Editorial Policy

1. Editorial standards

Weekly Pakistan is a digital news and analysis publication covering Pakistan — politics, business, technology, education, sport and daily life — along with reference guides and free tools. Editorial responsibility for everything published here rests with the Weekly Pakistan desk.

These are the standards we hold every article to:

• Attribution. Every article carries a visible byline, and every byline links to a profile listing what has been published under it.
• Dating. Every article shows the date it was published. An article substantially revised after publication also shows the date it was updated. We do not refresh dates to make old work look new.
• Sourcing. Claims of fact are attributed to a source a reader can check — an official notification, a named authority, a document or a published report — and linked wherever a source exists online.
• Separation. Reporting, analysis and opinion are distinguishable, and anything paid for is labelled before a reader reads it.
• Headlines. A headline must be supported by the article beneath it. The visible headline on an article and the title it is indexed under are the same text.
• Corrections. When we get something wrong, we fix it and say so.

2. Accuracy and verification

Accuracy comes before speed. Before publication, factual claims are checked against a primary source wherever one is available: the issuing board or ministry for an examination or policy story, the official notification for a government announcement, the company or institution itself for a business story, the original report for a story about someone else's reporting.

Where a claim cannot be verified but is still worth reporting, we say who is making it and that it is unconfirmed, rather than presenting it as established. Numbers, dates, names and official titles are checked against the source document rather than against other coverage.

Screenshots and messages circulating on social media are not sources. Result dates, notifications and official announcements are confirmed on the issuing body's own website before we report them as fact.

Images are captioned and credited where a credit is required. We do not present an illustrative image as documentary evidence of an event.

3. Corrections and error reporting

If we publish something inaccurate, we want to hear about it, and we would rather correct it than defend it.

How to report an error

Use the corrections form and include the link to the article, the specific passage you believe is wrong, and — where you can — a source we can check. Reports are read by the desk and investigated.

How we handle it

• Factual error. Corrected as soon as it is confirmed. The article carries an updated date alongside its original publication date, so the change is visible.
• Substantial revision. Where new information materially changes an article, the article is updated and re-dated. The original publication date is never removed or overwritten.
• Minor fixes. Typography, spelling and formatting are fixed without a date change, because nothing a reader relied on has changed.
• Unfounded reports. If we investigate and find the article was right, we leave it alone and say so to the person who raised it.

Removal requests

We do not delete published articles to settle complaints. Where an article is materially wrong it is corrected; where a legal or safety issue is raised, it is assessed on its merits. Tell us through the editorial contact form.

4. Sponsored and paid content

Weekly Pakistan is free to read in full — no paywall, no subscription, no signup — and is funded by advertising, sponsored articles and brand partnerships. That funding does not buy favourable coverage, and it never buys the appearance of independent reporting.

How paid material is labelled

Any article that a third party has paid for, or supplied in exchange for payment or other consideration, carries a label at the top of the page, before the article text, reading Sponsored or Sponsored by [advertiser]. The same label travels with the article everywhere it appears on the site — the homepage, section listings, related-article rails and author profiles — so a reader never meets a paid article without knowing it is one.

Display advertising placed around articles is served as advertising and is visually separate from editorial text. Paid and affiliate links inside articles are marked up as paid links so that they are not treated as editorial endorsements.

What sponsors do and do not get

• Sponsors may supply or approve the copy of their own sponsored article. That is what the label discloses.
• Sponsors have no say over the content, framing, timing or conclusions of any editorial article, including articles about them.
• Sponsorship does not remove, delay or soften editorial coverage, and buying advertising does not buy withdrawal of a story.
• Sponsored articles are not submitted to Google News as news, because paid placement is not journalism.

5. Independence and conflicts of interest

Editorial decisions at Weekly Pakistan are made by the editorial desk. Advertisers, sponsors, political parties and commercial partners do not review copy before publication, do not choose what is covered, and do not have a route to have coverage changed after the fact other than the same corrections process open to every reader.

Anyone writing for Weekly Pakistan must disclose to the desk any financial, political, professional or personal interest in what they are writing about, before filing. Where an interest exists and the piece still has a reason to run, the interest is disclosed in the article itself. Where the interest cannot be managed, the piece does not run.

Contributors do not accept payment, gifts or hospitality from the subjects of their articles in exchange for coverage. Where an article is based on a trip, event or product provided by a company, that fact is stated in the article.

6. Contributor guidelines

Weekly Pakistan accepts guest contributions. Pitches and drafts go to the editorial desk through the contributor form, with a short note on the topic and who you are. Editors review every submission and reply within five to seven business days.

What we ask of a contribution:

• Original and unpublished. Work must be yours and must not have run elsewhere. We do not accept AI-generated text submitted as original human writing.
• Sourced. Factual claims must be attributed and, where possible, linked to a source we can check. Editors may ask for sources before publication.
• Declared interests. Any financial, political or personal interest in the subject must be disclosed when you file, not after publication.
• No paid placement in disguise. A contribution written for, commissioned by or paid for by a third party is sponsored content and will be labelled as such. Submitting it as an independent contribution is grounds for removal.
• Editing. Submissions are edited for accuracy, length, clarity and house style. Substantive changes are discussed with the writer where practical.
• Byline. Published contributions carry the writer's byline and a profile page listing their work. We publish only byline details we can verify.

Republishing Weekly Pakistan content requires permission. Syndication and reuse requests are considered case by case — ask through the contact form.

7. Use of AI

Weekly Pakistan uses AI tools in parts of its production process, and says so here rather than leaving readers to guess.

• Where AI is used. AI assists with drafting, summarising and generating illustrative images for some articles, particularly routine, recurring coverage such as guides and reference pieces.
• How AI-assisted articles are bylined. An article produced through the automated drafting pipeline is credited to the Weekly Pakistan desk byline, never to a named individual who did not write it. A named byline on this site means a person put their name to that article.
• What does not change. AI assistance does not lower the standard an article is held to. Everything in sections 2 and 3 applies to an AI-assisted article exactly as it applies to any other, and the desk is accountable for it either way.
• What AI is not used for. We do not use AI to fabricate quotes, sources, interviews, photographs of real events or people, or credentials. We do not publish AI-generated text under a contributor's name.

If you find an article that reads as machine-generated and inaccurate, report it through the corrections form — that is exactly the failure this disclosure exists to let you catch.

8. Comment moderation

Readers can comment on articles. Comments are the views of the people who write them, not of Weekly Pakistan, and they are not editorial content — they are not fact-checked before they appear.

Comments are published on submission and moderated afterwards. We remove comments that are unlawful; that contain abuse, harassment, threats, or attacks on the basis of religion, ethnicity, sect, gender or nationality; that are spam or undisclosed promotion; that publish someone's private information; or that impersonate another person. Repeated breaches lead to a block.

Removal is not a response to disagreement. A comment that is critical of an article, of Weekly Pakistan, or of anyone we cover stays up if it stays within those rules.

To report a comment, or to ask for one of your own to be removed, use the contact form. If your comment identifies a factual error in the article itself, please also report it as a correction so it reaches the desk directly.

9. Who to contact

Every route below reaches the Weekly Pakistan desk. Choosing the right subject gets your message to the right person faster.

• Corrections and error reports — something we published is wrong.
• Editorial and news tips — a story, a document, a lead.
• Advertising and sponsorship — display advertising, sponsored articles, newsletter placements.
• Contributions — pitches and drafts from guest writers.
• Everything else — including republishing requests and comment moderation.

Full contact details, including postal address and phone, are on the contact page. How we handle the information you send is set out in the privacy policy; the terms of using this site are in the terms and conditions.