BEDAARI

"I do not want to increase taxes, I just want taxes to be paid honestly". These words of Narendra Modi can be best utilized and are true depiction of the way forward of increasing Pakistan’s net tax. But first, let shed an ink on the importance of the tax collection system. Taxes raise the standard of living and foster economic growth in the country. Government brings taxes to the fore to provide a conducive environment for business activities in the country and spend this money on the welfare of the people including education, health, and employment. However, at current times, Pakistan is facing the brunt of a severe economic crisis, and the decreasing tax base is one of the reasons behind this grim situation.  The question is why Pakistan’s tax net is eminently low. Some reasons behind it are the weak enforcement mechanism of tax collection, illicit tobacco trade and weak monitoring on the minimum retail price of cigarettes, financially weak local urban government framework

The Adults of contemporary era are quintessential tough people, continuously trying to break the generational gap, handling mental discrepancies, abandoning socio-cultural taboos, and most importantly yearning for individuality. Everything we long for can’t be attained single handedly, and if someone gets some potential to achieve it, he must be hindered by the society he inhabits. I am nowhere dissociating family from the society and by family I mean our parents who did their best to brought us up as adults, but being a part of the society that has nothing except toxic ascendency make them adhere a lot of the characteristics that needed to be demolished way earlier when their first child was born. The sad part is we cannot get out of the cultural regime that cages our dreams without a will to demean ourselves in front of society and not coming up to its standards. By following the socio-cultural norms parents make the life of a child nothing less than a hell. They try to surpass every

In the words of Jean Jacques Rousseau, "Man is a noble savage who knew neither vice nor virtue; until property and law existed." In the evolutionary journey of humans, they confront various constant changes in societies. Unlike the twentieth century, the twenty-first century can be referred as a century of power elites of capitalist terrains. The world is witnessing a novel phase of settler colonialism. The USA, a couple of centuries ago, was a settler colony of European nations. They were brutally suppressed and marginalized by the colonial tactics of European feudal lords and tribal chieftains. Similarly, having referred to the central idea of Rousseau's state of nature, it can be inferred by analyzing today's brutalities of capitalism that depict that today's capitalism wants a dominant hegemony over others' lands to glorify its corporate dynamics. There are various examples present in the contemporary era. Israel and Argentina are top of the lists. I

Nakba day, observed on 15 May every year, commemorates the displacement of Palestinians when the Israeli state founded in the aftermath of World War II. It is the 73 rd anniversary of Nakba. If I just talk about one displaced Palestinian village “Lifta” though that is among several many places that faced the catastrophe then in 1948 caused by Israeli soldiers, who came to ethnically cleanse the village of Lifta during the Palestinian Nakba then it will take a huge amount of courage to discuss about it. There are 42 feet approximately 13 meter deep holes in every house roof. They bombed the houses in order to not let its inhabitants able to return to them. Studying history of Palestine, experiencing their struggle through literature and watching documented videos of fellow Palestinian brothers made me experience ethnic cleansing in a twisted way.1948 mirrors 2021. The ongoing ethnic cleansing of sheikh Jarrah triggers me.   The trauma of Palestinian Nakba has passed over the generati

“Don’t worry! Be Positive”  Thoughts, to "Be Positive" which are infused to us since our youth; overpower us as well as cripple us. It demands us to be positive all the time. Even when it isn't required and when it is vital for our psychological well-being to depict what our mind is going through. While in our daily life circumstances, we are approached to be good(positive) which not just negate our actual and authentic feelings and sentiments yet in addition make dissonance. It urges an individual to be quiet about the struggle which he/she is accomplishing for the survival. The individual who is suppressing his feelings to look cool and calm all the time, faces pressure and physiological issue which nobody knows. As anything done in overabundance, when positivity is utilized to conceal the human experiences, it gets toxic. By forbidding the presence of real emotions, we fall into a condition of refusal and subdued feelings. In all actuality, people are imperfect. We get

"Never judge a book by its cover” many of you would have heard this phrase at different stages of your life. What comes in your mind after hearing or reading this? Most probably we think after hearing it that we should not judge anyone by the way they look: physically, complexion wise,  by the number of hair he/she has on his/her head, height wise, or what else comes in the category of physical appearance right! But there is one   underlying protestation in this phrase.  Every feeling or each thing has a presupposition and entailment attached to it, so if someone says “never judge a book by its cover” then the presupposition is, there must be a book and someone owns it and most probably would judge it by the way it looks. We do judge people by the way they look that’s the underlying claim of this phrase and we need some effort to think entirely opposite of it by giving it a chance to present what it holds inside it and restrain ourselves to not give our judgements on the face of i

What has been Islam’s purpose? What teachings have our beloved Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) brought to us? Some common questions that we need to ask from ourselves all over again. The answer of the former is “Islam’s purpose is to show people light”. The later gives answer about what the last messenger of Allah brought for humanity. Yes! Without a sheer amount of difficulty we can answer that, HE (صلى الله عليه وسلم) brought humanity. The actions and statements of the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) of Islam point to strong humanitarian considerations. It wouldn’t be a tiring task for us to recall the incidents that the last messenger underwent from the lady who used to throw garbage on Him (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to what was the treatment he faced in Taif and the reaction of him was something that a normal human could never imagine if he would be in that condition, He (صلى الله عليه وسلم) forgave them, made prayers for them and took care of them. Islam that started fro

کیا اکیسویں صدی میں ہم صبر کا دامن ہاتھ سے چھوڑ چکے ہیں؟   انسان کی پہچان اس کے طرزِ زندگی سے ہوتی ہے۔ آپ کیسے بولتے ہیں، لوگوں سے کیسے پیش آتے ہیں،آپ کس قسم کے افراد کے حامی ہیں یہ سب آپ کا تعارف ہے۔ اور یہ سب آپ کی پہچان بناتا ہے۔ موجودہ دور میں پاکستان کو کچھ ایسے عناصر کا سامنا کرنا پڑ رہا ہے جن کا تعارف تشدد اور شدت پسندی سے ہوتا ہے۔ یہ لوگ اپنی اس ذہنی معذوری کو قابل فخر جانتے ہیں اور دوسروں پر بھی وہی نظریا مسلط کرنے کے حامی ہیں۔ اگر کسی طرح سے وہ اس میں ناکام ہو بھی جائیں تو بات مرنے مرانے پر آ ٹھہرتی ہے۔                    -کیا یہ رویا اچانک سے نمودار ہوا ہے؟   جی نہیں۔ انسانی ذہنوں کو ایک ساکن ڈھانچے میں گھڑنے کے لئے کئی دہائیاں درکار ہیں۔ یہ ذہنیت بیسویں صدی کی پیداوار ہے جہاں زرا زرا سی بات کو ایک انتہائی حساس عقیدے سے جوڑ کر لوگوں کے لئے نہایت ہی خطرناک نتائج نکالے گئے۔  جہاں آئین میں انتہا پسندی کو متعارف کروایا گیا۔ حب الوطنی کو فقط ایک عقیدے پر ایمان کا محتاج بنا دیا گیا۔ وہاں سے نفرتوں کا بیج بویا گیا۔ جس کا پھل آج ان سخت رویوں کی صورت مل رہا ہے۔ جسے کھا ب

Beginning with etymology of the word “rape”, t he term  rape  originates from the  Latin rapere (supine stem  raptum ), that means "to snatch, to grab, to carry off". Since the 14th century, the term has come to mean, "to seize and take away by force". Referring to rape as a sexual endeavor is equivalent of referring to murder as a recreational activity. By no means has the definition implied that rape occurs when the perpetrator is evoked by the victim’s dressing or what they have watched in their alone time because the same man who can control his sexual desires in a crowd or where they have no power to show their dominance over the one whom they find a desired person to rape then how do they lose control when they get an opportunity to     find the vulnerable alone. Rape is not a sexual fantasy. Rape is not a fetish. Rape is an act of violence. An act of destroying a person’s autonomy and invading their bodies completely. You all have heard saying men , justi

According to George Bernard Shaw, "Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance". Today we are living in information and digital bubbles that make us susceptible to anything disseminated by our chosen information, true or false. As we all know, SARS-Cov-2, pandemic has hit hard almost every sector of Pakistan. However, the main grim which is been faced by our society is that some pseudo people are adding fuel to fire by spreading fake news regarding COVID-19.  We all are listening to news on daily basis about 3rd wave and instructions to mitigate it that one should wear mask, should stay at home, all pentagenarian and hexagenerian plus people should visit prescribed centres for inoculation of vaccines and others. But in rural areas, fickle minded people seem that they have no fear of COVID, which is deeply settling, and also they are busy in misguiding others.  Common speculations which these people are spreading are: do not wear masks because it is seda

Recently I got a chance to watch a movie named “the imitation game” and was really thought provoking. The whole movie was based on the biography of Allan Turing a mathematician who became a cryptographer for Britain during the Second World War when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. The title of the film quotes the name of the game that Allan Turing purposed for answering the question in his 1950 seminal paper “computing machinery and intelligence” that “can machines think?” He in that movie tried to analyze the machine “Enigma” through which Nazis use to send coded messages. Humanly, it was nearly impossible to break the enigma codes to decode the messages if they would have tried for even 20 years to decode it. So between all of the chaos Allan Turing came to an idea of making a machine to analyze another machine. Machine vs machine and not machine vs humans. Consequently at the end, he and the team managed to decode the coded messages and lessened the duration of the war by

During pandemic, we all have been stressed out somehow due to different situations. Many lost jobs, some are away from homes, other are struggling to put their lives together. But in the end, everything works fine, because this is how Life works. LIFE , just four alphabets possessing the most complicated meaning. Every single individual has its own meaning of life based on how they survived or what they experiences. For me, life is a road with several difficulties.   On this road, one will meet up with numerous situations. Either stuck on a barren land, meeting up with speed breakers or it can be a long run. a run where one faces traffic signals too, telling you to stop and letting you wait until you reach the destination. However, there is always a way out. All the hurdles coming your away have an end too, which is decided already by the Divine. What important is to know that Life has two elements or perhaps principles: patience ( sabr ) and gratitude ( shukr ). Following the two

Survival of the fittest, a phrase that is nearly synonymous to the theory of evolution, but despite its common use people have a total    misunderstanding of what this phrase means. Let’s start from where people tend to go wrong. While it may be closely related to the theory of evolution, the phrase “survival of the fittest” was not actually coined by Charles Darwin. In reality, it was made popular by a man named Herbert Spencer, and he actually came with the term years before Darwin published his theory of evolution. As it turns out Spencer’s views were not exactly the most humanitarian. Spencer thought that the Darwin’s theory could also be applied to economic theory.   According to Spencer foundations of evolution lies in cooperating in the ecosystem and bio diversity we are living in and not in the competition and strength. The focus of niches and cooperation not even points out that how ecosystem and evolution work, but it also makes for a better model for how we as humans shoul

(BEDAARI welcomes writer's metrical composition) They say I am real You say I am a dream Who am I is still unclear? They say they can see me You say I am yet to be born Am I the key that can set myself free? They say what has been given to me is a gift You say it is a testament of my presence If what they say is true, then why thy self pushes me not to drift? They say lust and eminence is my nourishment You say it is a pit of frustration and desolation Is what they say a blessing or a punishment? They say I am rational and learned You say I am bound in the boundless Do I want to be the fooled who effortlessly yearned but never earned? Amina Saeed.

We have been told that we are independent, living in an independent state where the constituent units are autonomous and sovereign. We live in a country where there is an equity of rights between the minorities and majority; we live in a country where the state provides quality education to everyone living to grow. We live in a country where development and research is encouraged and it is the first one to play its part when the world faces a pandemic by making a vaccine. We live in a country that provides justice promptly to its citizens. We live in a country where there is no room for religious extremism and racism. However, there is so much to add in it because lies outpace the truth, and eventually we need to realize that what is reality and what should be your individual responsibility to fix it up. Today marks the day of resolution for Pakistan and a republic day. The day when the leaders passed a resolution to take out the majority of Muslims who were being treated as subordin

The social conundrum of speaking accurate kind of language is embedded in our minds that makes it harder for us to acquire it. We treat language that we need to acquire as a hard core thing that can only be mastered and not as a vehicle of conveying the information or knowledge. We have somewhere attached the power of identity with the language. The country in which we are living has given English language an official status, which means that at official level one must be a proficient speaker of English language. English has always been a language of the minority, “the elite” in Pakistan. From day one of their education this language is a part of their curriculum and   life and   they simply function by playing around this language, and on the contrary in the   government schools this language is being taught from the sixth standard through text books where grammar is being taught to them in an explicit manner and they are not much encouraged to produce competence in English language

Gender inequality in Pakistan has now become a back burner issue or one can say it has become harbinger of doom. Indeed, women in this country has been in eminently plight in almost every sector i.e. economic, social and religious owing to different deterrents diktat by our society. In fact, women are economically hinge on men, which compels them to compromise on their respect. Moreover, some of our anarchic custom believers has made women's life perilous by regarding them their servant. Furthermore, owing to some religious bigots' misguidance, men become violent towards women because these pseudo philosophers do not bear to see the rise of women in our circle. Hence, Gender inequality in Pakistan is a reality, which should be, addressed scrupulously by government and men in our community should develop a civic sense too. In Pakistan, condition of women is marred and it has been proved by the given data from certain international organizations. First, according to Gender Pari