By Syed Shamsuddin The following exposition seeks to draw urgent national attention to the growing sense of deprivation, exclusion, and institutional inequity increasingly experienced by the educated youth of Gilgit-Baltistan as a consequence of the flawed restructuring of the federal quota regime introduced in 2020 — a policy alteration whose discriminatory repercussions are now manifesting with alarming clarity in the allocation pattern of Pakistan’s Civil Services. The quota system in Pakistan’s Civil Services has never been a mere bureaucratic mechanism for numerical distribution of vacancies; rather, it constitutes an essential constitutional instrument designed to preserve the principles of inclusive federation, balanced representation, and participatory governance among historically underrepresented regions of the country. The philosophical foundation of the quota framework was to compensate for structural disparities and to en...
By Syed Shamsuddin This humble elegy is offered in loving remembrance of my late father, who, after a brief illness, returned to his eternal abode on the blessed night of the 27th of Ramzan in 1994. A Father Remembered on a Blessed Night Among the sacred nights of the holy month of Ramadan, the twenty-seventh holds a place of profound reverence in the hearts of Muslims across the world. It is widely associated with Laylat al-Qadr—the Night of Power , one of the most blessed and mysterious moments of the holy month. On this night, believers turn to the Almighty with softened hearts, seeking forgiveness, mercy, and spiritual renewal. Mosques and homes resonate with prayer and recitation as countless hands rise in humble supplication. In authentic traditions, the Prophet Muhammad ï·º advised the faithful to seek Laylat al-Qadr during the odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan, for within those nights lies a moment whose blessings...