Event: The highly publicized long march for democracy, that paralyzed Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, from 14 January 2013, was the basis for a discussion about the future for Pakistan. With the five years of the previous government over in March 2013, political parties that are seeking to participate within elections became active in making statements supporting the existing system, as did the rulers who endorsed that democracy must prevail at all…

On 16 December a 23-year-old paramedic student was raped on a moving bus in Delhi, by six heavily drunk men who brutalized and tortured the victim for about an hour, and then threw her out from the moving bus. After struggling for her life in a Singapore hospital for many days, she succumbed to her injuries and died. The incident has triggered a tsunami of protests not just in the…

It is common now in Pakistan that a shortage of natural gas persists through out the year, but as the bitterly cold winter months arrive, it takes the form of a severe gas crisis. At the moment across the country, industry has been notified that their gas will be suspended for an indefinite period, causing many job losses to the order of hundreds of thousands and billions of Rupees losses…

A few days ago, on a Wednesday, I was contacted by a family friend who is a convert to Islam. They wanted me to meet their friend who wanted to embrace Islam on Friday but had some final questions. So we arranged for me to meet the brother before Zuhr salah at the masjid on Thursday. We sat at the back of the masjid before salah and started discussing. I…