TLP: the state’s continuing blunders
The violent clashes in the past few days between the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are the latest incarnation of the state’s flawed and blundering policy…
The wages of appeasement
Once again, the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has wrested a ‘compromise’ agreement from the sitting government after a violent protest movement bolstered by its repeatedly demonstrated street power. This time, though,…
Weak wills
THERE’s a line from The Leopard, Italy’s most beloved novel of all time: “If we want everything to stay as it is, everything has to change.” Maybe that’s why, when…
Another game of power
What power does the state have to enforce its writ? Not enough, perhaps, when it comes to dealing with a militant religious group capable of arousing dark passions at the…
Leading by example
Ruling over a cricket field, and the handful of men posted on it, varies quite sharply from ruling over a country which measures 881,913 square kilometres and has a population…
The age of spectacles
If nothing else, the ruling party is keeping us all entertained in these depressing days of a global pandemic. In the first fortnight of the month of May, the PTI…
Asking for the moon
Discussions about what to do with ‘Eid moon sighting’ have been going on for years. It seems little ever changed. As Israeli fighter jets bombarded Gaza Strip and Palestinian families…
Addictive charity
STATE charity is an opiate: it creates addicts of both the donor and the donee. The poor accept charity because they have little or no option. Governments turn to charity…
Politics of the moon
“It is the very error of the moon; She comes more nearer earth than she was wont, And makes men mad” — Shakespeare IF for decades we associated Eid with Mufti…
Science versus dogma
There was this front-page photograph, published on Friday, in which a member of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee is looking through a very large telescope at dusk on Thursday in Karachi. This…
- 1
- 2
