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Asif Shahzad
For Asif Shahzad's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Officials count ballots at a polling station in Lahore, Pakistan, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 9, 2024
Pakistan vote counts drags on after election marred by attacks and outages
No results for its national parliament seats have been announced even 12 hours after polls closed.
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan during an interview at his residence in Lahore on May 18, 2023. His name may not be on the ballot, but Khan will be on the country's mind as Pakistan votes in an election on Feb. 8 that observers say is deeply flawed without his participation. The former international cricket star has been given three lengthy prison sentences in under a week and banned from politics for 10 years — officially excluding him from an election it never looked like he would allowed to contest.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024
Days before Pakistan vote, former leader Imran Khan campaigns from jail
Khan's campaign involves use of generative AI technology to create audio footage of him reading speeches conveyed to lawyers from his prison cell.
Police officers escort Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan (center) upon his arrival at the high court in Islamabad on May 12, 2023. Khan and his wife have been sentenced to 14 years' jail after being convicted of illegally selling gifts he received while he was premier.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2024
Pakistan's ex-PM Imran Khan gets another 14-year jail sentence
His conviction for illegally selling state gifts follows a separate charge of leaking state secrets, for which he was jailed 10 years a day earlier.
Afghan refugees arrive in a truck at a holding center as they prepare to depart for Afghanistan, in the town of Landi Kotal, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans living in Pakistan faced the threat of detention and deportation on the day, as a government deadline for them to leave sparked a mass exodus.
WORLD / Society
Nov 2, 2023
Pakistan rounds up undocumented foreigners, mostly Afghans, early
The interior ministry said 140,322 people had already voluntarily left after days in which trucks full of people have jammed roads out of the country.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 6, 2023
Repeated arrests and filthy cells: Inside Pakistan's crackdown
All the leaders who have been set free have publicly distanced themselves from Imran Khan, denounced the protests and praised the military.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 3, 2022
Ousted Pakistan PM Imran Khan shot in shin in what aides call assassination attempt
Khan was six days into a protest procession bound for Islamabad, standing and waving to thousands of cheering supporters from the roof of a container truck, when the shots rang out.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 31, 2022
Alarmed by suicide attack, China and Pakistan join hands in probe
A female suicide bomber targeted nationals from Pakistan's most important partner, seeking to undermine a relationship on which Islamabad's financial survival largely depends.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 7, 2022
Pakistan tries to avert lake overflow as U.N. warns of more misery
Flooding, brought by record monsoon rainfall and glacier melt in the north, has impacted 33 million people and killed at least 1,325, including 466 children.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 2, 2022
South Pakistan braces for yet more flooding as waters flow down from north
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains have triggered floods that have killed at least 1,208 people, including 416 children.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 24, 2021
China, Pakistan and India jockey for position in Afghanistan's new 'Great Game'
When the Taliban captured Kabul last week, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said Afghans had broken the 'shackles of slavery.'
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 15, 2021
India and Pakistan held secret talks in bid to break Kashmir impasse, sources say
Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan, both of which claim all of the region but rule only in part.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 3, 2019
Monstrous rumors stoke hostility to Pakistan's anti-polio drive
His bearded face was half-covered by a shawl, but Hameedullah Khan's fear and ignorance was on full display as he delivered a chilling message for anyone who tries to vaccinate his children against polio. "I will stab anyone who comes to my house with polio drops," Khan growled, refusing to be filmed or photographed as he shopped in a fly-blown bazaar on the outskirts of Peshawar, a city scarred by years on the front line of Islamist militancy in Pakistan.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on