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Wednesday, May 13, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
What Pakistani Women Want
As Pakistan inches closer to the May 11 elections, and the accompanying heat and dust get even thicker, it is pertinent to stop for a moment and ask: what do women voters in Pakistan want?
Free and Fair Elections – Except for Ahmadis
Twenty-five-year-old Syed Hasan, a doctor practicing in a private hospital in Lahore, plans to spend most of May 11, Pakistan’s long-awaited Election Day, in bed.
Religious Youth Could Swing Pakistani Poll
From the local butcher, to the pavement fruit vendor, to the cobbler sitting beside his tools on Elphinstone Road, a busy street in the heart of Karachi, one question is on everyone’s lips: Who will win the upcoming elections on May 11?
Pakistan Poll Campaign Advances by Degrees
Former parliamentarian Jamshed Dasti, known in his hometown of Muzaffargarh as Rescue 1122, Pakistan’s equivalent of an emergency number, is now a dubious hero. On Apr. 4, a district court served him a three-year prison sentence and a fine of 5,000 rupees (50 dollars) for presenting a fake degree to become eligible for a seat in parliament. He filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court which has overturned his conviction and acquitted him.
These Kids Have Won Already
Oblivious to the cloud of dust they have kicked up in just a few minutes, panting and sweating, moving lithely, this way, then that, they jostle the ball smoothly until one team scores a goal.
Motorcycle Mission Teaches Some Lessons
Mounted on a Harley Davidson, Shehzad Roy, a popular Pakistani singer, is on a mission: to expose the country’s 176 million residents to the good, the bad and the ugly side of Pakistan’s education system.
Who Will Aid the Aid Workers?
Fifty-six-year-old Perween Rehman had dedicated her life to humanitarian work. As head of the Orangi Pilot Project's Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI), she spent years working in one of the largest informal settlements in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, helping to overhaul a primitive sanitation system that was expected to serve Orangi’s 1.5 million inhabitants.
Dairy Farming Needs a Shot of Modernity
Mohammad Ali's routine has not changed in over three decades. A small dairy farmer in the village of Aliabad, in the Narowal district of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, he wakes at sunrise and walks to the barn to milk his three cows manually, stopping only for a breakfast of unleavened bread and tea heavily laced with milk before getting back to work.
Are the Masdarians the new Jetsons?
Back in 2006, when the government of Abu Dhabi — a Middle Eastern emirate that controls eight percent of the world's oil reserves — announced that it would build "the world's first zero-carbon city," skeptics took it with a pinch of salt. Few believed it would be possible.
Quite the Jetsetter
Among the 30,000 or so delegates who had come to attend the World Future Energy Summit and the first International Water Summit being held in Abu Dhabi Jan. 15-17 - including global leaders in politics, policy, technology and business - was Wendy 2.0, who had journeyed all the way from New York.
Green Peace
The sight of a pregnant woman carrying a pile of firewood on her head with a toddler at her side is a fairly common one in many developing countries. But what many don't know is that of the nearly 1.5 million people who die due to indoor smoke, 85 percent are women and children.
Rich in Hydrocarbons, Building a Clean Energy Future
With Abu Dhabi holding the world's fifth largest oil reserve and sixth largest gas reserve - enough hydrocarbons to last another hundred years - one might wonder why the emirate has jumped into the global fray of renewable energy and clean technologies.
From Sports Cars to Bottled River Water, Japan Goes Green
Boasting a yellow two-person convertible run on hydrogen gas and free bottles of Tokyo tap water, the Japanese pavilion at the Water and Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi seemed to pull the most crowds. It was also a sign of the growing interest of Japanese companies in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city, a promising emerging market.Lounge Greenly
The centre table in the lounge is made of pine used for making crates. What's better, it's certified by the Forest Stewardship Council that promotes responsible management of the world's forests. The glass candle stand on that table and the vases around the room are made of recycled glass; the sofa filling is washed grain stack. The French window looking out on to the patio is well insulated yet allows a great deal of daylight in. It's a happy place to lounge around.
A Hundred Killed, A Community Cornered
"I want justice,” says Shukria Jamali, 20. “But I wouldn't want my worst enemies to feel the intense pain I am feeling now."
Official Failure Kills Hundreds of Children
It came as no surprise to Dr Zulfikar Ahmad Bhutta, a leading child expert at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, that an outbreak of measles has claimed the lives of more than 300 children in Pakistan. "The tragedy was in the offing," he said, putting the blame squarely on the abysmally low coverage of routine immunisation against childhood diseases.
EU Trade Deal Offers Pakistan Some Respite
Karachi, a sprawling city of 18 million, is the country’s economic hub. It accounts for 95 percent of Pakistan’s foreign trade and contributes 30 percent of national industrial production.
The Politics of Polio in Pakistan
The murder of nine health workers vaccinating children against polio in Pakistan’s northwest cities of Peshawar and Charsadda in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, and its southern port city Karachi, have elicited shock and outrage.
Girls Fight to Stay in School
Balancing her school bag on one shoulder and holding her three-year-old son by the hand, Farida Haque (19) ignores her in-laws’ complaints and her husband’s frown as she heads each morning for the tiny school in her remote village of Allah Bachayo, located in the Thatta district of Pakistan’s Sindh Province.
Endangered Bird Falls Prey to Royal Hunting Games
Every year, between November and January, the Indus Flyway bears witness to a migration of an endangered bird species – the houbara bustard – from Central Asia to the deserts of Pakistan.
Unregulated Drug Market Has Deadly Impact in Pakistan
When 26-year-old Muhammad Qasim, a rickshaw driver from Lahore’s low-income Shahadra settlement, died last month, his family was shocked to learn that the cause of death was an overdose – of cough syrup.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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