All posts in Kamila Hyat

People seem to be the missing ingredient from our political reality. Decisions are made that take no heed of their situation – such as the recent measures to

Why do we see so furious a reaction from the Punjab chief minister each time the term ‘Punjabi Taliban’ is used? The use of this term to describe

We have, of course, become well-adjusted to crisis. We live with it constantly, in private and in public life, with crippling inflation, power cuts, gas loadshedding, worsening law

“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” goes the saying dating back to Victorian times. Tradition holds that a wedding outfit comprising each of the above items

Under growing pressure from donors such as the IMF and its own finance team, the prime minister and president have finally decided to trim down the size of

The shameful refusal by senators to move a resolution condemning the death of former governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, calls attention to the deep waters we stand in

The furore raised by actress Veena Malik’s appearance in an Indian reality TV show and her depicted relationship with a Hindu man seems to have driven anchors and

Who was the man dressed in grey trousers, a checked shirt, a flimsy jacket and tattered socks, who seems, quite literally, to have fallen out of the skies

As though the assassination of Salmaan Taseer were not bad enough, the reaction that followed it was even more terrifying. Over the Internet, on television screens and at private

What is it that makes homecomings so traumatic for so many? People who arrive at airports everywhere in the country have regularly commented on the surliness of immigration

The extraordinary versatility of Pakistani people needs to be applauded. Take a typical household in Lahore. Every morning a small act of domestic jugglery must take place. Low

The 250,000 or so diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks in many ways tell us little that is new. We had, after all, always known our politicians were corrupt,

Precisely three days from today it will be a year since 3-year-old Imanae Malik died at the Doctor's Hospital Lahore. The case, pursued actively by Imanae's father, Aqeel

The blast at a mosque in Darra Adam Khel, where the toll has now climbed to over 90, is the most deadly terrorist strike carried out in the

Traders based along Lahore's Hall Road, the centre of the electronics business in the city, say there has been an increase in the demand for devices that would

The ability to stay calm and collected in the face of crisis is usually a much-admired quality. Through the centuries it has been associated, alongside the quality of

All of us know Pakistanis are a people of passion. We beat up sporting teams that have the temerity to lose, beat to death people for what would

Pakistanis have become more and more accustomed to following the patterns of life in cyberspace. Perhaps this is some kind of escape from the course of events in

In London, a former dictator has promised us clean government and an end to other problems such as poverty. At his press conference -- where the retired general teetered

The pictures of US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke somewhat self-consciously throwing flowers and laying a sheet on a Sufi shrine in Multan two weeks ago, accompanied by the

 The bizarre case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui lingers on. As the process of determining her sentence begins in New York, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has written to US

It is amazing how adept we are at framing the most bizarre conspiracy theories. Nine years after the events of 9/11 there are still people - some holding

Unabashed, Altaf Hussain continues with his demand that the military intervene to remove corrupt politicians and that they do so with the assistance of the Supreme Court. The MQM

It is quite correct to say that leaders can do very little to turn back the waters that have ravaged the country. What they can do, however, is inspire