A literary landmark
A review of the Islamabad Literature Festival for TFT literature festival in Islamabad sounds a contradiction in terms. A city better…
Farewell, Dear SM
For TFT “Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come…” Salma Mahmud, or SM as we called her at TFT, quietly left…
Cover Story: Mahasin-i-Kalam-i-Ghalib by Abdur Rehman Bijnouri
A review I did for Dawn Such is the majesty of Urdu’s greatest poet Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) that his works continue to be…
Welcome remarks
This is a worthwhile editorial published in ET The seasoned Congress leader and India’s well-known dove Mani Shankar Aiyarhas made some bold remarks at…
Half citizens? The Ahmadiyya community of Pakistan
After today’s ghastly attacks on the Ahmadi community of Pakistan, one can only despair at the state of affairs. The essay below was recently…
Book Review~ Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District
Writing about the lives of “fallen women” is a problematic endeavor, especially in South Asia where the morality of the middle classes defines the…
Zia’s unfinished business
My latest for Express Tribune The ghost of General Ziaul Haq and his drive to turn Pakistan into a theocracy continues to haunt us.…
The new Bhutto
My piece published in Express India In his first political address, Bilawal Bhutto took a stand against extremism Bilawal Bhutto Zardari made his debut…
Pakistan: Ominous clouds of violence overshadow Elections 2013
Holding a peaceful election in 2013 would, perhaps, be one of the important milestones in countering the power and influence of the extremists Within…
Pakistan: Political transition amid regional instability
Last week I attended a roundtable organised by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Berlin. The theme was “Shaping the Future of Pakistan: Loose,…
Challenges of Political Transition
My piece published here Pakistan’s next general election, due in a few months, will be the first where civilian forces are in charge of…
Time for complete justice
Dr Tahirul Qadri, who has kept Pakistani pundits busy for the past three months, faced a major blow when a three-member SC bench dismissed…
Pakistan: Ungoverned Spaces
My paper published by CIDOB – Barcelona Centre for International Affairs Even after more than six decades since its inception, Pakistan has been unable…
Afghanistan: no cooperation, no stability
This is a shorter version of a brief which was prepared for Pakistani Senate’s standing committee on Defence. Also published here. Full report here…
Elections 2013: A Peaceful Transfer of Power
My piece for South Asia magazine (published in Jan 2013 issue) General elections in Pakistan are scheduled to take place later this year; however,…
Books, bombs & mangroves (on the fourth Karachi Literature Festival)
In its fourth year, the Karachi literature festival (KLF) has become a public event that brings together the cosmopolitanism and the fissiparous identities of…
The dream that was not mine – Harris Khalique’s poetry
khud pe kia taari use woh khwab jo apna na tha (I let the dream take over me/ The dream that was not mine)…
Paradigm Shift? Reassessing Pakistan’s Security
Published in The News on Sunday The Pakistan army has reportedly revised its security assessment and is now placing more emphasis on ‘internal threats’…
2012 review: Great expose of the unelected
The year 2012 will be remembered for a fragile democracy that continued to consolidate itself amid regional instability and belligerence of unelected institutions trying…
Polio, extremism and a failing state
The death of nine anti-Polio workers has come as a new low in the life of the Pakistani nation. Almost as if the country…