Taming the judiciary
WHAT happened inside and outside parliament last weekend was nothing less than a tragicomedy. Rarely has Pakistani politics stooped so low. Some 400 members of both Houses remained virtually captive for days…
Maulana on board
IN the wake of the 26th Amendment, it seems a weakened and tamed judiciary is now an accepted reality as the focus shifts to the legislation for madressahs, which Maulana Fazlur Rehman had negotiated in…
Maulana vs Mevlana
WITHOUT going into the debate of who the honorific can be bestowed upon, let us focus on the etymology of the root word ‘maula’. In Arabic, it means ‘master’; with…
Maulana Wahiduddin: rethinking jihad
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s death in New Delhi last month at the age of 96 has resulted in a spate of commemorative articles in the Pakistani press. Many of these pieces…
Maulana’s second coming
Maulana, for once, should thank his arch-enemy for reviving his political fortunes. Kaptaan has one again put Maulana at the centre-stage of Pakistan’s politics, just as Musharraf had done two…
Mainstreaming the Taliban?
On Wednesday Amjad Sabri was assassinated on the streets of Karachi in cold blood. The Hakeemullah Mehsud group of the TTP reportedly claimed ‘credit’. Sabri’s stirring voice helped many recognise…
The mainstreaming of militancy
In Islamabad, a cleric who unleashed forces from his Lal Masjid to attack and capture government buildings to press for his demand that the constitution of the state be overthrown…
The true essence
Both individually and collectively, we are often troubled by the question of how Muslim societies have developed into some of the most degraded and brutalised societies in the world. They…
Opposition alliance but for what?
Pakistan has a troubled history with democracy, often oscillating between civilian rule and military interventions. Opposition alliances, usually formed under the banner of restoring democracy, have paradoxically played a role…
The Jamaat’s journey
The Jamaat-e-Islami, which used to be a mainstream religious political party of the 1970s, has gradually faded into political obscurity due to wrong policies. Once a formidable political group with…
