Having spent eight years in prison for a crime they never committed, for this Pakistani Christian couple justice has finally was served, but after a long, grueling wait, and at a heavy cost
Southern Europe shows that mobilisation can reshape political agendas while leaving difficult economic questions unresolved. South Asia shows that a narrow grievance can become a challenge to the legitimacy of a governing system when trust has already been eroded. The real test of governance is whether institutions learn between storms—before the next generation concludes that the street is the only place where its voice can be heard.
At independence, Pakistan's economy was competitive with India's. Today India's is more than ten times larger, and Pakistan is on roughly its 25th IMF program. Investors rarely abandon a country simply because it is poor. They leave when they cannot tell who actually decides.
The young need not become another opposition. They could become an independent democratic force that questions every government but belongs to none; that protests when necessary but constructs continuously; that demands accountability from institutions while practising accountability itself.
To what extent has the current BNP government been able to realise the vision that drove the 2024 mass uprising in Bangladesh? Will the BNP government, too, manipulate state mechanisms and law enforcement agencies to serve its own interests, much like the previous Sheikh Hasina regime, to suppress the opposition and silence critics? The government must therefore take serious steps to amend police laws and prevent deaths in police custody. This is one of the crucial reforms facing the administration.
Having spent eight years in prison for a crime they never committed, for this Pakistani Christian couple justice has finally was served, but after a long, grueling wait, and at a heavy cost