Islamabad Chaupal

Since ancient times, Chaupal has been revered as the sacro sanctum place in the village community. Traditionally the platform of village elders sitting under a banyan tree to address issues faced by village folk. Chaupal is a meeting of all in the rural society-men and women, young and old, strong and feeble…

Glimpses from Recent Chaupals
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Blog

Disseminating The Importance Of Census
02/01/2020

After a lapse of 19 years, Pakistan’s 9th census began last week, amid controversies.Not only various political parties have petitioned to the courts for rectifying the errors in the census but also civil society organisations have raised concerns about the way the census is being conducted. However, the electronic media and the press are sporadically reporting with arudimentary understanding of the census, whose implications for the country are as...

Rawalpindi By Heart
02/01/2020

Having lived and loved the splendors of the Mughal and British Raj, that adorns the city scape of Lahore, and immersed in the mystique of Lahore the Great, I had shared the wisdom of my peers, that Rawalpindi was merely a garrison town, devoid of any assets of historical or cultural value. Perhaps, its nondescript past is aptly reflected in the shorter version of its name, Pindi, as it is commonly called, translated in Potoharilanguage, as a village....

Schooling Peace
02/01/2020

As part of my professional commitments, I have recently had the pleasure of documenting natural and cultural heritage in Dera Ismail Khan (DIK) district where I also conducted workshops with school teachers. DIK is considered to be one of the most underdeveloped and impoverished districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A volatile security situation due to the region’s proximity to the restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which have...

Hidden Costs Of Orange Line Train
02/01/2020

If the much-awaited decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the Panama Leaks case is being portrayed as a historical verdict that will lead to accountability of the highest public office of the state, then, the decision of the highest court of law in the Orange Line Metro Train case can expected to be a landmark judgment for upholding the fundamental principles of heritage preservation and participatory development in Pakistan. With the start...

A Citizen Led Movement Needed To Fix Society
02/01/2020

The mob lynching of Mashal Khan, a university student in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), on trumped up charges of blasphemy has sent shock waves throughout the country. Pakistani parliament has been quick to pass a unanimous resolution condemning Mashal Khan’s murder and Supreme Court has taken a suo moto notice of the barbaric act. A look at statistics pertaining to blasphemy allegations may be inexplicable with reference only to the received wisdom...

Stop Typecasting Pakistani Artists by Origin
02/01/2020

It is commonly believed that once Taj Mahal was completed, Shah Jehan ordered that the thumbs of the chief builders to be cut off, so that they may not replicate the beauty of the grand mausoleum. The urban folklore confirms a mythical belief that nothing durable and unique can be built without the creator’s self-sacrifice. But the legend also signifies the nature of imperial ambition — to use artists as instruments to glorify the deeds of the...

Debating the Devolution of HEC
02/01/2020

It is popularly believed that the regulation of higher education if devolved to the provinces will lead to slackening of checks and balances in the universities. The devolution of educational governance of the country is hyped up as fragmentation of national standards of higher education. It is also assumed that a centralised system of command and control, with Higher Education Commission (HEC) under the direct administrative control of Prime...

University Affairs
02/01/2020

In May 2017, Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad — ranked as one of the top universities in the country — was shut down for few days on account of student violence in which more than 30 students were injured. The fight which broke out between the two student groups, comprising of members of ethnolinguistic councils in the university was recorded and shared widely on social and electronic media. The viral video showed hundreds of students...

Heritage-Centred Urban Development Needed
02/01/2020

With its 101 million inhabitants, Punjab is one of the most urbanized provinces of South Asia. The province is experiencing a sustained demographic shift from rural to urban areas, with 40 percent of its population now living in cities. The government of Punjab (GoPb) is engaged in the task of developing Punjab’s cities as the engines of economic growth, since they provide employment and education to a large number of people in the country. It...

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