Writing on the Wall

The corona virus has caused ample damage around the world leaving almost every country distraught economically and socially. Ironically, the health sector was on the front line facing brunt of the situation. With all its worrying effects, the virus has steered the governments around the world to commence damage-assessment in various circles. Taking stock of the situation, Unicef has pointed out the alarming number of missed vaccination targets as a result of the lockdowns. In Pakistan, an already suffering vaccination campaign against the polio disease has been further debilitated. Unicef has reported sporadic outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles and diphtheria in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Pakistan is a large country with high childhood mortality and low immunization coverage rates as every year, more than one million children miss out a full course of the most basic vaccines here hinting that it is difficult to find children missing out during the anti-

My dog has died. I buried him in the garden next to a rusted old machine. Some day I'll join him right there, but now he's gone with his shaggy coat, his bad manners and his cold nose, and I, the materialist, who never believed in any promised heaven in the sky for any human being, I believe in a heaven I'll never enter. Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom where my dog waits for my arrival waving his fan-like tail in friendship. Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth, of having lost a companion who was never servile. His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine withholding its authority, was the friendship of a star, aloof, with no more intimacy than was called for, with no exaggerations: he never climbed all over my clothes filling me full of his hair or his mange, he never rubbed up against my knee like other dogs obsessed with sex. No, my dog used to gaze at me, paying me the attention I need, the attention require

Qom, also spelled as Qum, city, is the capital of Qom province which is located in north-central Iran. The city lies on both banks of the Rūd-e Qom and beside a salt desert, the Dasht-e Kavīr, 92 miles (147 km) south of Tehrān. The modern city has the largest madrasah (theological college) in the country, where students can specialize in Islamic law, philosophy, theology, and logic. It was at Qom that the Iranian army surrendered to Islamic revolutionary militia in 1979. Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran early in 1979, the revolution’s principal figure, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, again took up residence in Qom, whence he had been exiled by the shah, and made the town his seat. Some 10 kings and 400 Islamic saints are interred in Qom and its neighbourhood.   It is a regional centre for the distribution of petroleum and petroleum products, and a natural gas pipeline from Bandar-e Anzalī and Tehrān and a crude-oil pipeline from Tehrān run through Qom to the Abadan re

Each star a rung, night comes down the spiral staircase of the evening. The breeze passes by so very close as if someone just happened to speak of love. In the courtyard, the trees are absorbed refugees embroidering maps of return on the sky. On the roof, the moon - lovingly, generously –   is turning the stars into a dust of sheen. From every corner, dark-green shadows,   in ripples, come towards me. At any moment they may break over me, like the waves of pain each time I remember this separation from my lover. This thought keeps consoling me: though tyrants may command that lamps be smashed in rooms where lovers are destined to meet,   they cannot snuff out the moon, so today, nor tomorrow, no tyranny will succeed, no poison of torture make me bitter, if just one evening in prison can be so strangely sweet, if just one moment anywhere on this earth. Translation b y: Agha Shahid Ali About the poet:   FAIZ AHMED FAIZ     

Nobody knew that a time will come upon this generation which will force the people to quit all the things they were once addicted to.   The advent of Ramadan 2020 fetched concerns, anxieties and reminiscences from the past.   Ramadan in Muslim countries is like the biggest festival time which is full of colors, cuisines, rituals and joys. It has a different sense and significance for people of different age groups. The old fellows find this holy month an opportunity to seek clemency and salvation with a series of sacraments.   The month of Ramadan literally lure people towards the mosques for daily prayers, they keep fasts throughout the month, offer congregational Quranic recitations and sit in the Aitkaf (people sit in isolation for 10 days and pray). The children, on the other hand, perceive this as the month of festivities.   As they hear that Ramadan is here, they start compelling their parents for shopping and toys and obviously the scrumptious cuisines are a perfect d

We the Pakistanis are dealing with a much bigger problem, it isn’t corona, it’s the communal reckless resolve, which is compelling us to drag the people towards a mass suicide. It just takes a man’s obstinacy which mars the difference between faith and cult. People of Pakistan have witnessed it quite a bit, but during the trying times of corona, it has emerged and spread in a pandemic nature. The fight is underway between radicals willing to perform sacraments and the petrified rationalists’ lot fervent to save humanity. The radicals have once again “convinced” the government to ease the restrictions it has imposed keeping in view the corona pandemic and the preparations for the festive season is in full swing. Radicalists, on the other hand, are running from pillar to post trying to persuade the people that this isn’t the time for such adventurisms and precautions combined with social distancing can aid the fight against the COVID-19. Meanwhile, the viral infectio

The government has recently decided to ease the lock down following less number of cases being reported in the country. According to the top government officials they were expecting a high number of cases which didn’t turn out to be true. AS the government eased the lock down restrictions, a couple of days ago, masses threw the idea of social distancing aside and flouted the corona virus prevention guidelines. People can be seen standing close to each other without masks and they are constantly touching their faces. It can be witnessed anywhere official conferences to queues outside shops and banks, the situation is no different. It has been told on many forums by the health officials and the world health organization that a person can be infected by breathing in the virus if they are within a few feet of an infected person. Despite that the importance of practicing precautions appears to be lost on many occasions. This attitude towards a virus which has infected around 9000