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The volatile fusion: Origins, rise & demise of the ‘Islamic Left’
Between the late 1940s and late 1970s, some powerful ideologies that merged Marxism and Socialism with some innovative Islamic scholarship emerged in the Muslim world, prompted from the minds and...
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The flip side: An unexpected Pakistani presence in Darjeeling
If someone had told me a few months ago that there is a bit of Pakistan in the tea estates of Darjeeling in Eastern India, I would have laughed.Granted, Muhammad Ali Jinnah met his second wife Maryam –...
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Pakistan’s power crisis: Trans-Mission Impossible
Poor governance, incompetence, lack of transparency, distribution and transmission losses (a euphemism for theft), have made powering Pakistan a transMission Impossible.A recently released book by the...
View ArticleThinking of taking antibiotics for a sore throat? Think again
While the sun blazed merrily in Islamabad; I relentlessly combed the streets of Blue Area in search of a pharmacy. Secretions poured from my nose and my eyes itched incessantly. A sore throat also...
View ArticleThe JC let-down: Why the story is not yet over for PTI
The Judicial Commission (JC) tasked with probing allegations of rigging in the 2013 elections has concluded that the polls in question were indeed “organised and conducted fairly in and accordance with...
View ArticleThe science behind Federer and Serena's never-ending careers
World number one Serena Williams, at age 33 and 10 months, became the oldest woman in the modern era to win a singles’ Grand Slam at this year’s Wimbledon. Roger Federer, also 33, would’ve become the...
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Five years on: Recalling the horror of 2010 Swat floods
The ongoing flooding in Pakistan's rivers took me back five years, when, in the last week of July 2010, Swat was hit by floods of the worst nature since the first century AD.Forest experts say that...
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Sangni Fort: A remnant of the Mughal era
Some 25 kilometres west of Gujar Khan and over the Sui Cheemian perennial river sits the ancient Sangni Fort. This fort, used for keeping prisoners, is believed to have been built by the Mughals and...
View ArticleA culture of greed: How CDA is destroying Islamabad's environment
It seems that the federal government has learnt no lessons from the recent heat wave in Karachi that claimed the lives of over 1,300 citizens. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Islamabad has...
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Soldier Bazaar: Where Karachi lives up to its diversity
Soldier bazaar, near Jamshed Town in the Garden East area of Karachi, houses a beautiful, diverse society where people with all sorts of backgrounds coexist and support each other. The majority is...
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Chaand Nawab's route to stardom: A viral video, lost jobs and Bajrangi Bhaijaan
The author (L) with Chaand Nawab. —Photo by Rizwan TabassumOn July 21, I arrived at the Karachi Press Club to find over a dozen people crowding around a 'celebrity'. This celebrity was Chaand Nawab of...
View ArticleWhy must Britain’s young Muslims live with this unjust suspicion?
At Eid prayers in a rainswept Aberdeen this month, the imam gave thanks to Allah Almighty for the blessings of life in Britain. We had successfully completed a month of fasting, while Muslims in China...
View ArticlePolitics 101: Why military coups happen in Pakistan
Ten years ago, Dr Charles H. Kennedy, renowned expert on Pakistani politics, wrote the essay A User’s Guide to Guided Democracy, in which he sarcastically outlined ten ‘steps’ that could help any new...
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Is domestic violence less prevalent in arranged marriages?
Many Muslim societies believe domestic violence against women to be less prevalent in arranged marriages. Empirical evidence from Pakistan, however, paints a rather nuanced picture.For centuries,...
View ArticleEvicting the homeless, keeping Islamabad beautiful?
Islamabad the Beautiful is perhaps the cleanest city in Pakistan, with the scenic Margalla hills and nature smiling down upon it from behind every boulevard. The underpasses and overhead bridges make...
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From Shandoor to Kalash: Kishwar-e-Haseen Shadbaad
French physicist Blaise Pascal had famously said: “Nature is an infinite sphere, of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.” Traveling is the best way to cast out depression, to...
View ArticlePunjab's food hygiene drive will last only as long as our support will
Social media has been afloat with images of the Punjab Food Authority making surprise visits at various restaurants and bakeries in Lahore, imposing heavy fines and suspending business licenses because...
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Pakistan’s ideological project: A history
GenesisPakistan came into being in August 1947 on the back of what its founders called the ‘Two Nation Theory.’ The Theory was culled from the 19th Century writings of modernist Muslim reformers in...
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Islamabad evictions: The CDA needs a scalpel, not a bulldozer
With the grave insufficiency of star power, DJs and political party flags fluttering in the wind, the desperate slum-dwellers of I-11 Islamabad may be embroiled in one of the least popular struggles...
View ArticleThe midnight ramblings of an insomniac
In popular culture, the inability to sleep is associated with a psychological condition known as love. Urdu literature is teeming with men and women afflicted by this malady. The sufferers are usually...
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