South Asia Citizens Web

If women’s concerns are ignored at international conferences where billions of dollars are pledged for security and their rights unrepresented at discussions with Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, will women become collateral damage in post-war talks with the Taliban?

An American court absolving UCC of its liabilities for environmental contamination in Bhopal is a travesty of justice

. . .We are concerned about current government policy toward education and higher education which is reflected by the proportion of funds that the government allocates for education. GDP is a good indicator of this. From 2005 onwards, government spending on education has been fast decreasing. When the current President came into office, in 2005, the government’s expenditure on education was 2.9% of the GDP. Today, it has fallen to a miserable 1.9% of the GDP.
The cut in investment in higher education since 2005 is even more alarming. Of the paltry investment in education, the government spent only 0.52% of the GDP on the Universities. It declined to 0.27% of the GDP in 2010 and even lower in 2012. It is important for the government to increase spending on education and strengthen free education so that it flourishes.

Given its long history and striking architecture, it is no wonder that Timbuktu has been named a Unesco world heritage site. Sadly, this distinction has not stopped thugs of the Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith, from destroying and damaging a number of ancient mosques and mausoleums.

On Wednesday, 4th of July, a frenzied mob broke into a police station in Bahawalpur (South Punjab). The mob’s target was a ’malang’ (vagabond), the sort that have been found in and around numerous shrines of Sufi saints in the sub-continent for centuries.