Our essential reads for the week
The most highly anticipated event of the year — Basant — has kicked off in Lahore. Rooftops are booked and set up, the kite trade is booming and you can feel the city pulsating with excitement. But are we chasing a nostalgic dream? Or will Basant be the same vibrant, communal activity most remember? Aiman Tahir Khan looks at the history of Basant, as the colourful kite-flying festival returns to Lahore after almost two decades.
When a major Pakistani political figure is hanged, OK Town erupts in protest. A few miles away, Sir Baghi is surprised by a knock at the door of his language school, the Rebel English Academy. Mohammed Hanif’s latest offering is a tale of interconnected characters that face a changing landscape with violence, passion and sharp humour. Dur e Aziz Amna, author of 𝘈 𝘚𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘍𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧’𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘣𝘦𝘭 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺.
Continuing from her previous exploration of the Bandung Conference, Aima Khosa posits that if the 1955 Bandung Conference was the political awakening of the Afro-Asian world, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is its economic realisation.
Maheen Azmat looks at the traditional South Asian aangan as a laboratory where competing visions of South Asian womanhood were actively produced in response to colonialism and nationalism.
Ayza Khan explores the undercurrents of literary and cultural resistance at the ninth iteration of Afkar e Taza ThinkFest held in Lahore.
At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, the European Union and its leading member states were no longer willing to quietly acquiesce to Washington’s demands under President Donald Trump.
By Saba Imtiaz
By Umair Javed
By Maryam Jillani
By Haroon Sethi
Stories, Cultures, and Landscapes
Reflecting on the Zeitgeist
Maheen Azmat looks at the traditional South Asian aangan as a laboratory where competing visions of South Asian womanhood were actively produced in response to colonialism and nationalism.
Jan 30, 2026
Ayza Khan explores the undercurrents of literary and cultural resistance at the ninth iteration of Afkar e Taza ThinkFest held in Lahore.
Jan 29, 2026
Maheen Azmat looks at the traditional South Asian aangan as a laboratory where competing visions of South Asian womanhood were actively produced in response to colonialism and nationalism.
Jan 30, 2026
Ayza Khan explores the undercurrents of literary and cultural resistance at the ninth iteration of Afkar e Taza ThinkFest held in Lahore.
Jan 29, 2026
When a major Pakistani political figure is hanged, OK Town erupts in protest. A few miles away, Sir Baghi is surprised b...
‘𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺: 𝘐𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘈𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩’ by Uzair Younus wonders if instead of a collapse, we are on t...
In Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys (2025), Argentine journalist and novelist Mariana Enriquez bl...
𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘶 by Fauzia Rafique, translated from the Punjabi by Haider Shahbaz (2025), follows Muhammad Hussain Khan ‘𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘶’ who...
Maha Khan Phillips takes us on a whirlwind, absorbing adventure in her fourth novel, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦.
Following the 25th publication anniversary of Kamila Shamsie’s novel ‘Salt and Saffron’, Saba Imtiaz muses over how well...
The 2025 Booker Prize went to David Szalay for Flesh, his novel depicting the classic ‘man-of-few-words’ adapted for the...
Zeenat Hisam’s Tamannaon Ke Deyaar Se is an anthology of translated poems from North American women poets. Rana Saadulla...
SPORTS
For a country where young people make up a majority of the population, the potential of gaming as a career path remains...
SPORTS
What explains Padel’s recent explosive popularity in urban Pakistan?
At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, the European Union and its leading member states were no longer willing to quietly acquiesce to Washington’s demands under President Donald Trump.
Trump’s interest in Greenland is not new. During his first term, his suggestion that the United States should ‘buy’ Greenland was widely mocked, dismissed as a diplomatic oddity. Ahmad Jamal Wattoo looks at the strategic logic beneath the spectacle.
Debt-for-climate swaps are no longer boutique transactions, but are being pitched as a central tool to help countries break free from the vicious cycle of debt distress and climate vulnerability. Can the G77+China succeed in making them more than symbolic, clever deals on the margins?
