The greatest gift
Allah has blessed humanity with innumerable bounties to be grateful for. But the most important of them all is the human body itself. A body with all its organs intact…
Our violent fetish
One of the most glaring contradictions of the modern world is the coexistence of so much death, destruction and wanton violence alongside humanity’s stupendous advances in virtually all spheres of…
The UN is past its sell-by date
Remember Muammar Qaddafi? Of course, who could forget the inimitable colonel and his matchless antics at home and abroad! There are lessons for all those given to delusions of grandeur…
United for terror
Hakimullah’s gained a lot of weight. Far from trying to look like a thin, purist jihadi fighting for the supremacy of Islam, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief, in true colours, looks…
Do we have no common sense?
Pakistan knows the power of political narratives. From the very moment of our birth we have been fighting a losing battle to untangle mangled narratives; some constructed, others contested, many…
Reprofiling teachers
I was sitting in the office of a headteacher of a trust school and suddenly saw 20 four-year-olds crawl into the office all bright-eyed and faces painted as mice –…
Quakes and tremors of other kinds in Balochistan
The two quakes that, in quick succession, shook the Awaran district in Balochistan exposed the under-development of a region where 300,000 people live scattered over a vast territory of nearly…
The medium is the message
Syedna Ali, the last of the great Muslim Caliphs, is noted for both his courage and timeless wisdom. In fact, there’s a whole collection of his thoughts titled Nahj al-Balagha…
The fog of peace
Many narratives led to the decisions taken at the APC. These narratives have resulted in what one could call the fog of peace, since they have misguided many and created…
The worst of times
A Church in Peshawar gets blown up by suicide bombers sent in by religious militants, killing over 80 worshippers. In their view, by killing non-Muslims these suicide bombers would go…
