Free Speech in Free Countries The Indian Subcontinent Live with Raza Rumi
Raza Rumi’s analysis on the shared histoy of India and Pakistan. In this video he emphasises on similarities between India and Pakistan. Rumi says…
Exile for me and others
Pakistan needs to remember those who wanted to but could not stay back Little did I know that a sojourn to recover from a…
Sticky wicket: Why cricket is a lot like sex
Something primal and deep is at work. And could be linked to the most cherished South Asian male sexual fantasies. Many years ago, Dr…
Animating Times Square
This October, the electronic billboards at the maddening Times Square in New York City will display the creative prowess of Shahzia Sikander, an artist…
Grace in hand
Komail Aijazuddin’s artwork marks a step beyond the earlier explorations of the baroque symbolism Komail Aijazuddin is a representative of Pakistan’s younger generation of…
Watching Kunduz Collapse From the Sidelines
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (C) inspects the indigenously manufactured surveillance drone at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, some 65 km west of…
Why fanatics of today would not have spared Kabir
The murders of rationalists and threats to writers, negate what was achieved through centuries of cross-cultural exchange and intellectually robust reformist movements. “Friend You…
Democracy in recession?
On the surface, things could not appear to be better for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. With a majority in parliament, electoral rigging charges thrown…
Dear Infidel: The Dilemma of British Muslims
I was a student in the United Kingdom when The Satanic Verses – the controversial novel by Salman Rushdie – created pandemonium across the…
Gulzar’s Mera Kuchh Samaan…
This poem composed by Gulzar was beautifully rendered by Asha Bhosle in the unforgettable film Ijazat. Someone forwarded me the text and I suddenly…
Political Princes: Struggles of Rahul Gandhi and Bilawal Bhutto
Two days ago, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, scion of the legendary Bhuttos, celebrated his 27th birthday. His party workers also known as jiyalas (the impassioned…
Bridging the Divides: Muslims in Europe
Islam is ‘incompatible’ with Western civilization is what we hear at the start of a new film Journey into Europe that looks at the…
Be mature guys; there’s a lot at stake in India, Pak
The much-hyped talks between the National Security Advisers of India and Pakistan have been called off. It is clear that the recent thaw…
Islam and the Cold War baroque
When empire strikes back, but the Force remains strong in the arts and academia of contemporary Muslim countries. I spared with Sadia Abbas As…
Why India, Pakistan treat their Nobel laureates shamefully
There is a common thread of undervaluing our achievers; and looking at ideas, values and contributions from the jaundiced lens of partisan politics. In…
Chronicles of our recent past
FS Aijazuddin’s new book is an erudite and introspective account of a turbulent decade The past decade in Pakistan has been cataclysmic. Political upheavals…
Abdullah Hussein: alive in his vision
The great Pakistani writer Abdullah Hussein is no more. Perhaps, he has been relieved of the agony that he underwent as a cancer patient,…
Save Palmyra From ISIS’s Rampage
The Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery have placed on view a relic from ancient Palmyra in Syria. In addition,…
Ideology, impunity & chaos
The sheer barbarity of the attack on the Ismaili community in Pakistan’s largest and one of the more misgoverned cities shocked the country. It…
Charting Pakistan Internal Security Policy
Pakistan recently announced National Action Plan focuses on combatting both terrorism and militancy and addresses endemic insecurity and radicalization. The plan follows in the…