Articles
What’s Brewing in Pakistan
This was written for The Open Magazine of India, and appeared on Saturday January 21, 2012 ISLAMABAD ~ Ever since democracy was restored in Pakistan after the general elections of 2008, not a day has passed without a crisis—sometimes engineered, sometimes resulting from the government’s weaknesses and incompetence. The country’s two major political parties, the [...]
Revisiting the ideology of Pakistan
This was originally published in the September 2011 issue of Pragati If there is one national termite that has been eating up Pakistan’s physiology and neurology, it is its purported ‘ideology’. After more than six decades of existence, Pakistan is still defending its genesis and going to-and-fro on the cause-effect tree. Graduating a ‘community’ into [...]
A Year without Salmaan Taseer
This was originally published in Daily Times on Wednesday January 4, 2012 in a special supplement to mark first anniversary of Shaheed Salmaan Taseer Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer was killed on this day a year ago by his own guard who thought Taseer has committed blasphemy by criticising a man-made law against blasphemy. The cause [...]
From Notoriety to Damnation
Originally published in TehelkaDotCom in the June 18, 2011 issue THE MURDER of Asia Times bureau chief Syed Saleem Shahzad on 31 May left Pakistanis in utter shock and horror. It was the third instance in a month when the people of this country were robbed of any trace of trust in the State’s ability [...]
Our Causes Leak on Pakistan
This was originally published in Dawn.com on May 21, 2011 As WikiLeaks finds new media friends in Pakistan, there is a deafening silence in some corridors of power. Whatever leaks we are bombarded with, one thing that our moralist urban middle class need to understand is that real ‘politik’ is not what their consciousness of [...]
Take it Mukhtar!
This piece originally appeared in Dawn.com on April 22, 2011 Take it Mukhtar, thats how we treat our daughters! What would Mukhtar Mai be thinking right now? That’s one question my mind is still asking me after around ten hours of the ‘landmark’ verdict made by the Superior Court of Pakistan in Mukhtar’s case. [...]
Burqa Gets a Befitting French Kiss
This was originally published by the blog LUBP on April 15, 2011 Before reading this argument on recent Burqa-ban by France, you need to know who I am. Raised in an orthodox Muslim Deobandi family, I’ve been educated in Pakistan’s Punjab where urban middle class used to be too sensitive about purdah in 1980s and [...]
Where did the blasphemy law come from?
This was originally published in The Express Tribune Blogs on December 2, 2010 and in The Friday Times later, with slight modifications According to Islamic belief, blasphemy is considered the use of profanity or a show of disrespect towards religious beliefs and holy personages, but unlike Judaism and Christianity, no strict punishment for the crime [...]
The Objectionable Resolution
Originally published in Newsweek Pakistan in the issue of March 21, 2011 Those who believe Pakistan was created in the name of Islam are plain wrong. History is never without its distortions, and depends on whose perspective it is written from. The murder of history becomes an even more heinous crime when it is done [...]
Our Noblest Selves
We cannot allow Shahbaz Bhatti’s assassination to silence us. From the March 14‚ 2011‚ issue of Newsweek Pakistan Be careful. After the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, federal minister for minorities, on March 2 and of Salmaan Taseer, governor of the Punjab, two months before that, friends and family put out the same, simple message. Be [...]
