Political Analysis and Global Affairs

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My Bank’s App Said “EMI Already Paid.” Then I Was Charged for Paying Late.

After 23 successful instalments, my final Bank Alfalah loan payment became a dispute when the Alfa app showed “EMI Already Paid,” but the bank later treated the instalment as overdue and imposed Rs 1,725 in charges. By early September, I thought my Bank Alfalah personal loan was almost finished. I had paid 23 of 24 instalments. For months, the repayment pattern had been familiar. Bank Alfalah would send an SMS before the due date telling me to keep enough money in my account for auto-debit. The instalment would then be collected. The final instalment did not follow that pattern. When I later tried to deal with it through the Alfa app, the screen displayed a simple message: “EMI Already Paid.” Then another Bank Alfalah system told me something very different. My loan was overdue. A late-payment charge followed. What began as a dispute over Rs 1,725 has left me with a larger question about digital banking in Pakistan: when a bank’s automated systems give a customer conflicting inf...

Europe Delayed Parenthood. Can IVF Really Beat Biology?

Europe has expanded access to reproductive technology as parenthood moves later, but IVF cannot erase the biological limits of age or the inequalities created by cost and public policy. They arrive at fertility clinics carrying something medicine cannot manufacture: time already spent. Sometimes it was spent building a career. Sometimes housing never felt secure enough for a child. A relationship came late, or infertility was discovered only after months of trying. By the time a couple reaches an IVF clinic at 39 or 41, the story may already contain years that no laboratory can return. I used to look at IVF mainly as a medical breakthrough. The more I read about its growth across Europe, the more I saw another story underneath it. Europe has become extraordinarily good at helping people reproduce after fertility becomes difficult. It has been much less successful at asking why parenthood is happening later in the first place. IVF Is Growing, But It Is Not Yet the “New Normal” Inf...

Flydubai Flights to Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar Are Reappearing. Check the Date Before You Book

Flydubai flights to Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar are reappearing in late-October booking searches, but Pakistani travellers should verify their exact date before making firm travel plans. A traveller in Lahore opens the flydubai website in September and searches for a flight to Dubai near the end of October. Flights begin appearing again. The screen looks reassuring. Flydubai stopped serving Lahore months ago, so seeing late-October inventory creates an obvious impression: the suspension is ending and the airline is coming back. I would still check the exact date before paying. Flydubai suspended flights to Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar earlier this year. In May, the airline's Pakistan flight inquiry told Dawn that operations to the three cities would remain suspended until 26 October 2026 because of "operational reasons." Karachi flights continued. Now something interesting is happening. Flydubai's current fare pages are showing Islamabad and Lahore itineraries...

Unauthorized Card Transaction in Pakistan? Do This Before the Bank Closes Your Complaint

A practical guide for Pakistani cardholders on reporting fraud, preserving evidence, and escalating a dispute when the bank does not give a satisfactory answer What should a Pakistani cardholder do after an unauthorized transaction? Secure the card, lodge a formal dispute, preserve evidence, obtain a written decision, and escalate through the proper complaint channel when necessary. The Fraud Alert Is Only the Beginning I saw the international transaction on my card account and knew I had not made it. My first reaction was simple: contact the bank and stop whatever was happening. Complaints were opened. Later, they were closed. The merchant eventually refunded my money, but the episode changed the way I think about card fraud. A customer can easily mistake a complaint number for a proper transaction dispute. They are not the same thing. Reporting fraud tells the bank that something has gone wrong. A card dispute asks a harder question: was the transaction authorised, and who...

Pakistan’s New Bank Data System Is Really About Algorithmic Tax Surveillance

Pakistan’s Section 165AB introduces algorithmic cross-matching of high-value banking data with tax records, shifting tax enforcement toward automated financial scrutiny. A businessman in Karachi can move Rs150 million through his bank account without being Rs150 million richer. I see this distinction clearly because I work around banking transactions. Money moves for reasons that have little to do with personal wealth. A distributor may collect large sales proceeds and then send most of that money back to manufacturers. An importer may move even larger sums simply because the goods he buys are expensive. Pakistan's tax system is now preparing to look at such flows differently. Under Section 165AB of the Income Tax Ordinance, banks and Electronic Money Institutions must electronically report prescribed information when deposits or withdrawals exceed Rs100 million during a six-month reporting period. The Rs100 million figure is not a minimum account balance. It concerns transaction...

MQM Had the Power Jamaat Never Had. Why Did It Still Fail the Muhajirs?

The shift from Mohajir to Muttahida promised a national future. MQM expanded its mission before securing the institutional gains its original voters expected. MQM rose by promising Muhajirs direct political representation. After decades of electoral dominance and coalition power, many of the institutional grievances that created the movement remained unresolved. In Karachi, political history used to be visible on the walls. Jamaat-e-Islami posters stood beside JUP slogans, then another political vocabulary appeared in the neighbourhoods where Urdu-speaking families lived. I watched the argument change from religion and Pakistan to quotas, jobs and representation. By the 1980s, MQM had turned that shift into a political movement. Its message was sharper than the one Jamaat and JUP had offered: if Muhajirs wanted their grievances addressed, they needed organised political power of their own. Karachi listened. Within a few years, MQM had turned urban Sindh into one of Pakistan's mos...