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…
Pakistan: Media Freedoms and Judicial Accountability
Media freedoms in Pakistan are no longer a cause of celebration. Recent events have shown that journalists are facing pressure from all sides. Historically,…
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…
Books in the times of jihad
After a hiatus of nearly a decade, I found myself in the United Arab Emirates, also popularly imagined as ‘Dubai’ in Pakistan. I was…
Book review: An ambitious undertaking
Pankaj Mishra’s new book is an ambitious undertaking. “From the Ruins of Empire: the Intellectuals who Remade Asia” traces the lives and works of…
This Moharram was turned into Karbala for Pakistani Shias
My piece published on 10th Moharram It is time the state reversed its policy of nurturing extremist groups and think of saving Pakistanis from…
Redeeming our tryst with destiny
Raza Rumi took a group of Pakistani politicians to India where, amid food fests and conferences and emotionally charged mushairas, the first pages of a…
On Malala and ‘Who are the Pakistani Taliban’
I was quoted in these pieces at CNN. Attack on Pakistani schoolgirl galvanizes anti-Taliban feeling “There is a groundswell of sympathy for her and…
Fighting the existential battle
Published in The News, October 2012 What is the real, existential cause for concern – the imagined enemy, or a real, functional terror network…
River Indus: Flow of life – Part II
From ancient Vedic times to stories told by Sufi saints, the Indus continues to play a central role in the legends and folklore associated…
River Indus: Flow of life – Part I
Along its 1,800-mile course, the Indus joins cultures from the steppes of Central Asia to the arid plains of the South Asian subcontinent. It…
Civil service reform for state capacity
Only a meaningful civil service reforms can improve the state capacity to perform better Pakistan’s inability to provide security and justice to its citizens;…
Book review: Poetic resistance to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s murder
As a young student I obtained a tattered copy of ‘Khushboo ki Shahadat’ from an old bookstall in Lahore’s Urdu bazaar. This was the…
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’…
Azad Jammu & Kashmir – Ruling from Islamabad
It is time that we focus on what happens in the midst of our polity rather than churn out propaganda as to how India…
Save Rimsha Now
My piece which was published a fortnight ago. Today Rimsha was released on bail by a judge. Thank God sanity prevailed. But Rimsha and…
Finally Pakistani state honours Manto
“Here lies Saadat Hasan Manto and with him lie buried all the secrets and mysteries of the art of story writing. Under mounds of…
What if Bulleh Shah were alive today?
Another tragic day. A mob attacks a Christian couple after accusing them of desecration of the Holy Quran and then burn their bodies at…
Qasmi – Urdu literature mourns a giant
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi (1916-2006) Ab aik baar to qudrat javaabdeh thehre hazaar baar ham insaan aazmaaye gaye Now Nature must be held accountable at…
Pakistan: Prime Minister Gilani’s ouster – what next?
My recent analysis for Express Tribune published yesterday: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s inevitable ouster has created another storm in Pakistani politics reminding us…