She could be any doting parent's teen princess, except 16-year-old Zahra is hooked on to a variety of drugs, and is sexually active, making her much sought after by the boys in her class. Rearranging her school kameez to show me the butterfly tattooed on her back, she asks, "It's pretty, isn't it?" ............detail

Visitors to the Gul Khana Palace in Kabul, where President Hamid Karzai has his office, have to pass through three security cordons manned by members of the newly organised Afghan army as well as US soldiers. The president's office, surrounded by heavily armed American guards, is situated in a recently renovated part of the once grand structure . ..........detail

If the past is a point of reference, Javed Hashmi is an unlikely champion of democratic values. The acting president of Pakistan Muslim League (N) and head of the country's largest opposition alliance, the ARD, Hashmi got some of his political career's biggest boosts during the reign of Zia-ul-Haq. The long-ruling dictator brought him to the frontline of politics. ......detail

When police raided the office of the banned militant group fighting in Indian-administered Kashmir, Jaish-e-Mohammad, inside the huge mosque Masjid-e-Batah in North Nazimabad, Karachi, Mohammad Ilyas and his friends - activists of Jaish-e-Mohammad - were counting the money they had collected for donations in the name of jihad......detail

In one square mile of space in the heart of greater Lahore nestles a microcosm of history - and of the human condition. Here the past is chronicled in endless labyrinthine lanes, lodged in each brick of an awesome architectural heritage, and springs to life in the daily son et lumiere that makes up existence within its confines......detail

Boys don't play with barbies - let alone dress them. But designer Kamiar Rokni's axioms, beliefs, personal tenets - in essence the elements that define Karma style - centre around the flamboyance of the Karma woman..."confident, beautiful, poised, and unafraid of decadent adventure"... the quintessential sex and the city doll........detail