power following the completion of an elected government’s full term, notes the Carnegie Endowment. However, questions linger over the… Read more »

From countering to preventing violent extremism

     

Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s powerful army chief, steps down Tuesday at the height of his popularity. But as he makes way for a successor, Sharif also leaves behind an army… Read more »

Pakistan’s ‘democratic opportunity’?

     

Clashes erupted Monday between the riot police and thousands of supporters of the opposition politician Imran Khan in northwestern Pakistan, ahead of his plan to hold a protest in the… Read more »

Quetta attack: Is ISIS extending into Pakistan?

     

Pakistan’s current government and the military have proudly proclaimed many times in recent memory that their operations against the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), the Haqqani Network, and Al Qaeda hubs in… Read more »

Pakistan: journalist travel ban ‘against the norms of democracy’

     

Pakistan’s government should immediately drop the travel ban on a leading journalist and respect a free and open working environment for the media, Human Rights Watch said today: On October… Read more »

Acquittal: How ‘Islamization’ galvanized Pakistan’s women’s movement

     

“Acquittal” by Shahid Nadeem (left) focuses on four women in a Pakistan prison each accused of a different injustice. The play was inspired by Shahid’s own imprisonment in the 80’s… Read more »