Our essential reads for the week
Rana Saadullah Khan sat down with Zubair Ahmad — Punjabi language writer and poet, and two-time Dhahan Prize winner — at Trinjan (a bookstore run by the author to promote the Punjabi language), to talk about his journey as a writer, his interest in the Punjabi language, realism, dreams and more.
For a country where young people make up a majority of the population, the potential of gaming as a career path remains largely untapped. However, this cultural export of Pakistani creativity holds immense soft power (and economic) potential.
Mahreen Sohail’s debut book, 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 (A Public Space, 2025), is a collection of short stories that can only be described as deft, surprising and satisfyingly horrible.
The announcement of Lahore’s Yellow Metro Line project was met with government enthusiasm and civil society disapproval. Months later, what is the status of the project and why the secrecy regarding its execution?
Can Pakistan find a way out of its persistent growth trap? Haroon Sethi, chair of the Roundtable ‘What Is Pakistan’s Way Out Of Its Growth Trap?’ held at the Indus Conclave 2025, reflects on the discussion.
Debt-for-climate swaps are no longer boutique transactions, but are being pitched as a central tool to help countries break free from the vicious cycle of debt distress and climate vulnerability. Can the G77+China succeed in making them more than symbolic, clever deals on the margins?
By Saba Imtiaz
By Umair Javed
By Maryam Jillani
By Haroon Sethi
Stories, Cultures, and Landscapes
Reflecting on the Zeitgeist
As Pakistan confronts urgent development imperatives, the fiscal burden of debt servicing leaves little space for action. Can debt swaps provide a path forward to transform crisis into opportunity?
Oct 24, 2025
The announcement of Lahore’s Yellow Metro Line project was met with government enthusiasm and civil society disapproval. Months later, what is the status of the project and why the secrecy regarding its execution?
Nov 13, 2025
As Pakistan confronts urgent development imperatives, the fiscal burden of debt servicing leaves little space for action. Can debt swaps provide a path forward to transform crisis into opportunity?
Oct 24, 2025
The announcement of Lahore’s Yellow Metro Line project was met with government enthusiasm and civil society disapproval. Months later, what is the status of the project and why the secrecy regarding its execution?
Nov 13, 2025
Rabih Alameddine’s The True True Story of Raja The Gullible (and His Mother) recently became the first Arab-American wor...
Lahore in Motion: Infrastructure, History and Belonging in Urban Pakistan (UCL Press, 2025), edited by Ammar Maqsood, Ch...
In Adrian A. Husain’s second collection of sonnets, Knife of the Tide (The Peepul Press, 2025), recollection is not mere...
Georgette Heyer, writing between the 1920s and 1970s, may in fact have invented the ‘Regency Romance’ sub-genre. What se...
Mahreen Sohail’s debut book, 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 (A Public Space, 2025), is a collection of short stories that can only...
In a country plagued with literacy problems and lack of institutional support, can book reviewers be the catalysts in nu...
Mother Mary Comes To Me by acclaimed author and activist Arundhati Roy is not just a memoir about a complicated mother —...
How many selves must one carry to be seen as one? Ammar Yasir explores the central conceit behind a lesser-known Dostoev...
SPORTS
For a country where young people make up a majority of the population, the potential of gaming as a career path remains...
SPORTS
What explains Padel’s recent explosive popularity in urban Pakistan?
Debt-for-climate swaps are no longer boutique transactions, but are being pitched as a central tool to help countries break free from the vicious cycle of debt distress and climate vulnerability. Can the G77+China succeed in making them more than symbolic, clever deals on the margins?
The USA, for decades, has been at the forefront of cutting edge research and tech development; the H-1B visa has arguably played a major role in this, as global talent gravitates towards leading American institutions, whether in tech, medicine or academia. With President Trump’s new $100K talent tariff policy, the world wonders whether this will lead to a brain drain away from the USA.
The 19th International Architecture Exhibition, titled 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘴. 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭. 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭. 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦., curated by Carlo Ratti and organised by La Biennale di Venezia opened in May 2025. A team of eight dedicated Pakistani architects and researchers presented (𝘍𝘳)𝘈𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴, while facing bureaucratic hurdles, visa and shipment delays and the four-day war back home. Zoya Gul Hasan walks us through the installation and ponders Pakistan's future at international art biennales.
