The 18th Constitutional Amendment is once again in the spotlight.

It has been claimed on the one hand that the provinces have failed to transfer benefits of more resources and autonomy to their masses and the federal government should therefore take charge. Many of the proponents of this view have apparently not read the 18th Amendment. The amendment is misconstrued as a change in a single article of the constitution that could be undone through routine voting in the parliament.

In fact, the 18th Constitutional Amendment actually amended 102 out of the 280 articles of the constitution

UNLESS extended again, the first-ever digital census of Pakistan will be concluding at the end of the month, with the results expected soon after. The census has been a chronic source of controversy in Pakistan, at least for the last three decades.

The census of 1991 was not carried out and that of 2011 was aborted at the stage of house counting. On both occasions, the data deviated from the previous trend by a wide margin and was deemed unrealistic.

Pakistan Resolution Day was celebrated with the traditional thunder of canons. The day is a reminder of a promised destination that has been turned into a moving mirage by the oligarchy of the country. Amid an elongated hegemonic colonial subjugation, Muslims of the subcontinent scrambled to carve a separate homeland to secure their political, economic and cultural rights.

The Lahore Resolution envisaged autonomous states in which the constituent units were purported to be autonomous and sovereign. The promise prodded political leadership in Sindh to adopt a seminal resolution in March 1943 demanding a separate country for Muslims of the subcontinent. The struggle came to fruition in 1947 and the country came into existence.

A recently released document "Freedom in the World-2016" released by the Freedom House depicts a grim picture of human freedom in a turbulent world. Epilogue of the report narrates a depressing reality "the world in 2015 was battered by overlapping crises that contributed to the 10^th consecutive year of decline in global freedom".

This steady fall of human freedom is a least debated tragedy of the so-called modern and civilised world. Relishing material gains for a small proportion, the world often glosses over the shackled minds and muffled voices of the hapless billions strewn over a larger part of the globe. How lack of human freedom distorts societies and impedes their overall productivity is a proven reality and an undeniable fact. 

After having delayed the matter for eight years, the government has announced to conduct the sixth national census in March. The decision was taken in a meeting of the Council of Common Interests chaired by the prime minister himself and attended by the chief ministers of the four provinces in March 2015.

Census is normally considered a decennial activity that has been frequently postponed under one or other pretext. After the 1981 census, the subsequent census was conducted in 1998 i.e. delayed by seven years. Similarly, the census scheduled in March is already overdue by eight years.

Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Asif Zardari’s diatribe against security establishment has ruffled the political landscape of Sindh. In stark contrast to his usual mellow demeanour, Zardari’s verbal whipping has created ripples in the national politics.

Although the retreat was not too late, many consider it too little. His party stalwarts painstakingly retrofitted his speech by summoning every bit of creativity; but their vacillating explanations could hardly mollify the enraged establishment.

Most, if not all, wars are fought over or have some link with natural resources. All other ostensible reasons and excuses are mere fig leaf. The trait does not characterise only prehistoric eras but dominates the course of history of modern states.

According to a study by the Canadian government, between 1937 and 1996, some $15 billion worth of diamonds were exported and sold from Sierra Leone. Yet the people of Sierra Leone live on about 30 cents a day.

The situation is not very different in Pakistan where more than 180 million people are blessed with unexplored wealth of natural resources. 

The quota system has remained a contentious issue and a politically divisive factor in Sindh. Leadership of the Urdu-speaking community has been debunking it as discriminatory whereas Sindhis consider it as an affirmative action plausibly in line with principles of fairness.

Allocating special quota in education and job opportunities for any disadvantaged groups is not an alien concept. Reverse discrimination against dominant groups in favour of marginalised groups is a well-recognised approach adopted to redress social imbalance for the sake of socio-political stability. Quota system is in vogue in many countries in various forms.

December dusts searing past to remind a reality that was preposterously denied for a quarter century and was recognized only after leaving an indelible trail of blood. While creation of Bangladesh entails a petrifying human catastrophe and an everlasting reference to state-perpetrated fratricide, it also trivialised a waffle narrative of Islamic-nationhood.

The episode reiterated that a multi-nation federation can only exist with socio-political justice, absence of which derides all ideological conjectures. Creation of Bangladesh reinforced the fact that Pakistan was not a creation of any Islamic .