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Wednesday, May 13, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Truckers Celebrate NATO Resumption
“I’m happy that I will be resuming work soon,” says Zarbistan Khan, who owns and drives a tanker that takes oil from the southern port city Karachi to Afghanistan. But the joy comes under the shadow of a Taliban threat to attack supply convoys.
Fishermen Caught on a Political Hook
“The number will never come to zero and in a few months you will see as many captive fishermen, maybe even more to fill the prison barracks,” says Mohammad Ali Shah of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), following the release of more than 300 Indian fishermen from Pakistani jails.
Will the World Listen to Women?
What does birth control have to do with reducing global emissions?Where Journalism Is a Battlefront
“It does not matter if we ever find out who killed Saleem; whoever it was has destroyed my family,” says Anita Shahzad, Saleem Shahzad’s 36-year-old widow and mother of three. “It won’t bring him back,” she tells IPS.
King of Fruit Reaps Few Rewards for Pakistani Farmers
In the summer heat, fresh mangos are the fruit of choice for politicians seeking to exchange favours with foreign dignitaries. But when it comes to global trade, the prospects of the so-called king of fruit are limited.
Fistula – Another Blight on the Child Bride
It was personal experience that turned Gul Bano and her cleric husband, Ahmed Khan, into ambassadors against early marriage and its worst corollary – obstetric fistula which allows excretory matter to flow out through the birth canal.
Pakistani Jazz Touches New Chords
The silencing of music in the name of Islam led Pappu to give up the cello and set up a tea stall. But Pappu and other musicians survived the Islamist regime for former dictator Zia ul-Haq and the recent ways of the Taliban to return to the most surprising group of musicians to have emerged over years – on a dusty little street in the Pakistani city Lahore.Trading Their Way Out of Trouble
Azhar Karimjee (52), an exporter based in Karachi, is eyeing the "huge market", comprised of the Indian middle class, for his Bermuda and cargo shorts and chino pants once trade links open between Pakistan and India.
Wind Turbines Bring Relief and Resentment to Pakistan
"I still cannot fathom how electricity can be produced by the wind," said a nonplused Mohammad Ahmed, a 55-year-old local baker, as he gazed up at a row of giant wind turbines.
Hindu Girls Targeted in Coerced Conversions
Bharti, a 15-year-old Hindu girl living in the Lyari area in Karachi, left home for her sewing class last December, never to return. Three days later, her father Narain Das was told she had converted to Islam.
Saving Face for Pakistan
By winning an Oscar at this year’s Academy awards, filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has brought home the genius of Pakistan’s women as well as the extreme violence they often suffer in a male-dominated society.
Porn in the Land of the Pure
Dark and smoky, the cinema hall reeks of hashish. An overly made-up woman on screen in provocatively figure-hugging clothes dances suggestively to the beat of loud music. The audience, all men, cheer and whistle. The music stops, the scenes get racier and sexually titillating. The crowd abandons all caution. The whistles turn to grunts and growls, chairs begin to bang.
‘Human Rights Hell’ in Balochistan Inflames Separatist Sentiments
"We want our homeland; we want freedom from Pakistan and will fight till our last breath," said Zarmine Baloch (23), veiled from head to toe with just her eyes showing.INDIA-PAKISTAN: Food Heals Historic Hostility
If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, then the path to peace between India and Pakistan may lie in the commonalities in their cultures and cuisines.PAKISTAN-INDIA: Women Expose Secret Genital Cutting Rite
"It was a dark and dingy room, where an elderly woman asked me to take off my panties, made me sit on a low wooden stool with my legs parted and then did something…I screamed out in pain," recalls Alefia Mustansir, 40, of her childhood experience.PAKISTAN: Violence, Death Stalk Child Domestic Help
"He was a happy child, my younger brother," Mohammad Ramzan, 18, reminisced, his voice steeped in sadness.PAKISTAN: New Price Tags on Stranded NATO Supplies
From a distance, the neatly stacked red, blue and orange containers suggest that business is good at Karachi’s Kemari port.MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Balochistan a Hornet’s Nest for Journalists
"This could well be my last interview." There was audible nervousness in Jamal Tarakai’s voice as it crackled over the telephone line from the city of Quetta. The thirty-five-year-old journalist, hailing from the restive Balochistan province in Pakistan, believes he could be killed at any time.PAKISTAN: At the Butt of a Joke
The Butts of Punjab have become the butt of jokes after Pakistan’s telecom authorities moved to ban "obscene" content on short messaging service (SMS) texts over mobile phones.PAKISTAN: Persecution of Ahmadis Spreads
"Hatred against us has now spread to small towns and villages," Saleemuddin, spokesperson of the persecuted Ahmadiya community in Pakistan, told IPS.
PAKISTAN: Wanted: A Revolution For Girls
Sixteen-year-old Noor Bano believes nothing short of a revolution will convince the men in Malangabad – her remote village in the Khairpur district of the Sindh province, some 460 kilometres from the southern port city of Karachi – to treat women as equals.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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