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Are We Pakistanis Really Free?
Are We Pakistanis Really Free? Every year on 14 August, Pakistan celebrates Independence Day. Green flags fill our streets, patriotic songs echo everywhere, and we proudly remember the struggle that created an independent homeland in 1947. But amid these celebrations, there is a difficult question worth asking: Are we Pakistanis really free? Pakistan is certainly an independent and sovereign country. But independence of a country and freedom of its people are not exactly the same thing. True freedom means more…
4 min read
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Report: Sri Lanka’s 2022 Aragalaya How the People’s Uprising Began, Succeeded, and What It Ultimately Achieved
Report: Sri Lanka’s 2022 “Aragalaya”, How the People’s Uprising Began, Succeeded, and What It Ultimately Achieved Sri Lanka’s 2022 mass protest movement, commonly called Aragalaya, Sinhala for “struggle” is often described as a revolution, although technically it was a broad, largely nonviolent popular uprising rather than a conventional armed revolution. It produced an extraordinary result: a sitting president fled the country and resigned. Yet removing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was only one of the protesters’ objectives. Their larger demand was “system…
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Bangladesh After the July Revolution: Did the People Get What They Wanted?
Bangladesh After the July Revolution: Did the People Get What They Wanted? From the Fall of Sheikh Hasina to the Struggle for a New Political Order! Bangladesh’s July–August 2024 uprising was one of the most consequential political events in the country’s history. What began as a student movement against quotas in government employment developed into a nationwide revolt against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the political system that had evolved during her roughly fifteen years in power. By 5 August…
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Gaza’s Unanswered Cry: When Promises of Peace Fail to Stop the Killing
Gaza’s Unanswered Cry: When Promises of Peace Fail to Stop the Killing The announcement last week that Hamas had agreed to a framework involving the phased surrender and storage of its weapons, tied to an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, was seen by many as a potential turning point in one of the world’s deadliest conflicts. While the agreement remains conditional and faces major implementation challenges, it offered a rare glimpse of hope after years of bloodshed. Yet, for countless civilians…
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Pakistan’s Shrinking Civic Space: Media Restrictions and Human Rights Concerns
Pakistan’s Shrinking Civic Space: Media Restrictions and Human Rights Concerns Recent reports regarding the inaccessibility of Al Jazeera’s English website in Pakistan have once again raised concerns about press freedom and the broader state of civil liberties in the country. While this incident has attracted international attention, many journalists, human rights organizations, and media observers argue that it reflects a wider trend of increasing restrictions on independent reporting and democratic freedoms. Al Jazeera Access Restrictions Following Al Jazeera’s coverage of…
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Humanity Is Bleeding Pakistan’s Crisis of Power, Rights and Federation
Humanity Is Bleeding: Pakistan’s Crisis of Power, Rights and Federation Pakistan is not merely passing through another period of political instability. It is facing a profound crisis of constitutional government, national cohesion and human dignity. From Balochistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and from Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to Sindh and Punjab, citizens increasingly feel that their constitutional rights are conditional—and that the state listens only when people remain silent. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s latest annual assessment describes…
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