Our new bugbear is “security.” Never has such a vague word held so many hostage, and the sad thing is that this
security caper grows bigger by the day. It has given birth to endless spectacles of gun-toting guards and the breeding
of a gun culture that, a
It’s sheer madness these days to question what is wrong with us. In the days when the Zionists were lambasting the Egyptian forces in the Suez, an Arab friend of mine organised a fun fair to collect money for the war effort. When I arrived at the venue I
Masood Hasan, "Over the top," The News. 2011-01-30.
We always knew we had a leaky ship. We of course didn’t know that it was leaking so much. There is only so much
that any country can take but we seem to seek trouble and locate it for more mud in our faces. Information has now
reached a stage that all TV,
What do you call this which has this nation by its short and curlies? I have been struggling for a name that can even begin to describe – not do justice to – what is unfolding by the minute, but for the life of me, am unable to. Is this power thing a cris
Masood Hasan, "Over the top," The News. 2009-07-26.
The word idiot—and the large number of standard, informal and slang synonyms thereof, some of them
unprintable—could well describe most of us who live in the real Pakistan, as opposed to those who also live here but
are not buffeted by the realities and j
The good news is that in a few years we will be able to eliminate whatever education we have still left here and drown all the teachers so that this vice does not spread ever again. A little over a week back, Prime Minister Gilani blazed a new path for th
Masood Hasan, "Over the top," The News. 2010-05-23.
“Two-timing,” “duplicitous,” “untrustworthy” is how some Western, and especially American, columnists chose to
describe the ISI for its (WikiLeaks) contacts and dealings with the Taliban. Pakistanis, however, were delighted that,
notwithstanding American
This country is awash in guns and lawlessness. Its new symbol must be a sandbag because that is just about the only thing you see wherever you go. They might as well place a whole wall of sandbags around the borders – not that it will prevent anyone from
Masood Hasan, "Over the top," The News. 2009-10-25.
There is no question about it. We have annoyed the gods and they have run out of patience with us. Even the most optimistic amongst us – a breed that is facing a quick extinction, have to admit that the way disasters cling to Pakistan leave iron filings a
Masood Hassan, "Over the top," The News . 2010-05-10.
Brave words were spoken by His Lordship the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry the other day in Islamabad while concluding the two day judicial moot. Among the many things he said, he advised judges not to be visible in public but to re
Masood Hasan, "Over the top," The News. 2009-12-08.
There are two types of people who are linked with Nathiagali, the last surviving hill resort of Pakistan and now
doomed to perish like the dead Murree, ‘the Queen of the Hills’, as it was once euphemistically claimed. The two
types are those who own prope
Over the last so many years every time things have taken a turn for the worse in the beloved motherland, many of us have contemplated moving. Many do but even more stay on and refuse to go. Some of these do so by choice, some because conditions are just n
Masood Hasan, "Over the top," The News. 2010-02-06.
