Extortion: A national dilemma
LAHORE: The problem is multifaceted. It is violent, creative, and it rages across the country. The methods vary, but also tie in together, like pieces of a puzzle. In a two-part series, The Express...
View ArticleProgressive undertaking: Peshawar may finally get its much-needed facelift
PESHAWAR: The provincial government has chalked out a plan for a ‘greener’ and ‘cleaner’ Peshawar, a city that has been subjected to two decades of violence and where the population has nearly...
View ArticleTax collection: Next IMF tranche in jeopardy as FBR misses target again
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan may get the $6.6-billion bailout package from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) but qualifying for the next tranche may not be an easy goal, as the country...
View ArticleRegressive tax: Pensioners groaning under income support levy
ISLAMABAD: Saleem Asghar Mian, a 70-year-old retired civil servant, is unhappy. His pension invested in fixed deposits has been taxed despite paying 10% withholding tax on profits. Mian, who...
View ArticleCoping with Mother Nature: Menopause
People joke about a mid-life crisis in men, but for women, it takes a physical form. In Pakistan though, the management of menopause is not always clearly understood. We spoke to some experts to gain...
View ArticleCommon pools: Crowd Financing and ‘Committee’ System
LONDON: Like other countries, developed and developing alike, there has been huge emphasis on financial inclusion in Pakistan. A number of institutions (including charities and other businesses in...
View Article‘Crime ethics’ of kidnappers
KARACHI: Ten days full of fear of death. Ten traumatic days that change 35-year-old Kaleem’s life forever. Now he will never be able to live life like he did earlier. Scary moments he faced in...
View ArticleGlobal Gender Gap Report 2013: Pakistan second worst in gender equality
KARACHI: Pakistan is usually described as a country of paradoxes and this was reflected in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2013. Pakistan had the second lowest ranking in the...
View ArticleWhere local govt polls stand today
Deadlines set by the Supreme Court late last month to hold local government elections in three provinces by no later than December 7 have brought to light how unprepared the provinces are on this...
View ArticleWhite gold: How salt sweetens our world
The night was dark and the patrolling sentries on the check post vigilant as ever. The smugglers pushed slowly against the razor-sharp barbs that inflicted great pain, but they kept silent to avoid...
View ArticleMalpractice: Gravediggers charging up to eight times the official rates
KARACHI: Gravediggers in the city are charging up to eight times the amount set by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), The Express Tribune has learnt. In addition, they are also using the...
View ArticleCampus politics: Might of the youth
LAHORE: The youth movement in Pakistan has had its share of ups and downs. While student empowerment was a powerful idea during the 1960s and ‘70s, this movement, with all its ideological...
View ArticleNusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The singing Buddha
Hearing Nusrat is not just music, it is an act of worship. There seems to be a consensus amongst those who heard the maestro as he breathed life into notes. Defying the conventional genres that...
View ArticleDefying laws of supply, demand: Hospitals fall far behind WHO standard for...
PESHAWAR: Public sector hospitals in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) fall short of the required World Health Organization (WHO) standard of one pharmacist per 50 beds. However, thousands of qualified...
View ArticleDealing with unhappiness: Teach children about mental illnesses to keep them...
KARACHI: Masooma wakes up at night when she remembers her 14-year-old son, Faris, who hanged himself to death a few months back. The mother still considers his death a mystery. “I never noticed he was...
View ArticleReserves dip: Govt struggles to win $500m oil financing
ISLAMABAD: With just $3 billion in hand that can finance imports for only three weeks, Pakistan has been struggling to secure a $500 million oil financing facility in an effort to keep cars running...
View ArticleHandedness: Left behind, no more
There are a million little secrets locked inside your brain. Who are you? How do you feel? Why do you enjoy crunching complex numbers more than scribbling poetry? It can all be explained by the way...
View ArticleThe reading list - what celebrities are reading
“You forget everything. The hours slip by. You travel in your chair through centuries you seem to see before you, your thoughts are caught up in the story, dallying with the details or following the...
View ArticleTeam Green: Shrink your fear
Pakistani cricketers have been programmed to deliver victory. Optimistic and determined to succeed, they dismiss fear each time they play on the winning pitch prepared by Maqbool Babri. The...
View ArticleThe best of food 2013
KARACHI / LAHORE: 2013 literally ‘whizzed’ by. But not before making it the ‘Year of Cuisine’ with new eating houses dotting the Karachi landscape like never before — lots of them, along with some of...
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