Our essential reads for the week
On reckoning with the complex legacy of one of Iran’s foremost artistic voices around the world
While the 7-day Okara-Sahiwal war of 2026 did not happen, it did not stop millions of viewers from engaging with, and enjoying, the incident.
A seventy-year old photo of Ava Gardner, darling of the Golden Age of Hollywood, standing on a railway platform with a crowd of South Asian men and women behind her, often does the rounds on social media accounts that look back at the ‘good old days’. The story behind the photo, though, is one of exploitation and racist filmmaking. Aqeel Ahmad takes a look at Bhowani Junction, the 1956 film that brought Hollywood stars to Lahore.
Globally, the era of cheap oil is over, and Pakistani households are paying full price
What happens when it’s your parents’ dream home being realised (and their life savings spent) and you’re the default project manager?
When enshittification comes for your favourite bookstore
When enshittification comes for your favourite bookstore
Witches continue to inspire literary imaginations, whether in the form of supernatural entities (with or without cauldro...
The creator of the TV show Girls and the early 2000s favorite internet villain is back in the limelight, thanks to her n...
For Mina Malik, Kiran Desai’s Booker nominated novel 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺 —a sweeping saga of love and fami...
This Is Where the Serpent Lives strives for scope but reduces class and gender to the familiar
Fatima Bhutto’s highly anticipated memoir, The Hour of The Wolf (Granta, 2026), is ostensibly a powerful memoir of grief...
Anissa Helou is a London-based chef, teacher and author who specialises in cooking and writing recipes for Mediterranean...
When a major Pakistani political figure is hanged, OK Town erupts in protest. A few miles away, Sir Baghi is surprised b...
By Saba Imtiaz
By Umair Javed
By Maryam Jillani
By Haroon Sethi
By Manahil Tahira
Stories, Cultures, and Landscapes
Reflecting on the Zeitgeist
The Turkish TV series’ wild popularity in Pakistan has enabled a disturbing visual grammar for violence
May 26, 2026
No matter how visually compelling, a PR exercise does not make for meaningful cinema
May 26, 2026
The Turkish TV series’ wild popularity in Pakistan has enabled a disturbing visual grammar for violence
May 26, 2026
No matter how visually compelling, a PR exercise does not make for meaningful cinema
May 26, 2026
SPORTS
Pakistani cricket has become synonymous with unpredictability. Despite occasional flashes of brilliance, watching the te...
SPORTS
After a four-year hiatus, Pakistan has finally progressed beyond the group stage at an ICC tournament. This qualificatio...
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?
