Broken Record
By Saba Imtiaz
In Interesting Times
By Umair Javed
Not a Recipe Column
By Maryam Jillani
Spotlight
Our essential reads for the week
Despite small pockets and different formats of revival, spaces for communities to gather and spend unstructured time together have been shrinking in Pakistani cities
The UK-based Pakistani author’s most recent novel A Woman on a Suitcase revisits marriage and the end of it
In our increasingly media-saturated landscape, in thrall of an attention economy that strategizes attracting eyeballs and maximizing clicks per second, A Flat Place reveres and reaffirms the power of quiet observation.
From the ban on X (formerly known as Twitter) to the arrests of activists over speech, PECA has allowed the state to exercise the most arbitrary set of controls over Pakistani citizens’ use of the vast playground of the internet
Pakistani memes are arguably the gold standard and one of our finest cultural exports, but are in threat of disappearing
Universally recognised as the unofficial voice of Pakistan, it was his desire to instil the deep richness of our cultural heritage in the public imagination that will be his enduring legacy
Columns
PAKISTAN EXPLORED
Stories, Cultures, and Landscapes
Comment
Reflecting on the Zeitgeist
Unconditional: How American Campaign Finance Enables Israel
In contemporary America, the system of financing election campaigns has become a vast, institutionalised behemoth that ensures elected officials are more accountable to their wealthiest donors than to their constituents. Therein lies the not-so-secret to bipartisan, unconditional support for Israel
Apr 22, 2025
Ravi Urban Development Authority: Land Grab or Ecological Revitalisation?
The government’s project to ostensibly revitalise the river and “develop” its surrounding areas has drawn sharp criticism from local residents and activists
Apr 22, 2025
Unconditional: How American Campaign Finance Enables Israel
In contemporary America, the system of financing election campaigns has become a vast, institutionalised behemoth that ensures elected officials are more accountable to their wealthiest donors than to their constituents. Therein lies the not-so-secret to bipartisan, unconditional support for Israel
Apr 22, 2025
Ravi Urban Development Authority: Land Grab or Ecological Revitalisation?
The government’s project to ostensibly revitalise the river and “develop” its surrounding areas has drawn sharp criticism from local residents and activists
Apr 22, 2025
Books
In Conversation with Shazaf Fatima Haider
The UK-based Pakistani author’s most recent novel A Woman on a Suitcase revisits marriage and the end of it
A Flat Place by Noreen Masud
In our increasingly media-saturated landscape, in thrall of an attention economy that strategizes attracting eyeballs and maximizing clicks per second, A Flat Place reveres and reaffirms the power of quiet observation.
Banu Mushtaq’s Muslim Women
𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘓𝘢𝘮𝘱, the first ever book translated from Kannada shortlisted by the International Booker Prize, is a collection of short stories not bothered with defining and diagnosing the problems of the nation at large, but with the minutiae, with domestic squabbles, with very peculiar anxieties
Dreaming Of A Different World
Nobel Prize Winner Han Kang’s oeuvre may be be celebrated due to her status as a novelist “for the times”, but what separates her work from the rest is her filial devotion to other humans, especially women