Pakistani media does not report on the brutal realities of Balochistan
Ali Dayan Hasan — Pakistan representative, Human Rights Watch The News on Sunday (TNS) How does HRW view the current state of human rights…
Ba bazi-ye ishq mi bazam
Ba bazi-ye ishq mi bazam, sar-e bazaar sar bazam Rah-e mardan-e safa sazam, sar-e bazaar sar bazam Ba meydan asb mi tazam, to’i waqif…
On Raja Paurava and Alexander
In an article entitled On Raja Paurava and Alexander, Salman Rashid writes: We do not celebrate Paurava; we name no roads after him and…
Balochistan: Pushed to the wall
There must be something terribly wrong with the state of Pakistan that in its largest province, state schools no longer recite the national anthem…
Life’s Too Short Short Story Prize 2010/11
By Aysha Raja The Life’s Too Short Literary Review could never have been possible were it not for the Life’s Too Short Short Story…
Alternative narratives: History rewritten to further political ends
The view that Pakistan was conceived as soon as Muhammad bin Qasim set foot in Sindh amounts to rewriting of history, Historian Manan Ahmed…
Raymond Davis and our national honour
A few weeks ago, when the Raymond Davis saga had gripped the public imagination, I had humbly suggested, on a TV show, that this…
Witch hunt grips Pakistan as bloody political assassinations deplete liberal ranks
By Amanda Hodge IT says much about Pakistan’s McCarthyist atmosphere that the television presenter whom many accuse of inciting the political assassinations rocking the…
Bulleh for our times
By Ali Abbas Mystifying is the turn of time, indeed. Refuted by clerics of his time, the same Bulleh Shah who was refused burial…
Zeal gives religious right in Pakistan the upper hand
By Salman Masood As Pakistan reels from last week’s murder of another political opponent of its blasphemy law, the divide between the country’s liberals…
Shola tha jal bujha hoon
The Man & His Music Asif Noorani Liberty Books Karachi (Pakistan) 2010 Pg 80 Rs 695 To make a living he became a motor…
Seven artists in Delhi: Gigi Scaria – video
Tim Hinman, Source: third ear The first of seven films looking at Indian artists’ responses to the city of Delhi features Gigi Scaria, a sculptor…
Andrew Buncombe: Those who dare to speak out become a shooting target
By Andrew Buncombe Rarely have Pakistan’s religious minorities and liberals felt more beleaguered. Less than two months after the killing of Salmaan Taseer, a…
Fascists strike again in Pakistan: Minorities Minister killed
Raza Rumi Sometimes it feels we are living in stone age where no dissent and no call for a tolerant society is possible. Murder,…
Tahrir square eastward?
February 2011 saw the iron fist of Hosni Mubarak being wrenched open after three decades of repressive rule. During this period, the Egyptian secret…
The lost diary of Queen Victoria’s final companion
By Ben Leach Abdul Karim’s writings, hidden by his family until now, throw new light on a close and controversial relationship, says Ben Leach.…
Diplomatic duplicity
By C. CHRISTINE FAIR LAHORE — This much is clear about the latest convulsion in U.S.-Pakistan relations: an American man, operating under the name…
My session with Intizar Husain: Karachi Literature Festival 2011
Huma Imitiaz has summed up the session I moderated at the KLF. Huma has been kind to me but I am just a humble…
KLF: a mixed bag
By Huma Imtiaz When a literary festival’s headliner is author and religious thinker Karen Armstrong, one wonders whether to be amused, or descend into…
Faiz Ahmed Faiz: poet of peace
By Najam Sethi This year, South Asia celebrates the centenary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistan’s pre-eminent Urdu poet in the classical tradition of the…