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The enigma of enlightenment IN the wake of a marked increase in death by violence in terrorist attacks throughout the world, there is currently an ongoing debate in Pakistan, sparked off by General Pervez Musharraf’s “Plea for enlightened moderation”, which appeared on June 1 this year in the Washington Post. The article called upon the Muslim world to...		Politics of piety PML Secretary-General Senator Mushahid Hussain believes President Pervaiz Musharraf’s concept of “enlightened moderation” is not alien to Islam or to the indigenous traditions of Sufism in the subcontinent. The essence of Islam, he says, is against extremism. But the fight against repression, like in Iraq or Kashmir, has to be seen in the context of politics and not as something that’s linked to Islam. He says President Musharraf is not alone in...
Probable revival of cinema culture EFFORTS to revive seceded entities, whether animated or unanimated, are often shrouded in probabilities. The scope of the subject matter is vast. From efforts for revival of estranged relationship between a married couple, young lovers, shattered faith, disillusionment to social, ethnic, cultural, and religious interpretations and to the political alienation, the subject encompasses within its....		Turn off the idiot box IN the last one hundred years, the world has changed more rapidly than in any other century in human history. In the last two centuries alone, a lot of scientific inventions...
Understanding societal values ABDULMURAT, an Uyghur high school graduate of the Kashgar Pedagogical Institute who has been working in the travel and hotel industry for 10 years, remembers watching the opening of the Khunjerab border between Xinijiang and Sost, Pakistan, in the 80s with great interest. He has since interacted with many Pakistanis...		Chide me no more TRAGEDY of destiny is what you may refer to my misfortune of not having anyone in the family who is a Masters in English Literature. That’s because I am the odd...
Left in the dark ESSENTIALLY, religion is all about enlightenment and moderation. However, in the modern-day scenario, the word enlightenment is being used to suit a certain kind of objective, says Prof H.M. Jaferi of the Aga Khan University Hospital. He also argues that the term ‘moderation’ should be viewed in the context of extremism and fanaticism that have plagued....		The valley of temples IT shall remain a regret of a lifetime that I wasn’t able to got a close view of the Everest, while on a visit to Nepal, a few years back. Our hosts had arranged a special mountain flight to Mount Everest on the last day of our four-day stay in Kathmandu. All of us (I was part of an official delegation) were looking forward to the trip with great excitement. It was a chartered plane...
Eating by colour EARLIER this year, the Pakistan Association of Scientists and Scientific Professions (PASSP) arranged their 56th lecture. The speaker was Professor Rashida Ali, Consultant, Food Technology and Nutrition in the prestigious HEJ...		Preventing common cold COMMON cold prevention can keep you healthy on a regular basis. With the help of just 10 simple tips, anybody can take care of the common cold. Yet, few follow them....
Calendar reform THE time has come when one needs to rethink the dominant calendar system in vogue in the world. It is generally known as the Gregorian or Christian calendar, though there is hardly anything Christian about it. In fact, the genesis of the system as well as the names of most of the months used in the system predate Christianity’s advent....		Urdu’s best poetic expression DR Gopi Chand Narang has at last come to the rescue of Urdu ghazal after it was much maligned for its non-Indian origin....
Mao’s might FROM a very early age, Mao Tse-tung rebelled against some well-established norms of society. That was precisely the reason why when his father arranged his marriage when he was just 14...		Hot Seat “ONE’S choices and preferences, in life regarding several things, have much in common to a train journey through a breathtaking scenic countryside; each passing moment showcases a different view to those...
The gods are happy AS the gods of Ancient Greece watched from the magnificent Acropolis, the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad finally came to a spectacular end last week. Following more than two weeks of sporting drama, the Greeks and their guests finally let loose on the streets of Athens for an all night out on the town. And watching them go, were thousands of security personnel who too....		Legends by all standard THE relationship between Kardar and Fazal Mahmood was not dissimilar to the one between Imran Khan and Javed Miandad. There may not have been too much chemistry but when it came...
Covering all grounds FOR the past one month, the Senate Standing Committee on Sports has been busy probing into PCB’s affairs, espeically those concerning Pakistan’s defeat against India in the home series. Other...		Good, but could have been better THE first stage of the litmus test that coach Bob Woolmer had talked about before leaving for the triangular in Holland was basically washed away, with just around forty per cent...
Just imagine “IMAGINATION makes possible all our thinking about what is, what has been, and perhaps most importantly, what might be.” Readers, if novelist Tom Clancy can imagine a 9/11 scenario years before the terrorists tore down the towers or the chess champion...		Gem of a person WHEN I was a kid, my school was about two kilometres away from our home and I used to walk all the way to the school and come back home everyday like many other students. I vividly remember running alongside a narrow road kicking away shrubs and turning over every stone that I saw....
Poverty and peace WITH his brown hair showing signs of malnutrition, barefoot, 10-year-old Gul Panja is hastily selecting items from a yellow garbage bin, placed by the Capital Development Authority building in F-10 Markaz....		Deadly diagnosis WITH reference to the article Deadly diagnosis (August 15), the people of my village, once took a young girl for some treatment to a doctor nearby. The doctor, a declared MBBS...
MOSAIC: War and environmental law “WAR must and should always be a last resort, and if armed conflict occurs, warring factions have a duty to minimize the casualties and the suffering of those caught in the...		Newsmaker BORN to an ex-prime minister and into a family where the men have spent years behind bars and died unnatural deaths, Bilawal Zardari is a teenager with a troubled legacy. Almost 16, Bilawal, the son of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari, is visiting his homeland and father after a gap of four years. The elder Zardari, who has been behind bars for the past eight years, is currently under treatment in a local hospital in Karachi....