Daud Khattak is a senior international correspondent covering the Near East in RFE/RL’s Central Newsroom. He was previously the managing editor of RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.
Pakistan's leaders have championed a Turkish television drama that has triggered debate in the Muslim-majority country.
The Pakistani government, backed by the powerful military, is seeking to roll back a decade-old constitutional amendment that made it harder for the military to seize power.
The coronavirus pandemic is the latest obstacle in efforts to eradicate the crippling polio disease in Pakistan.
With half of Pakistan under a very unpopular lockdown, many are reluctant to obey the official orders that limit physical and social contacts and restrict mobility. There are concerns that the continued closure of businesses and places of worship could result in a sharp backlash in the religiously conservative and economically weak country.
With Pakistan under an unpopular lockdown aimed at fighting the coronavirus pandemic raging around the world, a large portion of the country's devout and poverty-stricken people are resisting limits on physical and social contacts and their mobility.
A spate of recent attacks and harassment appear to target high-profile Pakistani journalists and bloggers living in self-imposed exile in Europe.
Journalist Marvi Sirmed, a leading Pakistani rights campaigner, says extremists, fanatics, and mobsters cannot stop their peaceful protests.
A Pakistani university prompted outrage when it banned female students from wearing lipstick on campus.
Since Pakistan's Ahmadi minority sect refuse to declare themselves non-Muslims, they have been stuck in legal limbo, leaving them without fundamental human rights such as access to education and the right to vote.
There has been an outcry in Pakistan after a lawyers' association demanded its members declare their faith.
Up to 3,000 journalists have been laid off in Pakistan over the last year. With the country's traditional media industry in crisis, some unemployed journalists have started up their own digital outlets while others have left the business altogether.
Fake markers are an obstacle in efforts to eradicate the crippling polio disease in Pakistan.
As Pakistan investigates the alleged sex-trafficking of women to China under the guise of marriages, alleged victims are pleading for help from family and supporters back home.
Rimsha, a Pakistani Christian woman, moved to China with a man she met through a marriage agency. Within months, she was sending desperate messages home, saying her husband was forcing her into prostitution. Dozens of Pakistani women have suffered similar fates after being lured into sham marriages.
Three Pakistani TV news channels were abruptly taken off the air, the latest in a series of moves by authorities against the free press in Pakistan.
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