Year-end special: A look back at 2014

Follow this space as we review the highs and lows in the world of politics, sports, business and entertainment.

2014 has been a year of records for Pakistan.

From a four-month long Azadi march in the capital to record-breaking scores on the cricket pitch; from an escalation of violations on the Line of Control to the alarming record-breaking cases of polio; from sky-high box-office numbers to Bollywood debuts; from trending political slogans to countless political gaffes, this year has been an eventful one.

One event, however, overshadowed the entire year. On June 15, the government announced to launch a military operation in North Waziristan Agency, named Zarb-e-Azb, against militants. As war casualties on both sides were recorded, and IDPs trickled into safer parts of the country and reports of fleeing militants and reprisal attacks made headlines, no one anticipated what occurred on the second half of the year’s last month.

On December 16, a dastardly attack by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan on an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 150 people, mostly school-going children, left the entire world shocked and Pakistan in mourning for what was easily its darkest hour.

High-level huddles of top political and military leaders have since decided to lift the moratorium on death penalties in high-level cases, establish military courts for speedy trials, and have denounced any distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban.

Six convicts have already been executed, as condemnations pour in from human rights activists, the EU and UN, among others, while the premier has hinted at the possibility of “another Zarb-e-Azb”.

This has been 2014.

Follow this space as we review the highs and lows, hits and misses in the world of politics, sports, business and entertainment.



The Express Tribune wishes its readers a Happy New Year.

Here is a message of a new beginning with a little help from our friends...

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Special thanks to Fazal Khaliq, Rameez Khan and Emmad Hameed.




With each passing year, Pakistan brings countless surprises, and revelations which not only impact upcoming trends but cause a stir to questioning the sanity and logic of people within the entertainment industry.





The revelatory, heart-breaking, funny, and sometimes downright bizarre things that people have said this year.





With each passing year, Pakistan brings countless surprises, and revelations which not only impact upcoming trends but cause a stir to questioning the sanity and logic of people within the entertainment industry.





Today, as in 2011, the only constant is uncertainty. And if one does pick out certain trends to try and make sense of out an uncertain 2014, then it must be the uncertainty itself and ephemeral nature of political geography, those lines that look so thick and certain on maps, but only have a tenuous existence on earth. Or alternatively, the lines in the sand where none exist on paper.

Here, in no particular order, are the maps that shaped 2014.





In 2014, Pakistan bore some of the heaviest blows from terrorism. The country reeled from shock after shock and suffered from the chronic politicisation of the judiciary and its lawmakers’ negligence. No time was spared on formulating a solid foreign policy. In the wake of compounding regional challenges, the county did not have any better luck with domestic issues either as health, education and security remained in continuous jeopardy.

Read the story here.





It seems strange how one can reminisce over events that never happened. After all, how can one be affected by a non-event? But history is rarely linear enough to be defined by cause and effect. Various examples — the Y2K scare, aliens and flying cars — show that our collective imagination is captured by the impossible and the bizarre or the sublime and the horrific. The year 2014 was packed with such events.

Read the story here.





2014 was a marquee year for the Pakistani entertainment industry. Not only did we see Pakistani filmmakers venture into newer territories with Tamanna, Operation 021 and Dukhtar but the commercial success of movies like Na Maloom Afraad reaffirmed the fact that Pakistani cinema was headed in the right direction. The year was equally impressive on the Pakistani music as well as it marked the emergence of several promising musicians such as Jimmy Khan & The Big Ears, Asrar and Naseer & Shahab.

Read the story here.





The Experss Tribune takes a look back at all the highs and the lows that 2014 brought to Karachi.





Now that he has finally recognised the Taliban for what they are, one expects him to go public against them.





The outgoing year marked a departure from four long years of judicial activism under former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, with two of his successors adopting a policy of judicial restraint, with an enhanced focus on deciding the chronic backlog of low-profile cases – a policy widely supported by the legal fraternity.





The December 16 bloody rampage by Taliban gunmen at the Army Public School and College Peshawar that killed 150 people brought all parliamentary parties on the same page on how to fight the menace of terrorism.





Most memora­ble moment­s of 2014 in sports hand-picked by The Expres­s Tribun­e.





Though its tenure may have started out on a promising note, the year 2014 has hardly ended well for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government. It is unlikely for the ruling party to have foreseen the accelerated war against terrorism, Operation Zarb-e-Azb, or even the anti-government protests when it began framing its roadmap for 2014. Both have proven to be huge challenges.





The year 2014 was as eventful in cyberspace as it was off it. While Twitter played a key role in shaping events and conversations in a majority of the cases, here are some of the tweets that made their writers wish they had put a little more thought into the 140 characters.

Read the story here.





The year 2014 may not have been a wonderful orbit around the Sun for the world in general, but as far as films were concerned, the year certainly had its fair share of impressive projects. The good ones took us on thrilling journeys to mysterious places, helping us discover more about ourselves and the world we live in. The best ones connected with us on an emotional level while exciting us with their ideas and visuals. So as the year draws to a close, we take a (subjective) look at some of its most distinctive and exhilarating cinematic offerings. Here are five of the finest films that 2014 had to offer.





Perhaps the most challenging list to compile at the end of a year is one that lists the ‘best’ books published within that year. Since not every book published within a year can be read by one person alone, objectivity is naturally impossible. So, all of these compilations are uniquely biased, highlighting the reading preferences of the compiler. But even within the bias there is benefit for readers who may have missed some of the most interesting books in the claptrap that is book marketing these days.

Read the story here.





Stylistic scripts, big-budget production value and cinematography that pushes the envelope have placed TV in an enviable position this year, where it commands just as much respect as films. It has not only bitten out of the film distributors and cineplex’s market share but has even managed to reinvent the distribution model altogether. Here are five of my favourite TV shows that have been a great source of entertainment throughout 2014.





As 2014 comes to an end, The Express Tribune is running two polls for its readers to choose a sporting moment that they found the most memorable.

For the Pakistan sporting events poll, click on the banner above. For the international sporting events poll, click on the banner below.