Saba Chaudhry

n the last several months, Pakistan has gone full throttle on its fight against migrant smuggling. Just this Sept. 27, its Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) released its 13th Red Book on the country’s most wanted human smugglers and traffickers and confirmed that red notices have already been issued for suspects believed to be overseas.
Weeks earlier, FIA had also announced that aside from its current link offices in Greece, Oman, and Iran, it will soon have more in Spain, Italy, and the Uni...

KEY POINTS
Punjab faces its worst floods in nearly four decades.
Over 5.1 million people affected, 1.9 million evacuated.
More than 1.05 million acres of farmland submerged.
Farmers struggle as crops, homes, and livelihoods are destroyed.
Pakistan needs $348 billion for climate adaptation by 2030.
The country receives only $1.5–2 billion in annual climate funds.
Pakistan secured $250 million from GCF, far less than its neighbours.
Most post-2022 flood aid arrived as high-interest loans.
Recov...

On September 8, 2025, anti-corruption protests erupted across Nepal, primarily led by young people calling for accountability from politicians. The Gen Z protests about inequality, economic challenges, and government scandals started peacefully, but within hours security forces used force, leading to the deaths of scores of protestors.
In just two days, the large-scale demonstrations resulted in the fall of the Nepali government, but the cost was high. With more than 70 dead, the outbreak of ...

Many challenges hinder the representation of minorities in the elected bodies,” says Samar Naz, a 40-year-old civil rights activist, from Narowal. He has been advocating for greater participation and representation of minorities for several years.

“The biggest problem in Narowal for the Christians community is that despite having a significant vote bank, they are not represented by a Christian MPA. There is no representation of the Christian community from Narowal in the National Assembly or ...

Pakistan’s agriculture faces threats of 30–40 per cent crop yield losses.

Experts warn drought and reduced river flow are already impacting irrigation, groundwater recharge, and food security.

Indigenous peoples make up 6.2 per cent of the world population, represent 5,000 different cultures and have 4,000 surviving indigenous languages.
Despite facing various problems and challenges, their voices are often missing from mainstream media. Journalists and outlets ignore or misrepresent their voices in stereotypical or discriminatory ways. This is also seen in movies, where Indigenous communities are often shown negatively. or are portrayed as weak. This marginalisation can dismiss th...

Solar technology could be a game-changer, helping farmers cut fuel costs and secure a more stable water supply; but the path to solar irrigation remains inaccessible for many

Nadeem, 27, a small-scale farmer from South Punjab, never imagined that farming – the only profession he has ever known – would one day feel near impossible.

But with water levels sinking and fuel prices soaring, keeping crops alive has become a battle against costs he cannot control, and a system that offers little supp...

After Rain Come Mosquitoes | Dengue, Chickungunya Cases Soar #Pakistan #health #environment

J
ournalist Bilal Habib still covers crime and does investigative reports in rural Punjab in eastern Pakistan, but he says he is far more careful these days once he starts writing. And while he used to be very active in social media, he says that he no longer shares online what he has found out or wrote about.
“When such kinds of laws in the name of fake news are introduced,” Habib says, “they are more harmful for people doing journalism and political activism in rural areas rather than major...

he strange weather was making Haleema worried and tense, but she continued nonetheless to work on the fields in southern Punjab, tending to her crops of wheat. This was in 2022 — and for all her toil, Haleema would end up with no harvest. In August that year, Pakistan came under extreme volumes of monsoon rain that caused sections of the country to remain under water for months. Thousands of people were killed, millions more displaced, and hectares upon hectares of crops were destroyed, inclu...

2024 is a tense election year for many of the biggest democratic countries around the globe, with democracy itself at stake. Billions of people will exercise their right to vote, however, this time the fate of democracy in many countries is not only in the hands of voters but also in the hands of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI generated images, videos, and audio files are dominating online political campaigns. The evolving technology possesses the potential to skew political discourse and t...

In July, an FIR was registered at the City Police Station in Narowal, in which a woman alleged that when she went to the NADRA office in the city to get an identity card, two officials making an excuse, sent her outside the office and subjected her twenty years old daughter to sexual assault.
In her complaint, the woman had requested the police to take legal action against the perpetrators of this crime and ensure justice. However, after two months, she withdrew her complaint. Some local indi...

By Saba Chaudhary
Biased media, disinformation and fake news fueled hate and ethnic clashes between Hindu Meitie and Christian Kuki in a remote area of India. Manipur, a state in northeast India with a population of about three million, has been the scene of ethnic violence and clashes for years due to issues over land rights and job quotas. However, in May, violence escalated, wreaking havoc when a court ruledthe state government should consider granting scheduled tribal status to the majori...

ournalist Naeem Ahmed lodged a request for information under the Right To Information law with the Faisalabad police on July 22, seeking data on armed encounters with criminals and subsequent judicial inquiries. Instead of providing the requested information, the police summoned him. Following intervention by Mehboob Shah Qadir of the Punjab Information Commission the police later retracted the summons and issued an apology. Journalists, not to talk of ordinary citizens, still struggle to exe...