More on the debate on IMF
I had posted my piece on the forthcoming IMF programme and expressed fears as a citizen. The op-ed that was published in the NEWS…
Pakistan: IMF Programme needs to be debated
Debating the aid plan The not-so-inevitable is about to happen. After weeks of groping in the darkness of global financial mess, the Pakistani government…
Poverty and Inequality – the brewing storm
My op-ed first published here As I sipped the tenderly brewed coffee facing the lush green golf course of a relatively new Lahore Country…
Confronting militancy
The unedited version of my op-ed published in the NEWS today: It is time that the vocabulary introduced by the global imperial projects is…
The Zardari conundrum
By all statistical estimates and anecdotal evidence, Pakistan’s middleclass has grown during the last decade. The visible manifestation of this historically significant trend was…
Utopia for me- Pieces of my heart
My piece published in the News on Sunday yesterday – Karta hun jama phir jigare lakht lakht ko (I seek to gather the scattered…
Capital shock
My op-ed published in the NEWS. This was also posted at ATP and a robust discussion took place there. A week long sojourn in…
Delhi by the book
Published in The News What motivates me to write? Lacking an appropriate label, a catchy boxed tag such as a historian or a sociologist,…
Pakistan’s ruling coalition must not splinter
My op-ed piece that was published in the NEWS, Pakistan On these erudite pages, and elsewhere, there has been much ado about the fact…
Civil Service is no longer an alluring career for Pakistan’s youth
The captioned article of mine appeared in News on Sunday a week ago. I was quite glad to note that the NEWS wrote an…
Pakistan Suicide Bombings: The narratives of terror
An overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s population finds itself hostage to narratives of ‘terror’ that are either alien to its ethos or are constructed by…
Myth of Channan Peer
Earlier I posted on Khowaja Ghulam Fareed, the Sufi poet from Cholistan. A famous festival takes place each year attracting thousands of people in…
The flawed boycott mantra?
Thursday, February 21, 2008 Much has been said on how the election results are a referendum against the policies of General Musharraf. While there…
The Radical Message Of Muharram
Muharram reminds us of the Kerbala tragedy; and Imam Hussain’s (AS) refusal to submit to the autocracy of Yazid. This episode is laden with…
The Indic civilisation
By Ishtiaq Ahmed Today’s article coincides with India’s declaration as a republic in 1950. The civilisational roots of modern India are always worth discussing,…
Naanak’s wisdom
THE NEWS By Nadir Ali A little over fifty years ago our Persian teacher, a pious maulana in the old mould, was explaining the…
In Benazir’s death
It was in the dargah compound of Ajmer when our phones started buzzing with friends and relatives wanting to share grief on the loss…
Public Art from Karachi
Amina Baig writes for The NEWS: When driving through the jungle of buildings, complicated maze of cars and billboards mushrooming around the Karachi skyline;…
Breaking the taboo – ancient manuscripts come to light
Shahzada Irfan has written this piece on the discovery of a hidden treasure at the Punjab University. Ancient Sanskrit manuscripts have finally come under…