The purpose of this paper is to share observations on issues which need to be further investigated to set direction for democratic social change in Pakistan. You may add more questions and/ or volunteer to write on some of the…
The textbooks being used in Madrassas were originally written in Arabic centuries ago. The books on philosophy and logic were written in thirteen and fourteen centuries. Books on health and medicine, written in the eleventh century, are still considered relevant…
Amélie Blom (assistant professor, Sciences Po Paris-Campus Asie; co-editor, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal http://samaj.revues.org) There are, sometimes, strange coincidences. I read an article published in Dawn‘s electronic edition by Michael Kugelman (a “Pakistan analyst” working as a Senior Program…
These days astonishing science claims abound in the media (there’s one fairly recent one in this newspaper too!). For example, a self-taught engineer in Swat claims he can “fix Pakistan’s energy problem in 3 years” by splitting water to produce…
To loud applause at a special distribution ceremony on Pakistan Day, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif declared: “We do not give weapons in the hands of youngsters, we give them laptops; we give them education”. The laptop scheme is the brainchild…
Grading universities is not an easy task. As in a beauty contest, opinions and tastes count. But the task is important because universities, which seek students and funds, are nowadays aggressively advertising themselves. And so, one hears some rather…
The news from CERN was stunning: the European nuclear science laboratory had just discovered (September 2011) that particles known as neutrinos – called so because they are neutral and carry no charge – habitually travel a little bit faster…
There is a story of a pre-partition British officer (locally called ‘gora sahib’ meaning the white master) in India who had to allocate cultivable land to local farmers. Traditionally in India, the owner may or may not cultivate the land…