Pakistan loses young Facebook friends
Raza Rumi was quoted by the Australian The Lahore High Court banned access to the social networking site on Wednesday after conservative Islamic lawyers…
Beyond censorship
Facebook blocked the page with the caricatures from being accessed in Pakistan and the ban was lifted on May 31; but not until after…
Whatever happened to Kerry-Lugar?
Pakistan’s dire fiscal situation has resulted in the reduction of development spending by 40 per cent. This does not bode well for the citizens…
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…
Pakistan: A failing society?
My recent op-ed: A couple of weeks ago a conference at the Lahore School of Economics allowed me to pontificate on how Pakistan is…
Clear and present danger
Published by The News, Pakistan If the parliament and judiciary want to continue exercising their newfound powers, they have no option but to act…
Karachi Literary Festival: Spring in the land of suicide bombers and charlatans
Who says Pakistani literature was a relic of the past? If anything, Pakistani authors have a global audience today, and our writers are now…
Pakistan: flood politics at its worst
there appears to be a deliberate construction of a dangerous discourse and a sham argument for the ascendancy of the armed forces. The military…
Whither rule of law?
State effectiveness, by most definitions, has been waning in Pakistan. The ability of the law enforcement agencies and institutions to deliver services and entitlements…
Pakistan’s Southern Punjab: Politics of marginalisation
The discourse on South Punjab conceals the grassroots social movements and the clamouring for a linguistic identity in the region The conundrum of South…
Institutions, accountability and the UN Report
The Pakistani citizenry has a right to know and live in a rule-based, just society where political assassinations are not the norm. If the…
The task ahead
Published in The News Pakistan has crossed a major milestone last week by achieving a historic consensus on the 18th Amendment with 105 clauses,…
Whither civilian governance?
My new piece published by The Friday Times While the gurus of security and international affairs continue to unpack and make sense of the…
Abida Parveen sings Faraz’s poem
Found this enchanting piece of music here: In his latest double CD “Paigham-e-Muhabbat” composer Muzaffar Ali, who has brought so much pleasure to our…
Saadat Hasan Manto – part II
After partition of India Saadat Hassan Manto arrived in Lahore sometime in early 1948. In Bombay his friends had tried to stop him from…
K K Aziz: Historian Extraordinaire
The state, society and intelligentsia in Pakistan had forgotten about this towering scholar of our times. His books on Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, Sir Agha…
Pak Nobel laureate’s Ahmedi status hurdle for documentary
I was quoted in this story – a slight spin but an important point nevertheless.. Two young Pakistanis are battling all odds to make…
Step across this Line
Quite a readable piece published by CARAVAN – thanks to Fizza Ishaq for sending me the link AS MUCH AS SHE MAY HAVE wanted…
In memoriam – Asim Butt (1978-2010)
But it was Asim’s venture into public art and his subsequent adoption of the Stuckist creed that turned him into a major figure at…
Two years and counting…
My piece published in The News The obvious fallout of the media-government war has been a virtual blackout of what the civilian governments have…