Allama Muhammad Asad: The first citizen of Pakistan
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This is an oft repeated quote in relation to our current abysmal situation and it reminds us to look back and analyse our mistakes. Rather...
View ArticleOf biased history: Wait, wasn’t Nehru the bad guy?
“Oh Jinnah sahib? Suna hai ke woh Nehru ki takkar ke thay.” (Oh, Mr Jinnah? I have heard that he was quite the equivalent of Nehru.) Stunned by the honest answer to my question by my Indian friend, I...
View ArticleDon’t equate the United Baloch Army with the Taliban!
Wednesday April 9, 2014. 8 am. Islamabad I-11’s fruit market. A blast rips through the usually quiet federal capital morning. Over two dozen lives lost. Everyday news in everyday Pakistan. The only...
View ArticleFCR: Man playing god with the people of Fata
FATA is home to approximately 10 million people. These people may be called ‘Pakistani’ citizens, but the reality is – they are not. Even after 67 years of independence, despite being a strategic part...
View ArticleAre all Pakistani women damsels in distress?
It feels really good to be a Pakistani woman these days. It brings a big smile to my face when I see five Pakistani women in the list of BBC’s 100 women of 2014. And no matter how controversial one may...
View ArticleRefreshing our faulty memory: Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir go hand in hand
One of the main and often forgotten blunders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), during their different stints in power, is the sell-out of the hopes and aspirations of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan....
View ArticlePerhaps Jordan can teach Pakistan how to treat its minorities
The deadly attack on Pakistan’s Christian minority in Youhanabad left 16 people dead and was followed by communal clashes in Lahore. Soon after the incident, the Bohra community was targeted in Karachi...
View ArticleTo save Pakistan, we have to let go of the idea of Pakistan
“We are fighting a fight for Pakistan.” This is an oft repeated statement from politicians, military personnel, bureaucrats and journalists. Let me tell you unequivocally, we are losing the fight for...
View ArticleOnce you’re Pakistani, there is no going back to India
The non-issuance of visas to India continues to irk thousands of Pakistani Americans as the former remains hell bent to grind an axe with Pakistanis, regardless of borders or their new nationalities....
View ArticleWhat have we received from the people of Pakistan except neglect and torment?
What concerns me most is a word. It is a simple word that is not heard on the lips of people in most parts of the world, but for me it is a word that desperately needs to be heard more often. Whenever...
View ArticleEnd of silence: A woman’s narrative of the 1947 Partition
Many of us born to families who migrated across borders during partition grew up hearing whispers of events from that time. The end of the British Raj in India saw the subcontinent dissected into two –...
View ArticleShe left India for Pakistan, but was her sacrifice worth it?
“People didn’t even bother locking their doors; we knew that we could never come back. It wasn’t easy for us, leaving everything behind, and it seems like another life now, as if we left a part of...
View ArticleSubramanian Swamy – Loud but irrelevant
The madness continues, with India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy claiming that India will break Pakistan into four pieces if a war breaks out between the two nuclear-armed...
View ArticleKarachi and the paralysis of imagination
You want to read about a vision of a just Karachi? The contract killer ($50 a hit) ripping up the road behind Disco Bakery on his Honda 200CC and the secret service colonel cracking skulls in a Clifton...
View ArticleAmidst such dismal set of facts, how is Pakistan still existing?
A former CIA official, Kevin Hulbert, recently wrote in his blog for The Cipher Brief, that Pakistan is probably the most dangerous country of the world as it is ripe with threats of terrorism, a...
View ArticleColonialism ruined Pakistan and India, even the Koh-i-Noor can’t fix that!
The most precious diamond England had before usurping the Koh-i-Noor from India was none other than William Shakespeare. But the legendary bard, unlike his avaricious countrymen, himself never coveted...
View ArticleThe story of Hyderabad, Sindh
Hyderabad is one of those cities where the magnetic pull of nostalgia can be felt to a maximum, owing to the ever glorious landmarks of a bygone era. It is one of those cities where the past silently...
View ArticleWhy are Lahore Fort’s walls being used as urinals?
Nations, tribes and even individuals have claims to heritage. Heritage helps us define our place in the multitude of ideas that surround us. This view, however, is simplistic and uni-directional to say...
View ArticleLashing out at Bangladesh for Moti ur Rahman’s hanging will not change history
On May 11, 2016, Bangladesh hanged Motiur Rahman Nizami, the 73-year-old leader of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. He was the leader of the militant group Al Badr. The searing irony of this saga is...
View ArticleBoys will be boys but Qandeel was defiant – so she must be eliminated
The first video I watched of Qandeel Baloch was shared by a friend on his Facebook wall. She was clad in a skimpy grey dress showing off her voluptuous curves. Swaying suggestively and looking straight...
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