• January 12, 2016
• Arts and Entertainment

KARACHI: Pakistan continues to be haunted by the constant overt, sometimes insidious, persecution of its minority communities. At times, the violence is condemned, other times it is celebrated. Historian Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar has embarked on a journey to understand the extraordinary violence unleashed against the minorities in both India and Pakistan. “Why is there so […]

• January 7, 2016
• Arts and Entertainment

KARACHI: The snowcapped peak of K2, the world’s second highest mountain and also known as the Father of All Mountains, has claimed the lives of many mountaineers while bringing glory to some but hardly ever have the indigenous porters of Gilgit-Baltistan who form the nucleus of all mountaineering expeditions been recognised. The film K2 and […]

• January 2, 2016
• Print Media

KARACHI: The major failure of the communist movement in Pakistan was that Marxism was taken as an engineering manual by communist parties. Marxism is a science. It should be applied creatively to society, which was not done. This was the point raised by Director of Pakistan Study Centre, the University of Karachi, Dr Syed Jaffer […]

• December 11, 2015
• General News

KARACHI: “A poster, a simple, arresting image combined by a powerful piece of text, can be a force for change,” believes Poster For Tomorrow, a community of artists who came together in 2009 to make visual displays, in specific posters, a primary medium of activism. In 2015 a basic human right was once again selected […]

• November 16, 2015
• Arts and Entertainment

KARACHI: A group of 16 students from Habib University’s communication and design department explored the city to highlight its untold stories from a student’s perspective. Divided into pairs, the eight groups showcased their five-week long project at The Second Floor on Friday in a two-day exhibition titled ‘Encounters With The City’. Searching for the Karachi […]

• November 14, 2015
• Arts and Entertainment

KARACHI: Film and poetry buffs were treated to a selection of fine short films from the critically acclaimed ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival screened at T2F on Friday evening. The event was part of the ongoing poetry project initiated by the Goethe Institut. Introducing the films to the audience, Goethe Institut Director Stefan Winkler said the […]

• October 12, 2015
• Arts and Entertainment

Karachi: Following its reopening three months ago, The Second Floor (T2F) hosted the re-launch of its famous ‘Faraar Gallery’ which was coined by the late social activist, Sabeen Mahmud. Held on a breezy Sunday evening, the gallery and pop up cafe saw quite a number of people coming in as they browsed through various art […]

• June 13, 2015
• Freedom of Expression, Front Page

KARACHI: The Concerned Citizens for Peace (CCP) is holding a public gathering today (Saturday) at The Arts Council, Karachi, from 6pm to 9pm to commemorate the late Sabeen Mahmud, founder of PeaceNiche and T2F (The Second Floor), and to pay tribute to the other fallen heroes – journalists, workers, and activists – who have been […]

• May 6, 2015
• General News

KARACHI: When people remember Sabeen Mahmud, the first memory they recall is how she made everyone laugh. “She had a sense of who people are and how they will react to the things she will say,” said Jehan Ara, the president of software house P@SHA. Jehan Ara admired that Sabeen could deal with all kinds […]

• May 1, 2015
• General News

KARACHI: The protesters demanding justice for the attack on activist Sabeen Mahmud gathered outside Karachi Press Club on Thursday. The demand was the same: fix responsibility for Sabeen Mahmud’s murder. The demonstrators wanted the government and the armed forces to disclose the details of the inquiry report. “The acting president had given the Sindh government […]

• April 30, 2015
• General News

KARACHI: Sabeen Mah­mud, rights activist and founder of social forum The Second Floor, might have been targeted by religious extremists, said a senior police official on Wednesday. “A strong possibility is that Sabeen was targeted by a banned militant outfit,” said DIG-South Dr Jamil Ahmed while addressing a press conference at his office. In reply […]

• April 27, 2015
• Freedom of Expression, Front Page

KARACHI: Sabeen Mahmud, the respected human rights and free speech activist was killed by unidentified gunmen on Friday, April 24 in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. Mahmud, who was founding director of T2F community centre, was shot around 9pm as she was on her way to home with her mother after hosting an event ‘Unsilencing Balochistan” […]

• April 25, 2015
• Freedom of Expression, Front Page

KARACHI: Sabeen Mahmud, social media campaigner and human rights activist who founded the social forum T2F, was shot dead on Friday evening, minutes after the end of an interactive discussion ‘Unsilen­cing Balochistan’ organised by her and attended by journalists and rights activists, including the founder leader of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Abdul Qadeer […]

• April 25, 2015
• General News

KARACHI: With the latest cybercrime bill passed by a National Assembly committee, freedom of expression has once again come under threat adding onto the gag on reporting and talking on certain issues within the borders of Pakistan. One such issue is the struggle for an independent Balochistan that has been ongoing over decades and seen […]