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The Thursday Times
@thursdaytimes.com
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Analysing how political and social currents are reshaping life in the future for bluer skies—and for the 21st century globalist. thursdaytimes.com
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From slacktivism to viral political narratives, Pakistan’s low digital literacy and algorithmic feeds are turning falsehood into habit, weakening trust, polarising society, and making reality itself feel negotiable.

✍️ Abdul Samee
False is the new true
From slacktivism to viral political narratives, Pakistan’s low digital literacy and algorithmic feeds are turning falsehood into habit, weakening trust, polarising society, and making reality itself f...
thursdaytimes.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:30 PM
thursdaytimes.com
In 2025, Pakistan’s external posture leaned less on emotion and more on transaction, leverage, and credibility, building alignment where it was possible and managing friction where it was not.

Our year in review:
Pakistan’s diplomacy goes multi-track in 2025
From Beijing to Washington, the Gulf to the UN, Islamabad ended the year with more credibility, capability, and room to manoeuvre than it began with.
thursdaytimes.com
December 31, 2025 at 12:53 PM
thursdaytimes.com
اٹھارہ برس قبل بینظیر بھٹو کی کارساز ریلی پر حملے میں 140 افراد جاں بحق ہوئے تو عمران خان نے برطانوی اخبار دی ٹیلیگراف میں لکھا:

”اسکی ذمہ داری بینظیر بھٹو پر عائد ہوتی ہے۔“
بینظیر بھٹو کارساز میں ہونیوالے دھماکے کی خود ذمہ دار ہیں، عمران خان
برطانوی جریدے "دی ٹیلی گراف" میں 21 اکتوبر 2007 کو عمران خان نے بینظیر بھٹو کو خود کارساز بم دھماکوں کا ذمہ دار قرار دیتے ہوئے لکھا کہ یہ سانحہ ناگزیر تھا اور اس کا سب کو انتظار تھا۔
thursdaytimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:04 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Joyland, Saim Sadiq's 2022 effort based in inner-city Lahore, doesn’t lecture on patriarchy, rather forcing you to live inside its soft violence. It insists on the intimacy of consequences: mood, shame, and what they do to a life.

#pakistan #cinema #art #movies #news

✍️ @3ax.bsky.social
An ode to Pakistan's greatest artistic export
Joyland doesn’t lecture on patriarchy, but rather makes you live inside its soft violence. It insists on the intimacy of consequences: posture, mood, shame, and what they do to a life.
thursdaytimes.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:12 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Exactly a decade since a birthday stopover at Lahore, an ode to Nawaz Sharif’s stubborn faith in having breakfast in Bagram, lunch in Lahore, and dinner in Delhi, and a Pakistan wide enough to hold all its citizens on his 76th.

✍️ @3ax.bsky.social
Nawaz's legacy
Ten years after Lahore’s birthday stopover, a portrait of Nawaz Sharif as the rare Pakistani leader who pursued peace with India and Afghanistan while insisting minorities belonged at the centre of th...
thursdaytimes.com
December 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
thursdaytimes.com
In a blistering London speech, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, tore into mental-health diagnoses, child-poverty metrics, and Labour’s welfare vision — igniting the fiercest policy fight of her campaign.

#politics #uk #london #news #conservatives
Kemi Badenoch has declared war on the welfare state
In a blistering London speech, the Conservative leader tore into mental-health diagnoses, child-poverty metrics, and Labour’s welfare vision — igniting the fiercest policy fight of her campaign.
thursdaytimes.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:20 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Reeves delivers a Budget which expands the state and cuts child poverty, relying on record tax and threshold freezes, but offers little comfort to those worried about stagnant wages, no investment, and threadbare services.

#budget #uk #politics #news
Labour's Budget suffocates the middle-class, yet again
Reeves delivers a Budget which expands the state and cuts child poverty, relying on record tax and threshold freezes, but offers little comfort to those worried about stagnant wages, no investment, an...
thursdaytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:39 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Rachel Reeves will walk out of 11 Downing Street tomorrow with a Red Box in her hand and a fixed, careful smile on her face; why tax freezes, stealth hikes and shrinking services could turn Labour’s “grown-up” budget into a slow-motion crisis for Britain.

#uk #politics #news #labour #budget
Labour's austerity loop of managed decline
Inside the headroom illusion: why tax freezes, stealth hikes and shrinking services could turn Labour’s “grown-up” budget into a slow-motion crisis for Britain.
thursdaytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:02 PM
thursdaytimes.com
From Haripur to Lahore, by-election voters rebuked anti-state theatrics and KP misgovernance, tightening PML-N’s grip on a weary electorate, as PTI’s agitation and foreign-fuelled campaigns force citizens to turn to order over unrest.

#pakistan #politics #news

Our editorial:
By-election voters reward governance, not chaos
From Haripur to Lahore, the ballot box has rebuked anti-state theatrics and KP misgovernance, tightening PML-N’s grip on a weary electorate, as PTI’s agitation and foreign-amplified campaigns collide ...
thursdaytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:53 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Trump’s world is divided into killers and suckers; this is the story of the fixer who taught him, the mayor who impressed him and the tech king who did not.

#trump #politics #usa #news
The Roy Cohn Test explains why Trump adores Mamdani
How a radical Queens mayor, a ghost from Manhattan’s past, and a sulking tech billionaire explain the kind of charisma Donald Trump cannot resist.
thursdaytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:55 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Pakistan did not just survive four days of high-intensity conflict with India: it performed well enough that the US has branded it a “military success.” These are lines which will undoubtedly haunt the military apex in New Delhi for years to come.

#pakistan #india #china #france
The US brands Pakistan’s operation against India a military success
Pakistan did not just survive four days of high intensity conflict with India: it performed well enough that a United States report quietly called it a “military success.” For the first time in decade...
thursdaytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:26 AM
thursdaytimes.com
A nation of more than 240 million can't be run as if it were a modest federation of four gentlemen’s estates. A Mirpuri airport and a Multani university are not vanity projects; they are stress tests of a map actually serving its periphery.

#pakistan #politics #news

Our editorial:
How new provinces could save an old state
Devolution that stops at the provincial secretariat is not devolution; it is merely colonialism with a different accent. A Mirpuri airport, a Multani university and a Gwadar harbour are not vanity pro...
thursdaytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:59 PM
thursdaytimes.com
The 27th Amendment writes real power into the Constitution, pulling it from the shadows into structure and scrutiny, ending critics' comfortable lies stating that Pakistan’s central command stands entirely outside the law.

#pakistan #politics #news

✍️ @3ax.bsky.social
In Defence of the Twenty Seventh Amendment
By writing real power into the Constitution, the Twenty Seventh Amendment does not create domination, it drags it out of the shadows and subjects it to text, structure and scrutiny. What unsettles its...
thursdaytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:00 AM
thursdaytimes.com
Hindu hate preacher Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, Head Priest of the Dasna Devi temple in India's Ghaziabad, is using the elections of Sadiq Khan and Zohran Mamdani to paint democratic Muslim wins as an “invasion”, justifying his vow to "erase" Islam.

#nyc #india #politics
Hindu hate-preacher vows to erase Islam after Zohran’s win
When a priest with his record can promise the erasure of the Prophet’s name and still function within the margins of acceptability, it is the Indian state’s commitment to secular democracy that is und...
thursdaytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:32 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Imran Khan, the former Pakistani prime minister, wagered the nation's security on charisma and sentiment, where leverage, verification, and distance were required. In his own romantic pursuits with the Taliban, he was blind to all three.

#pakistan #afghanistan #politics

Our editorial:
Unmaking Imran's Taliban romance
A state which refuses to distinguish between the vulnerable and the weaponised is not compassionate: it is careless with its own survival. Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, wagered th...
thursdaytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:39 PM
thursdaytimes.com
King Charles has stripped his brother, Prince Andrew, of his royal titles, with Andrew now to be known simply as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, following renewed scrutiny after Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir accusing him of sexual abuse.

#politics #news #uk
King Charles strips his brother, Prince Andrew, of royal titles
King Charles has removed Prince Andrew’s titles, with Andrew now to be known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, following renewed scrutiny after Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir; royal warrants...
thursdaytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:16 AM
thursdaytimes.com
After a bruising week on the frontier, Islamabad entered Doha with one demand and one only: end support and facilitation for anti-Pakistan militants operating from Afghan soil. It got it. A new regional normal now bears Pakistan’s imprint.

#afghanistan #pakistan #asia

Our editorial:
Pakistan turns pressure into policy
Pakistan came with one demand and departed with verification, guarantors and a timetable; Kabul kept its face, Islamabad kept the substance. A new regional normal now bears Pakistan’s imprint.
thursdaytimes.com
October 19, 2025 at 1:05 PM
thursdaytimes.com
India cannot claim the title Pharmacy of the World while children die from poisoned cough syrup. Pride means nothing without transparent regulation, lot-by-lot testing, and accountability from factory floor to cabinet table.

#india #medicine #science

Our editorial:
Medicine should heal. In India, it kills children
India cannot claim the title Pharmacy of the World while children die from poisoned cough syrup. Pride means nothing without transparent regulation, lot-by-lot testing, and accountability from factory...
thursdaytimes.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:30 PM
thursdaytimes.com
For fifty years Pakistan sheltered millions of Afghans while richer capitals sermonised from afar. If promises are paused in the West, do not scold the neighbour for enforcing its borders; honour your pledges and share the burden.

#pakistan #afghanistan #politics

Our editorial:
Hospitality is a record of duty fulfilled
For fifty years Pakistan sheltered millions of Afghans while richer capitals sermonised from afar. If promises are paused in the West, do not scold the neighbour for enforcing its borders; honour your...
thursdaytimes.com
October 5, 2025 at 3:06 PM
thursdaytimes.com
The Nobel risks turning from conscience into stagecraft when nominees with militant proximities are amplified by institutions. Absent of recusals, disclosures, and denunciating violence, awarding none beats laundering under the peace halo.

#pakistan #balochistan #nobel

Our editorial:
A Nobel for the BLA is a kick in the teeth to its victims
The Nobel Peace Prize risks turning from conscience into stagecraft when nominees with alleged militant proximities are amplified by friendly institutions, eroding the firewall of secrecy and trust.
thursdaytimes.com
September 26, 2025 at 11:07 AM
thursdaytimes.com
Pakistan's military spokesperson, DG ISPR Ahmed Sharif, has recast militancy as cross-border terrorism, divorcing it from faith, and tying refugee returns to a tougher regional security line.

#pakistan #afghanistan #india
Pakistan’s new line on terror puts faith aside and pressures Kabul
Pakistan recasts militancy as cross-border terrorism, divorces it from faith, and ties refugee returns to a tougher regional security line.
thursdaytimes.com
September 19, 2025 at 6:10 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Anchored by the Hafiz effect, Pakistan has shown that deterrence with restraint, tighter borders, cleaner markets, and an economic push via the SIFC recast the state as reliable, ensuring routines, not miracles, move the country forward.

#pakistan #business #politics

Our editorial:
The Hafiz Effect
Anchored by the Hafiz effect, Pakistan has shown that deterrence with restraint, tighter borders, cleaner markets, and a geo-economic push via the SIFC have recast the state as reliable, ensuring that...
thursdaytimes.com
September 16, 2025 at 9:39 AM
thursdaytimes.com
Israel’s strike in Doha broke a presumed red line. Qatar called it a sovereignty breach. Pakistan answered with presence: Shehbaz Sharif stood in Doha a mere 48 hours later, pairing solidarity with Qatar’s mediation as hard infrastructure.

Our editorial.

#qatar #israel #pakistan
Hugs that draw borders
Israel's attack tried to shrink Qatar, and Pakistan answered with presence, not bluster, drawing a hard line for sovereignty. In Doha, mediation became infrastructure: solidarity turned from pose to p...
thursdaytimes.com
September 13, 2025 at 2:39 PM
thursdaytimes.com
Dubai's Princess Mahra has become engaged to rapper French Montana after a Paris Fashion Week proposal just one year after divorcing her first husband in a viral Instagram post.

#frenchmontana #dubai #rap
French Montana engaged to Dubai’s Princess Sheikha Mahra post-PFW proposal
Dubai Princess Mahra has become engaged to rapper French Montana after a Paris Fashion Week proposal just one year after divorcing her first husband in a viral Instagram post and the couple have since...
thursdaytimes.com
August 28, 2025 at 12:53 PM
thursdaytimes.com
امریکی محکمہ خارجہ نے بلوچ لبریشن آرمی (بی ایل اے) اور اُس کے ذیلی گروہ ’’مجید بریگیڈ‘‘ کو غیر ملکی دہشتگرد تنظیم (ایف ٹی او) قرار دے دیا۔ مجید بریگیڈ کو بی ایل اے کے پہلے سے موجود خصوصی عالمی دہشتگرد (ایس ڈی جی ٹی) درجہ میں بطور عرف شامل کر دیا گیا۔

#pakistan #balochistan
امریکی محکمہ خارجہ نے بلوچ لبریشن آرمی اور مجید بریگیڈ کو دہشتگرد تنظیم قرار دے دیا
امریکی محکمہ خارجہ نے بلوچ لبریشن آرمی (بی ایل اے) اور اُس کے ذیلی گروہ ’’مجید بریگیڈ‘‘ کو غیر ملکی دہشتگرد تنظیم (ایف ٹی او) قرار دے دیا۔ مجید بریگیڈ کو بی ایل اے کے پہلے سے موجود خصوصی عالمی دہشتگرد...
thursdaytimes.com
August 11, 2025 at 6:16 PM