Will the civilians seize the moment?

It is too early to determine whether Nawaz Sharif is seeking a structural transformation of Pakistan’s governance culture or is merely hankering for acceptability…

History’s ghetto – (Geneva Camp, Dhaka)

My recent piece for the The Friday Times – about the bitterness and destitution in a Dhaka camp for Biharis It was almost by…

Erasing memory to deal with loss – Pakistan, Bangladesh and India

This following article was first published in The Hindu on December 16, 2011. Forty years ago, South Asia underwent another traumatic experience with the…

That easy intimacy

A Pakistani re-discovers Bangladesh. As a Pakistani, there is a part of you that reacts instantly to the word Bangladesh: guilt, remorse or, in…

Divide or perish: creating new provinces in Pakistan

My piece published in TFT Since 1947, two characteristics of the Pakistani state have continued to haunt its legitimacy and survival. The first relates…

Abject surrender

My piece published in The Friday Times How can I remain unaffected and quiet after seeing that my country might be disfigured and my…

Dhaka by degrees

How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees. -William Shakespeare I grew up in the post-East…