Lights out for miners in Mastung

On Thursday, October 13, we were reminded yet again of the hazards attached to the coal mining industry in Pakistan. At least five people were killed and several injured due to a gas explosion in a coal mine in Mastung district of Balochistan.

Barbarism in the name of tradition

Not a week goes by without news of another young girl being married off to an older man as compensation for a family feud. Most recently, according to press reports, a panchayat in Vehari, Punjab, decided to give a five-year-old girl to a 40-year-old man as punishment for her father eloping with the man's sister. Ironically, the father had already left with the woman, and the girl and her mother, who was grieving her husband's infidelity, were left behind to bear the consequences.

The Ejaz Butt era is over

On Tuesday, 12 October 2011, cricket fans across Pakistan  heaved a sigh of relief as the circulating rumours about Ejaz Butt, chairperson of Pakistan Cricket Board, being given an extension were laid to rest. Butt’s three-year tenure had officially ended on 8 October and the official notice from the presidency confirmed that Butt would not be continuing his role at the PCB. He will be replaced by banker and industrialist Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf.

Overhauling the Anti-Terrorism Act

Ten years since Pakistan came in the grip of ever-increasing terrorism, the longstanding issue of amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 1997 is far from resolved. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, last Tuesday, directed the Law and Interior ministries to go back to the drawing board and report back with a fresh proposal to amend the ATA.

Senior citizens' rights

The International Day of Older Persons was observed on Saturday, October 1st, by over 10 million aging citizens in Pakistan. Yet as the day was marked with the usual seminars, aging Pakistanis were still unsure whether they'll be given their due rights or not since currently there is no legislative arrangement ensuring their rights and providing concessions.

Justice for Salman Taseer

The verdict is in. Almost nine months after the assassination of former Governor Salmaan Taseer, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has awarded former Police Commando Mumtaz Qadri, his self-confessed killer, the death penalty on two counts of murder and terrorism.

Wake-up call on road safety

For more than 30 families, the date September 26th will forever be etched in their minds as the parents' worst nightmare came true. A bus full of young students and a few faculty members from a private school in Faisalabad catapulted out of control when its brakes failed. The crash, which happened at the Kallar Kahar salt mines on M2 motorway, took the lives of at least 37 people, including more than 30 children, teachers, the vice principal, the bus driver and the conductor.

Guilty as charged

Pakistan's cricket continues in its topsy-turvy ways as two instances of good news were offset with one long-expected confession. Merely days after Pakistan whipped the Zimbabwe cricket team in the ODI series, the news of Aleem Dar's hat-trick of David Shepherd Trophy for Umpire of the Year award at the ICC Awards ceremony sent a wave of positivity among the cricketing fraternity in the country.

'Export' of heritage

A recent incident involving sale of a fasting Buddha statue at the prestigious Christie's fine arts auction house in the UK has brought focus on the illegal artefacts export from Pakistan. As reported by newspapers, a Unesco employee noticed a Christie's advertisement for the sale of this Gandhara relic, believed to be excavated from Pakistan in the early 1980s.

Carnage in Mastung

The spate of sectarian violence, continuing in Balochistan for over a decade, has recently increased in frequency of attacks and their intensity. A most brutal example of this was seen on Tuesday, when unidentified gunmen intercepted a bus near Mastung, which was carrying Hazara Shia men to Iran on a pilgrimage. Operating in a most ruthless and calculated manner, the assailants told the pilgrims to disembark, identified them through their identity cards, segregated the Hazaras and mercilessly gunned them down.