It is 2025 and Pakistan is still grappling with issues that have afflicted it for decades. It is as if there is no chance of things moving forward. Let us just look at three news items that have made headlines in recent days.

On January 21, it was reported that the University of Karachi issued a notification last week regarding students’ attires. Students are required to wear clean and modest clothing; it specifically prohibits attire that is considered “provocative, offensive, or distracting”. This includes revealing or see-through clothing, shorts, sleeveless or tight-fitting garments, and clothing featuring objectionable language or graphics. This is not really the first time that a local university has issued such guidelines when it comes to clothes and it may not be the last either. It is quite common for educational institutions as well as our society to take on the role of moral police, especially when it comes to women’s clothing. What a woman wears and how she wears it are her own choices and no one has the right to impose his or her choices upon others. And when universities — where students learn critical thinking, where they should be taught how to step into practical life and many other skills — start imposing such ‘rules’ in the garb of discipline, it just shows how backward and repressive our society is. If educational institutions do not respect your freedoms, then what can one say about anything else.

The second news story is related to something that has been going on since July last year. It says that a clearance operation has been launched by the law enforcement agencies along with the civil administration to rid the Kurram district of miscreants after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government greenlighted “indiscriminate and stringent action” against those involved in attacks on relief convoys and the deputy commissioner. The violent clashes in Kurram killed more than 130 people and injured over 180 last year. Finally, a peace agreement was signed on January 1. But as an editorial in The News puts it, the restive Kurram is “a region long plagued by violence, sectarian strife and neglect, teeters on the edge once again” and “the recent agreement is akin to a tinderbox — ready to ignite at the slightest provocation”. There is a decades-old land dispute between two rival groups in Kurram but it also has sectarian undercurrents due to the Shia-Sunni divide between these factions. When the land dispute led to violence last year, many experts warned the provincial government to get it sorted before the sectarian undercurrents could be felt across the country. Unfortunately, the KP government did not pay much attention to this sensitive issue, which escalated and led to many deaths. Ultimately, the government came into action and got the peace agreement signed. However, a humanitarian crisis had been brewing due to the violence and the shortage of medical and food supplies, among other things, led to more deaths. Now the people are hopeful that action will be taken against those who are trying to disrupt peace. This issue needs to be resolved for good because decades of bloodshed have only made the lives of the people of Kurram miserable.

The third news story is about talks between the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the government. The PTI founder and chairman, Imran Khan, has given a seven-day ultimatum to the federal government to form a judicial commission to probe the May 9, 2023 and the November 26, 2024 events before the ongoing dialogue process can continue. Talks between the two sides officially started in December last year and, so far, three rounds of talks have been conducted. The PTI has given its charter of demands in writing. Political observers welcomed the initiation of talks between political parties but have also cautioned against ultimatums or deadlines as these things take some time. It was the PTI that kept insisting on not talking to the government as it only wanted to talk to the all-powerful Establishment. But better sense prevailed after ages and talks started. Now that talks are on, such a deadline puts the entire process at risk. Let us see whether we is a continuation of these talks or a return to square one when it comes to political stand-offs.

Mehmal Sarfraz is a journalist based in Lahore; mehmal.s@gmail.com