Thai Military Releases Former PM Thaksi

Thaksin Shinawatra, a divisive and compelling figure even in his years of exile, was once hailed as a champion of the common people. His recent moves have disillusioned followers. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, center, returning to Bangkok 2023. By Sui-Lee Wee Thailand’s ousted former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, a leader once seen as

First-Past-the-Post System is Not Working

The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has called upon the Parliament to consider an immediate review of the inefficacy of the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system to yield truly representative legislatures and governments, and initiate wide-ranging discourse and negotiations on the adoption of Proportional Representation (PR) system that guarantees translation of more than 95 percent of

What is Driving the Protests the World Over?

Oct. 3, 2021/ By Zachariah Mampilly In Septembrer 2021, more than 200 Australians arrested during citywide protests and a temporary no-fly zone declared over Melbourne. Rubber bullets and tear gas unleashed by the Thai riot police into an angry crowd. Health care workers assaulted in Canada. Rallies of up to 150,000 people across the Netherlands. The pandemic has coincided with an upsurge in

Fixing Pakistan’s Crashing Economy

To change course, the country’s leaders must take on the moneyed elite and religious extremism. By Atif Mian, an economics professor at Princeton. Dec. 10, 2019 Supporters of one of Pakistan’s largest religious parties marched across the country in October seeking the removal of PM Imran Khan. If an airplane took off a dozen times only to

Free Press of Pakistan

When John Swinton, who had been chief of staff of The New York Times in the 1860s, was asked to give a toast on ‘free press’ at the New York Press Club, he stated: “There is no such thing, at this date in America, as an ­independent press. You know it and I know it. There is

Economic Affair Division Refuses to Sign MOU with 42 Pakistani NGOs

  Name of Rejected Organizations NHN Member (Yes / No) Area of Work Region/Province Action Against Poverty No Website suspended – Basic Education and Employable Skill Training Yes Humanitarian KP Bedari Yes Advocacy, Education, capacity building Islamabad (Punjab) Al-Furqan Humanitarian Relief Foundation No Website not found – Society for Protection of the Right of the

Gharidah Farooqi Facing Online Harassment

Gharidah Farooqi, a prominent Pakistani female journalist and TV anchorperson has been the target of malicious online harassment campaign for sharing a post on her Twitter about the Christchurch attack in New Zealand. Farooqi, who hosts political talk-show ‘G for Gharidha’ on Aaj News television channel is facing online harassment since she tweeted a year

Freedom of Expression: FIA Investigates Journalists

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA’s), Cyber Crime Wing has initiated investigation against five prominent Pakistani journalists, an activist and four groups for ‘executing a targeted social media campaigns’ during the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman visit to Pakistan in February 2019. The five journalists names included in the FIA’s list are Matiullah Jan, former

Why the US Government Wants to Know Your Citizenship Status

The civil rights lawyer Vanita Gupta answers vital questions about the citizenship question on the census, including what you can do to stop it. Are you an American citizen? The Trump administration really wants to know. In March 2018, it added to the 2020 census a question asking people, for the first time in more than half a

Yasin Malik: Fear rules Kashmir

The last 71 years have seen [India-held] Jammu and Kashmir groaning under occupation. However, the last four-and-a-half years have been a real testing time for the Kashmiri nation. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu chauvinist party, assumed power with a near absolute majority in India in 2014. It was the first time the BJP

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq: Dialogue is Only Way to Resolve Kashmir Issue

India and Pakistan will not talk. Pakistan wants to talk “Kashmir”. India wants to talk “terror”. Yet they will not talk. The baggage of history weighs heavy on us. The status quo stays. Kashmir bleeds and we the people of Kashmir will continue to pay a heavy price. Not that the people of India and Pakistan

Middle Class Replaced by the Property Mafia in Politics

In the first general election held on the basis of adult franchise or ‘one-person, one-vote’ formula back in 1970, the known contestants from urban centres of what was then West Pakistan – today’s Pakistan – were mostly educated professionals from the middle class. Centre left PPP had fielded Dr Mubashar Hassan, Sheikh Muhammad Rasheed, Haneef